The hotel is the only high rise building along this section of beach at Al Aqah and certainly dominates the beach. We were lucky and had a room on the12th floor that gave us great views up and down the coast, but we did feel the height of the hotel somewhat spoilt the bay when we were out for a walk.
The hotel has had some refurbishment work following damage in a cyclone in October 2019, but this is still in progress as the crazy golf was out of use and the beach restaurant, Gonu, closed for 3 days during our stay, a big disappointment as it was our favourite. There were other areas in need of a bit of painting or plastering, particularly around the main pool area, which is very unusual for regional hotels, but I’ll put that down to the cyclone hitting just as their main season started.
Other than that, we loved the hotel. The staff were very friendly and helpful, even ensuring I could watch some of the Six Nations rugby in the sports bar on the 20th floor. We were on their dine-around (all inclusive) package which meant we could get a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and eat at any of the restaurants and the beach bar, but rather strangely this didn’t include food in the sports bar, Astro, which I think was the only exception. The other exceptions were lobster and prawns on any menu for which there was a supplement, but with the range of other choices, that restriction didn’t bother us.
As with many regional beach hotels, the hotel was very busy over the weekend (Friday and Saturday) with guests who had driven over from Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE, but from Sunday onwards it was much quieter.
In summary a great 6 night break, very helpful and friendly staff throughout the hotel and far more relaxing than Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
