In Person Lodging Evaluation
Eco-tourism Lodging Rating
Desert Rose is currently closed and up for sale, if you are interested in the purchase please go to their website.
Desert Rose is one of the new comers to the Eco-Lodge scene in the Cape Three Points area but the owners are no strangers to the area. The young Swedish couple who built Desert Rose mainly by hand had also had another beach lodge in Princes Town. They have lived in the area and contributing to the communities for years before they even started building Desert Rose. Desert Rose is their latest passion, and slowly being carved out of the land a few kilometers beyond Dixcove on the road out towards Cape Three Points and Akwidaa.
At the time of our visit they were still putting a lot of work into the place and they were clear that it was not finished. They had about 4 tent rooms that they said are very popular. The tent rooms are a rigid tent structure that is on top of a platform with doors and screens, they are supposed to be very comfortable to sleep in because the structure allows for a nice cross breeze. They then also have a very large dormitory accommodation and so far have one private room with a large bed. There are more private rooms planned. There are a couple of different structures on the property when pulling up to the lot the first one that is very noticeable is a large barn type structure that is the owner’s workshop and they live above it. The guest area has the tent structures down two rows in the open air. The other main building houses the dormitory, and the private room, and then the open air bar is connected to this. The open air bar is called the “Face Bar,” and has a number of hand sculpted tiki faces in it and around the walls. There is some relaxing seating around and pool table for entertainment. If you need a good book to read either borrow one from the library or trade one out for one of your books. Connected to this building is a nice deck area with some furniture built from the pieces of broken canoes, this is adjacent to a good sized hand made pool using local materials and rocks that is filled with saltwater. One corner of the pool even has a table and some chairs sunk into it so it is possible to sit at the table and still enjoy the cool water. This all is on an elevated rocky area above a nice little beach that is accessable from a stair case that runs down to the beach next to the pool. The beach is a nice place to relax and swim.
The owners were very careful about what kind of language they used and what they would like used to describe their establishment. They have shied away from the term Eco-lodge because they feel that Desert Rose cannot live up to all the standards with the realities of where there lodge is and the challenges around that. They also believe that travel can never truly be green and that if that is what people are looking for they should probably stay at home. On the other side of this some of this may stem from their high standards for themselves and seeing what they are doing as not entirely perfect. This is understandable and no place can be perfect.
In person Evaluation
Positive Aspects of In person evaluation:
Aspects of in person evaluation that could use some improvement:
Eco-tourism Evaluation
Aspects of Desert Rose that brought up their Green Bug Ecotourism Index:
Aspects of Desert Rose operations that brought their Green Bug Adventures Index rating down:
Below are the tours which we provide where you have an option to stay at Desert Rose. We would also be happy to tailor make you a tour that includes Desert Rose or arrange transportation for you. If you have stayed at or have experience with Desert Rose, please leave a comment below to share with us and other.
…
….
