If You Want to Stay at This Resort, You’ll Have to Make Your Case By Writing a Letter

The most coveted destination of 2027 might not be one of the usual suspects. European summers are still easy to romanticize, to be sure, but discerning travelers might soon be skipping Paris and Barcelona and heading to quite a different place: El Hierro, a small and oft-forgotten island in the Canary Islands. 

It’s extremely remote, with a population of roughly 11,000 people, and doesn’t get a lot of traffic, which allows its residents to pursue an almost wholly sustainable lifestyle. Although the archipelago is popular, especially with British tourists, El Hierro only receives a few thousand tourists every year. 

One rural seaside homestay called El Elevador is trying to change the perception of El Hierro. The word elevar, in Spanish, means “to raise,” and El Elevador is situated on the edge of a massive volcanic cliff near the shores of the Tenerife Sea.

At first glance, you’d almost think El Elevador is some kind of bizarre brutalist lighthouse: the house is the only source of light for miles around. Floor-to-ceiling windows display a dramatic landscape: sweeping fields of black lava before a steep drop into the churning dark Atlantic. It’s close enough to the ocean that you can hear the waves. 

This is all intentional. El Elevador is described as a “deliberate intervention in the way we experience attention,” more of an art project than a simple construction. The stark modern design, courtesy of Spanish ecclesiastical architect Alejandro Beautell, forces visitors to quiet their minds and observe their wild surroundings. 

El Elevador was once a pumping station, built in the 1960s within a stone’s throw of the ocean. Beautell took care to ensure the building’s original mid-century appearance, updating the interior to make it appropriate for guests. 

The idea was developed by two hoteliers named Alberto del Hoyo and Silvia Rodríguez, who wanted to try a new kind of marketing campaign to drive tourism to the Canaries: curate sophisticated, exclusive stays in particularly idyllic locations. Placing a luxury homestay on an obscure island with a dizzying view seems like one way to get people talking.

If you have grown tired of performative travel content, you’ll likely feel reinvigorated by El Elevador, mainly because it doesn’t invite the sort of crowd that desires fame over experience. No one solely chasing clout would bother with the application process. 

El Elevador demands more than money and connections. To make your case, you have to write a letter. Why do you want to stay at El Elevador? What do you hope to get out of the experience? What will you create? 

You’ll receive a handwritten response and a list of select dates you can book. Once you’re there, you’re encouraged to disengage and forced to disconnect: there’s no wifi inside the building, a shaky phone signal, and no amenities for miles. It’s the closest thing to traveling back in time, and right now, it sounds like a dream.