Having arrived in Dubai, you are already ready to be surprised by the scale and beauty and fantasticness of the buildings built for surprise and admiration. But there are secret fairy-tale palaces hidden from the eyes in the heart of the empty dunes. A 50-minute transfer along the endless roads of the Arabian Desert brought us to the city in an oasis surrounded by palm groves, and it was the Bab Al Shams Desert Resort and Spa, a real Aladdin's palace that he built for his beloved princess with the help of genie magic.
Entering the territory of the hotel through the gates built in the style of the gates of castles and old cities of the Maghreb, you get a medieval Arab castle, which was built in an oasis among the endless sands.
The architecture of vaulted carved ceilings with antique oriental lamps, luxurious colored carpets, carved furniture, many different old jugs, more lamps and more jugs, sofas with embroidered pillows, old swings with carved seats, antique kitchen and dining utensils all this takes back in time in the medieval life of the Arab Caliphate.
They gave us a large room in the traditional Arabic style, like the whole design and architecture of the hotel, the walls were stone and even the windows in the room were with old carved shutters. The room has a large double bed, a small sofa attached to the bed and a sofa with multi-colored embroidered pillows with a small table near the window, 2 patterned and carved bedside tables, a nice very bright carpet. The air conditioning works well in the room, there is a safe, an LCD TV, a mini-bar is full, there are tea and coffee sets.
The bathroom is also made in an ancient oriental style, I was very pleased with the shower with a tropical rain function. All cosmetic, bath and shower accessories are available and replenished every day.
On the territory of the hotel there is a huge beautiful pool, also built in the Arabic style, with huge pitchers, separate areas protected from the sun, with different fountains - a pool in the desert from which you can enjoy sunrises and sunsets in the desert. The pool is similar to the infinity pool that overlooks the ocean, sea, river or lake, but this pool is unique, the limitless edge of the pool goes into the desert dunes. And when from the pool you see how the sun sets over the horizon, you immediately remember the Little Prince
“Where are the people? ” The little prince finally spoke again. “It’s still lonely in the desert
“It’s also lonely among people, ” the snake noticed.
The hotel has 8 restaurants that offer a variety of menus.
We had little time to visit all the restaurants, we had breakfast on the terrace of the Al Forsan restaurant, where there was a magnificent view of the Arabian desert, a huge pool. Here in the morning you can enjoy the sunrise in the desert just like in the pool.
Separate dinners at the restaurant of the Al Hadheerah hotel, which is located outside the hotel in the desert and is also built in the form of the old city of the medina in the color of Arabian tales and Arabian nights. In the middle of the reduced old medina there are tables covered with bright tablecloths, around the table area there are 14 open kitchen places where dinner with Arabic cuisine is prepared for you. I really liked the chicken with hot sauce fried directly on the coals, airy flatbreads, hot grilled peppers and Arabic coffee without sugar with the most delicious oriental sweets, with a choice and taste accurate from the fairy tales of 1000 and 1 nights. On the main stage there is a show with belly dances, separately next to it is a show of camels at night in the desert.
Around the restaurant there is a small museum about life in the desert during the Arab Caliphate or how simple heroes of fairy tales 1000 and 1 night lived, perhaps Scheherazade found inspiration here for stories and fairy tales about Aladdin, Maruf and Ali Baba.
If you want to spend your time more actively, you can ride a camel in the desert and enjoy the sunset in the desert, camel riding is free for all hotel guests. There is also horseback riding, you can take a bike or quad bikes and also see the desert. I also propose to organize a real falconry from the hotel. On the territory of the hotel there are fields for mini golf and mini croquet, a gym.
SPA center Satori with various open and closed areas for procedures and yoga places, sauna and aromatherapy room.
The hotel's spa offers many different types of massages and beauty treatments, loved the hot stone massage with aromatherapy and massage with body scrub with incense and coffee
And as Scheherazade caught us in the morning, and it's time to return to Dubai and visit another hotel and the Sheikh Zayed Mosque
Bab Al Shams Desert Resort is translated from Arabic as the Gate of the Sun, and if the Sun had its own palace and gate, they looked like Bab Al Shams Desert Resort.