EL AL | Atmosphere

tourism, cultural preservation, and tourism innovation. The produce grown here is all organic, and it includes dates, olives and olive oil, cultivating vineyards, herding goats and more. The kibbutz has an artisanal dairy, a winery, a natural fruit juice and nectar factory, and a great restaurant and roadside inn. It also has an impressive arts center with studios and workshops where local artists live and work, as well as two accommodation complexes, one that has traditional mud plastered rooms furnished in rustic simplicity, and the second that offers accommodation in big mud huts that look out over the Arava Mountains. Guided tours of the farm, winery, dairy and arts center are available year-round. neot-semadar.com ˆ

The Besor stream suspension bridge I Photo: Ariela Aflalo

LEGO exhibition currently on show, with life-size LEGO lions, giraffes, rhinoceroses and bears made by artist and Guinness World Record holder Duncan Titmarsh. midbarium.co.il 04 The Zukim Artists’ Village This ecological community and artists’ village was founded in 2004 by a group of friends who together created a veritable desert gem that attracts visitors from across the country, eager to see this little

oasis with their own eyes. The village is full of galleries, artists’ studios, artisan workshops, food stalls, and boutiques. People are welcome to enter the galleries and studios, talk to the artists and hear about their lives and work. You can wander through the studios of painters, sculptors, carpenters, ceramicists, holistic therapists, natural cosmetics chemists, and more. Zukim also has a delightful café-restaurant-gallery called Nanu, an artisanal pizza place and an Indian restaurant. There are wonderful accommodation options here as well, such as Nof Zuqim, Midbara, and Eretz Arava. zuqimartists.co.il 05 Neve Midbar, Kibbutz Neot Semadar Neot Semadar is the Negev’s greenest, most colorful and eco friendly kibbutz. It functions as an agricultural cooperative, with kibbutz members farming the land and switching jobs and roles within the kibbutz every five years. Not for nothing did the UN Tourism Organization list it as one of the “250 Best Tourist Villages in the World,” citing it as an example of sustainable

The Zukim Artists’ Village I Photo: Ariela Aflalo

Midbarium I Photo: Nadav Tzur

Kibbutz Neot Semadar I Photo: Ariela Aflalo

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ATMOSPHERE FEBRUARY 2026