Get in touch with the planning desk

Before you write

How the enquiry process works

Planning a retreat to Siwa is different from booking a standard hotel room. The oasis sits five hundred kilometres west of the Nile, reachable only by a long overland journey, and its lodges range from genuinely off-grid mud-brick guesthouses lit by oil lamp to more comfortable retreats with private spring-fed pools. Getting the match right — between your expectations and what the place actually offers — is the whole point of the desk.

When you write to us, we read your message carefully and come back with a practical retreat outline: a suggested lodge or two, a realistic day-by-day shape, notes on the journey in, and what the wellness treatments available at that lodge actually look like. We don't rush the response; we'd rather take an extra day and send you something genuinely useful than turn around a generic itinerary in twenty minutes.

If your dates are flexible, mention that — Siwa's season runs October through April, and some months are dramatically better than others for the salt springs and desert excursions. If you have a fixed window, we work within it and tell you honestly what the conditions will be like. We're an independent desk with no lodge to fill, so the advice is straightforward: see how the desk works and why we built it this way.

We also help with the practical side that often trips people up: how to reach Siwa from Cairo or Marsa Matrouh, what to carry for the springs and for cold desert nights, how to book a desert camp excursion safely, and which wellness treatments need to be reserved ahead rather than arranged on arrival.

How to reach us

Office hours and response time

The planning desk is open Saturday through Thursday, 09:00 to 18:00 Siwa local time (UTC+2). We're closed on Fridays. Email is the most reliable channel: [email protected]. The desk phone — +20 46 4601 273 — is answered during office hours but call quality from the oasis can be variable; for anything detailed, email is better.

We aim to reply within one to two working days. Siwa's internet infrastructure is real but limited: during windstorms or peak season weekends, replies may take a third day. If you've sent a message and heard nothing after three working days, a follow-up to the same address is always welcome — occasionally messages land in spam or get delayed in transit.

For group retreats or corporate wellness bookings, please use the form below and select the Bespoke & Group option. We'll schedule a call if the scope warrants it — details on the retreat plans page.

What to include in your message

The more you tell us, the more useful our response will be. The three things that matter most are:

• Dates and flexibility. Even rough dates — "mid-November for five nights" — help us know the season, lodge availability, and desert conditions.
• Number of guests and dynamic. Solo reset, a couple, a small group of friends, a family with children — the lodge match changes significantly depending on this.
• What you're mainly after. Deep rest only, or some adventure alongside it? Springs and hammam every day, or one excursion into the Great Sand Sea? A mix of both? The clearer you are, the more precisely we can shape the retreat. You can also read the Siwa Oasis guide and the salt springs page beforehand to get a sense of what's there.

If you're unsure what you want, that's fine too — write and we'll ask the right questions to help you work it out.

Send an enquiry

Tell us about your retreat

Fill in what you know. The more detail you share, the more precise our response will be — but rough notes are welcome too.

Common questions

Before you send