Al Wathba, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa, Abu Dhabi — Hotel in Mshayrif

Who knew that we would find diamonds in the desert but the Al Wathba Desert Resort & Spa was just that. We had been expecting to stay at another hotel, but a last minute cancellation by that location had us scrambling to find a new place to spend a couple of days to celebrate my 60th birthday. Call it kismet, karma, or luck but we could not have stumbled upon a nicer resort on such short notice.

The trip from Abu Dhabi had an unusual amount of traffic congestion but it wasn't long before we were making our way beyond the highway and meandering down what seemed like back country roads leading to nothingness. With the assistance of Siri, we finally pulled up to this desert oasis called the Al Wathba Desert Resort & Spa. We were promptly greeted and introduced to Reza, she would be our hospitality butler. She got us checked in, luggage on its way to our room, and she then proceeded to take us on a lovely tour of the property. The grounds of this resort are like that of Marrakesh's medina. We wound ourselves through the beautifully lit walkways marveling at the Arabic architecture. Little coves, hidden passages, and seating areas, both large and small dotted our trip as we strolled about. Finally making it back our our room for the first time, we were wonderfully surprised by the size and luxury of the layout. Our bed was flecked with red rose petals outlining HBD or Happy Birthday. There was even a wonderful chocolate torte was birthday wishes on it as well. The large king size bed was opulent. It was covered in a wonderfully thick white comforter and the sheets were soft and cool. In the bathroom there was a separate room for the toilet, a walk-in rainfall shower, a gigantic bathtub and double sink. Beyond that all the other amenities were present. Our room had a private balcony that overlooked the desert. The first thing we noticed was how quiet it was. This was one of the things we had hoped for, the peace and tranquility of the desert.

Al Wathba Desert Resort and Spa has only been opened for approximately 3 weeks. Once a part of the Jumeriah hotel group, it has now become part of Marriott Bonvoy. We learned that there are major changes planned for the near future. There are plans for the Buddha Bar to make its appearance, along with an Italian Restaurant, and an authentic Turkish coffeehouse. Some areas of the resort have yet to get opened, but as the weather cools the bookings will continue to increase. Since they have only been opened for a short period of time, expect the grounds to be spruced up with colorful landscaping and some of the worn cushions to be reupholstered.

Because you are in the desert doesn't mean there isn't anything to do. In fact, you can go fat tire biking, learn to do archery, the pool is cool and refreshing, you can spend time with falcons, and like us, take a horse back ride into the dunes. Currently the spa portion of the resort is still not operating due to Covid 19 concerns.

The restaurant currently preparing all the meals for the guests is Bait Al Hanine. The kitchen team but out some fantastic meals during our stay. Pastry Chef Yousuf sends out at breakfast a beautifully prepared tray of fresh baked sweet and savory pastries to start your day. These rival the best in France. It was hard to say which was my favorite but I would probably lean towards the almond crusted croissant with a light Madagascar vanilla bean creme filling. Magical! Lunches, and dinners were equally delicious. See pictures.

If there was one thing that sets Al Wathba apart is its staff. The service that we experienced during our stay was nothing short of amazing. I want to extend special thanks to Sheraz, Aizada, Dhruba, Sigit, Kish, and Rose. The friendly, professional service made our trip so pleasurable that we can not wait for the next opportunity to visit.

I will let the remainder of my photographs continue the story of our stay, but if you are ever looking for that romantic desert holiday, look no further than the Al Wathba Desert...

Jumeirah Al Wathba, Arabian Desert Room with A View (breakfast included), per night: AED1161, US$303, EUR553, £492.

We packed our bags and dashed out to Jumeirah Al Wathba. A recently opened hotel within the Jumeirah group with an impressive 90 minutes drive from Dubai Marina (as a landmark).

This Jumeirah hotel is a mellowed departure from the high glamour, opulent Jumeirah hotels I know in Dubai. A long turquoise, infinite pool punctuated with child-sized terracotta vases stretches out towards the desert like an oasis. It is flanked by a quartet of private, curtained cabanas and copious chaise lounges protected under giant eggshell-colour umbrellas. The pool area is perfumed by the nearby frangipani trees that bend and sway as warm desert breeze rolls through.

This low rise development in Al Wathba Abu Dhabi channels a Bedouin village design with arabesque accents throughout. The pale walls weave around the compound creating a labyrinth that reveals restaurants, open spaces, falcon rooms, activity centres and its Talise Spa. The colour fades gently into the surroundings unobtrusive and almost invisible when driving towards the expansive, secluded development at it’s 90 rooms and 13 private villas.

Our room meet villa Humble brag: we received a complimentary upgrade from our Arabian Deluxe Room to the two bedroom suite which, at 150sq metres.

The online price tells me this villa is AED8228 (EUR2040, US$2240, £1816) is a lot of coin for a weekend but is more manageable if shared with another couple. It is twice the price of the Arabian Deluxe Room on a per person basis; other suites do also come with a private pool (at additional charge).

The king-sized bed is one of the most comfortable hotels bed I have ever had hte pleasure of sleeping in. I folded into impossibly creamy duvet each night after a day of tanning by the pool like a slow-cooked meat wrapped into a soft bao.

Yet the understated revealed itself over time: discreet USB plugins, the widescreen TV doubles as an information guide replacing busy archaic manuals, subtle wall mounted touch screen controls: there are a lot of mod-cons and tech here without it staring you in the face.

The breakfast offers a tidy selection without going overboard as can be the case in some hotels that offer quantity over quality. There is a focused selection of continental items like fresh muffins and pastries. It offers Arabic favourites such as olive oils drenched flavoured labneh balls, hummus and spiced, warming foul medames.

There are two live cooking stations including an eggs station producing eggs benedict, omelettes and hash browns. Love hash browns! A second live station makes warm American style pancakes, crepes, light waffles with saffron honey, Nutella or chocolate syrup and zaatar-spiked flat breads. There is also a fresh juice station adjacent to the in-house Falcon, Wathba, who greeted us each morning with her handler! The fruit is sweet especially the diced watermelon. The service is attentive without being obsequious.

Food and drink - Pool The poolside dining is a good balanced mix of healthier items and more substantial fare like waygu burgers and chicken sandwiches together with some regional favourites. I was impressed with their salad nicoise arriving in a colourful box crammed with soft poached eggs, anchovies, seared rare pink tuna and crisp spears of baby gem. It offered the light but filling meal while sitting poolside in 35 degree sun.

What is there to do around here? The hotel offers a smorgasbord of activities which was helpfully emailed to us in advance so we would have the opportunity to book prior to our arrival and secure a spot. Some of the more novel activities included axe throwing, archery, camel racing, Bedouin basket weaving and - for the out of towners - desert safaris and a private falcon show.

Would I return to the Jumeirah Al Wathba? I would gladly come back to Jumeirah Al Wathba again - in fact - I recommended it to a...

I was highly dissatisfied during my stay. I booked this resort to rest and relax away from work pressure and stresses of life, I chose a 2-bedroom villa in order to relax in my private pool and enjoy my weekend but instead I was faced with aggravation, stress, anger and dissatisfaction. It was a thoroughly dissatisfactory experience.

At first, upon check-in there was a line of guests and only two people on the desks we had to wait for a while to check-in same thing on check-out we even waited longer on that as the clerks kept saying the system is down. As we were escorted to our villa, per the attendants there, all golf carts were two seaters it was very inconvenient for us to go back and forth in two carts and the drivers do not drive safety I've had to tell two of them to slow down twice as I'm pregnant and had two children holding on for dear life beside me.

Concierge services are non-existent in Jumeriah Al Wathaba, we called front desk 6 times to ask for something until we got a reply from anyone and even when I asked why no one answers the phone or even calls the villa back he said this was the 1st call he received from my villa I replyed by saying so you call your guests liars now? And I asked to speak to the manager, the clerk put me on hold then he said my manager will call you back, manager never called me back until he saw my review on Trip Advisor he had his assistant call me the next day when I was about to check out at around 11. There is no other means to get into contact with management to complain manager never made himself available to guests even when he received my complaint through TripAdvisor he sent his apologies through his staff and the housekeeping manager. In other resorts we've been to high paying customers are always greeted or at least bidden farewell by the resort manager in person, his means of trying to amend our situation was to wave the fee off one night of our stay. So instead of paying near 20K UAE I paid close to 10K and that was supposed to make-up for everything.

The pool was not working and not filtering or circulating it was filthy with bugs and dirt when I called they sent me the engineers twice to fix it, even they agreed that there was a problem with it the circulation wasn't working nor was the heating working my kids and I swam in frozen filthy water from god knows how many guests before us and they all left the resort with runny noses. Never was I offered a room change to a functioning villa nor was I ever during my stay apologized to by management even when I requested the manager speak to me on Friday, the only time they spoke to me or tried to reach out is when I voiced my dissatisfaction on google-reviews and TripAdvisor I would have posted it on Booking too but unfortunately I chose to book directly with the resort itself. Housekeeping manager came to see me while I waited during check-out to apologize but was very defensive and tried giving an excuse for all their shortcomings and then said but remember we weaved away your fee for one night and wont let you pay for the broken vase which was a safety hazard really it could have hurt our son as it wasn't stable nor was it safely anchored to anything. He kept going back and forth about my review and how I should change it or remove it and be happy for the compensation I got which was very offensive to me.

The resort was very dusty all over, some of the water features all over were not working. My villa Ac’s were very hot and never went under 24C or 23C even when set to fullblast. The AC panels shone very bright when the master key was off we could barely sleep from the blue light shining in our faces, I had to put my sons boxers and shorts over it in order to sleep properly. The outside area of our villa where the filthy pool is was surrounded by building-materials left over junk all outside the villa. I’ve been to Jumeirah all over the world and never have a faced a...