Red Sea Hotels|Umluj, Saudi Arabia

Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea

Name: Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea
Telephone: 966-14-514-1414

Saudi Arabia’s eco-friendly desert oasis

VERIFIED LUXURY

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Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea defies expectations from the onset. The luxury resort capitalizes on Saudi Arabia’s vast deserts, providing a unique escape into uncharted territory.

Designed by Foster + Partners — known for its eco-friendly architecture — its low‑slung buildings and villas echo the curves of the surrounding dunes, using lightweight materials and extensive shading to minimize heat gain and reduce reliance on artificial cooling. (Since the Red Sea was created as a regenerative destination, sustainability is a focus here — the hotel’s electricity is powered by its solar farm, and there’s an onsite water plant.) Clusters of rooms and private pool villas open onto terraces that overlook endless desert views, with interiors nodding to local textile traditions.

Dining options include a main all‑day restaurant, a cooking school and chef’s table that explores regional flavors with locally sourced produce. A substantial spa spans two floors, with indoor and outdoor hydrotherapy, a hammam and sensory suites, making it a standout refuge after dune hikes or sunrise yoga sessions under open skies.

Our Inspector's Highlights

The heart of the Red Sea hotel is the shaded “Oasis,” a communal space where fountains and petal‑like canopies shield you from the piercing desert sun.
The 43,000-square-foot, two-story spa offers six treatment rooms, a meditation dome, beauty salons, an anti-aging center and a biohacking lounge. The spa’s Desert Bliss quartz sand treatment, Traditional Date Seed Hammam and an Alchemy Bar, where you can make skincare products using local spices and fragrances, exemplify a program deeply tied to regional materials.
Dining runs the gamut from Arabic tapas and modern Middle Eastern fare to Parisian-style pastries and gelato. Don’t skimp on the latter — go for local flavor choices like basil and za’atar or sumac and cashew.
Like so many other aspects of the resort, cooking classes at Six Senses’ Chef’s Table are delightfully unexpected. Sign up for lessons in plant-based cooking, gluten-free baking, or pickling and fermentation.
Workshops dive into local heritage and sustainable practices, such as traditional sadu weaving, Arabic calligraphy and natural crafts. Guided e‑bike rides through wadi landscapes, sunrise yoga in open sand and astronomy nights beneath clear skies make exploring the desert an essential part of the stay.

The Rooms

Six Senses Southern Dunes’ 76 rooms blend into their surroundings with earthy tones and textured surfaces, an homage to the dune landscape. Interiors lean on Bedouin patterns and palettes combined with carved wood fixtures and tactile finishes that warrant a closer look.
Floor‑to‑ceiling glazing ensures that vistas of rolling wadi and dunes are the first thing you see upon waking. Drapes and sheers open via bedside controls, a small convenience for a dramatic start to the day.
Bathrooms emphasize spaciousness with indoor walk‑in showers, deep soaking tubs and outdoor shower options in many villas — a design touch that invites you to soak up the desert climate. Organic cotton bathrobes and in-room yoga mats offer additional spa-like touches.
One‑ and two‑bedroom pool villas come with terraces, plunge pools and generous outdoor lounging spaces, calibrated for long afternoons in shade and sun.
The Retreat and The Sunset Reserve span three to four bedrooms, complete with separate living and dining areas, private pools and panoramic desert views — a setup that works well for extended stays or groups.

Amenities