Desert vs Palace
Two ways to run a company offsite, side by side — group size, budget, where each concentrates, and the estates worth booking.
Plan a RetreatDesert
Sculpted stillness — spa mornings, star fields, and clean lines.
- Venues
- 24 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 12–500 guests
- Indicative budget
- $600–$1,250 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- Africa & Middle East · Western United States · Mountain United States
- Best for
- leadership, celebration, team building
Palace
Heritage palace hotels — ceremony, service, and old-world scale.
- Venues
- 14 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 20–600 guests
- Indicative budget
- $425–$1,025 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- South & East Asia · Mediterranean Europe · Africa & Middle East
- Best for
- celebration, leadership, strategy
Enchantment Resort
Cradled inside the red-rock walls of Boynton Canyon, a low-slung resort surrounded by trailheads, a renowned canyon spa, and some of the most photographed terrain in America.
La Mamounia
The legendary 1923 palace-hotel — ~209 rooms, 17 acres of walled Moorish gardens, and a 450m² Grand Salon seating ~350 theatre. La Mamounia is the rare Marrakech address that combines true plenary scale with palace theatre: a gala in the gardens, a desert excursion to the Agafay, a hammam-and-souk afternoon as breakouts.
Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North
A casita resort tucked into the Sonoran Desert at the foot of Pinnacle Peak, with 210 rooms and suites spread across low adobe-style buildings among saguaros. Its scale and meeting space make it a workhorse for larger companies that still want desert quiet and Troon North golf next door.
Taj Falaknuma Palace
The former Nizam of Hyderabad's palace on a hill above the city, with a 101-seat state dining hall, a Durbar Hall and gardens that host events from 60 to 1,800. Guests arrive by horse-drawn carriage into one of India's grandest heritage settings.
Umaid Bhawan Palace (Taj)
One of the world's largest private residences, still partly home to the Jodhpur royal family, with a 64-key Taj wing set in 26 acres of formal gardens above the blue city. The plenary moves between the Majestic Banquet Hall (400) and the floodlit Palace Grounds (up to 1,200), and a full evening can be staged as a royal durbar with the Mehrangarh Fort lit on the skyline. Cultural immersion here is genuine, not themed.
Jai Mahal Palace
A restored early-20th-century palace on 18 acres of Mughal gardens in the heart of Jaipur, with about 100 rooms, seven meeting venues and lawns that stage evening functions for up to 2,000. Room for a full company kickoff with a genuine Rajasthani celebration built in.