14 дней счастья!!! 14 days of happiness!!!

Good day to everyone who reads my review from the Mangrove Hotel Ras Al Khaimah (Mangrove Ras Al Khaimah).
We rested together with my husband from 10/13/2012. to 27.10. 2012 We ourselves are from Tolyatti.
I am essentially a positive person, I love to travel very much! I will write about the hotel quite objectively. I'll tell you about the pros and cons in my opinion present.

It was the first time in the Emirates, but the peculiarity of this country is such that you can just come to any hotel and walk there, eat (for a fee, of course), take pictures, swim on the beach or in the pool (everything except Burj Al Arab) in Dubai, popularly referred to as "Sail", where you must pre-reserve a table for lunch or dinner). So we looked at quite a few hotels (including the Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort & SPA (Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort and Spa) 5 *, InterContinental Abu Dhabi 5 * (InterContinental 5 * in Abu Dhabi) and many others less well-known) and we have something to compare our "Mangrove" with.
So, as for the hotel… City hotel, 5*. Opened in April 2012.
First, about what pleased us at the hotel:
- location in the center of Ras Al Khaimah, i. e. in the evening we had somewhere to go out... where to take a walk. Directly in front of the hotel there is an embankment, ferries sail along it and local residents and guests of the country walk. And behind the hotel there are a number of shops where you can buy food, clothes, household items and much more. In 10 minutes there is a local Golden Souk (gold market), on the corner of the street there is a good hookah bar and cafes;
- everything is new in the rooms, everything is clean, it is very pleasant to sleep on the bed, the sheets are snow-white. All the time does not leave the feeling of novelty!;
- Samsung TV, 42 inches, plasma, broadcasts the first channel, but with a 2-hour delay (strange, since Moscow time in the Emirates, as well as in Togliatti);
- the hotel has polite, friendly and friendly staff (especially if you know English and can explain what you need));
- not big, but cozy bar. But if you are a non-smoker and smokers will come there... then run away from there very quickly!;
-there is a Chinese restaurant with huge portions and delicious food (it’s extremely difficult to order anything without knowing English... the waitress mumbled “Moooo” and showed us the bull’s horns, trying to explain that this is a beef dish... my husband and I laughed until we dropped! )))))))))))) the prices in the restaurant are quite normal, you can overeat for 200 dirhams (* for 8.5 and get rubles);
-the hotel has its own swimming pool with jacuzzi, but it is extremely small;

-beach and swimming pool are located in the hotel next door Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * (Bin Majit). The connection with this hotel is well established, you feel at home there... and towels are given out and you can eat (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and use the bar and there is a Russian-speaking guide. You just need to arrive early... at 8-9 in the morning, so that there are enough sunbeds on the beach or by the pool. The beach is very good, not big though, but the sand is golden, there are many beautiful shells, in the morning it is completely calm, in the afternoon the tide begins (200 meters) and a small wave, the sea is clean, very salty, small fish swim, occasionally small jellyfish and turtles;
- the hotel has 4 operating elevators…and you don't have to wait long;
- very beautiful environment, everything is clean!;
- a free transfer is provided to Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * at 10.00 am there and at 16.00 and at 18.00 back to Mangrove;
- to the main shopping centers, and these are Monar Mall, Sofir Mall, RAK Mall and Center Point, it’s not a long ride (from 7 to 15 minutes) and it comes out in monetary terms from 12 to 29 dirhams.
- ten steps from the hotel in a residential building there is a mini market with everything vital, except for alcohol. In Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * around the corner on the left there is not a bad liquor store where you will be pleased with prices and assortment;
-the rooms have waffle bathrobes and slippers, which just saves you from the cold!
Now for the discomfort:
- it is VERY cold in the rooms and in the hotel, and if you can turn off the air conditioner in the room (it does not work for heat or for raising the temperature), then the hotel is just a dubak! The Arabs will live for 150 years, probably))))) I have never felt such a disgrace in any other hotel.
- the transfer is not punctual (+-10 minutes) and completely at an inconvenient time. To go to the beach by half past 11 is very late. And the sun burns and the sea is no longer so peaceful and there are no sunbeds at all. Although, for those who like to sleep a little longer in the morning, this is more of a plus than a minus. For a 5* hotel, the transfer must be on demand! We just took a taxi every day and drove when we needed. A taxi costs 12-15 dirhams, it takes 5-8 minutes to drive, it depends on which road you are taken, the Arabs scratch their beards, nod their heads and take you in the most roundabout ways. If there is not enough space in the bus, you will be sent by taxi for free or offered to wait 15 minutes when the driver returns for the second batch of tourists;

- there is very little seafood in the diet (and my husband and I love them very much), once they gave squids and once again salted salmon. And so only fish in batter. In general, the range of food is very weak, for a 3 * -4 * hotel, it cannot be compared with the Hilton or Intercontinental. But I liked everything, everything was delicious! not a single person complained about not cooking;
- in the rooms, the beds are separate and do not move together... of course, my husband and I are not newlyweds, but we still wanted to feel the breath of a loved one nearby, with the exception of deluxe rooms, where the beds are still connected;
- there is no bath in the bathroom, there is only a standing shower, again in the suite there is a bath and even a jacuzzi;
- the hotel is decorated with bright lighting, which is turned off after 12 at night and all the time until this hour it hits the windows, even with the curtains closed tightly;
- first we were put in a room on the 15th floor, located in the part of the hotel, the windows of which overlook the courtyard. Due to the noise of the air conditioning unit, which is located on the ground, next to the hotel, the rumble was just terrible! I could not sleep for a long time and ended up sleeping with turds in my ears, which did not help. We asked the staff to move us and we were immediately moved to the 1st residential floor (4th in the building). In another part of the hotel, the windows of which overlook the embankment. As a result, I came to the conclusion that the hotel has 18 residential floors, each floor has 12 rooms and exactly half are completely unsuitable for a normal holiday! Didn't have to pay anything. But we were just lucky, because when we lived the first 2-3 days at the hotel, it seemed that the hotel was just for us and my husband and I were completely alone here. We were only 6 Russian people, as it turned out later. At breakfast - alone, at dinner too . . and all 6 waiters are exclusively ours;
- there was no Internet in the hotel and my husband had to carry a laptop with him every day to Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 *. Rather, it is in the hotel, but does not work. Internet is expensive and slow. 1 hour costs 20 dirhams. There is no Russian keyboard on computers in the Internet center, for those who know English it does not matter, but I had to write a letter to my sister in Latin;

- there is no Russian-speaking guide... there was a girl Victoria (our magic wand), but she spent 6 months in this hotel, from the moment it opened, she did not see a single Russian in these 6 months and she was transferred to Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 *, we will hope they get it back soon. The only person who speaks a little Russian is a computer specialist, a guy from Uzbekistan, but he still needs to be found! In Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * we found 2 guides, this is the main guide attached to this hotel - Olga and her deputy - Irina, friendly people, we liked it;
- cosmetics in the bathroom are not changed every day... either they forget, or they save money... for example, I didn’t have enough shampoo... the store helped out, which is very close));
-sometimes you come from the beach at 16.15, and the room is not cleaned, they knock, but you don’t want to see anyone anymore, but you want to relax... It happened to us 3 times!;
- in the bathroom the floor is just icy, sometimes rusty water flows from the tap and sometimes the water is barely warm, there is simply no hot water;
- there is nothing in the room to dry towels, swimwear, underwear, socks, etc. we dried on floor lamps;
- the scales in our room did not work until we put all the batteries directly on the bed, the staff does not monitor this;
- there is no animation in the Mangrove hotel, for example, in the Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * in the evenings there is live music and songs and tables are set right on the site next to the beach, and in the Hilton there is a piano in the middle of the hall. In general, there is not much to do in the hotel in the evenings. Who loves discos I recommend to go to the Cover Rotana hotel, there is a disco on the beach from 22.00, go from Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * 3 minutes, from Mangrove 12-15 minutes;
- all excursions are picked up and brought only to Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * and they don’t call at our hotel at all. You warn the tour guide that you are from the Mangrove Hotel and he or she pays you for a taxi there and back. From our hotel there was only a transfer from the airport and to the airport;
- since the hotel is a city, locals stay there, especially on weekends and on holidays (we just got on holidays) and even entire football teams live there, have breakfast and dinner. When about 40 footballers led by a coach enter the dining room, you don’t feel very well.

That's probably all the information about the hotel... "minuses" turned out to be a little more than "pluses". But for me personally, the main “minus” is the transfer, and the main “plus” is the location of the hotel in the city center. In general, the hotel is not bad, I could recommend it, but taking into account that people did not rest at the Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort & SPA, for example....otherwise, complete disappointment is inevitable)))))
About the country and our vacation, I can roll up another 10 sheets, but here people are only interested in hotels))) so if anyone is interested or not clear - ask... I will definitely answer!
And some general information:
I recommend to all tourists not to sit in the hotel, but to go shopping as much as possible, to other hotels (since the country provides such an opportunity) and just walk the streets! In the Emirates, there is no crime as such, so you feel completely safe.
Of the excursions, we really liked the sightseeing tour of Dubai, it costs $ 150 per person from Natalie Tours with a lift to the Burj Khalifa (Burj Khalifa) and an excursion to the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi with a visit to the Ferrari Park is a theme amusement park dedicated of course to the Ferrari, it costs $180 per person. There is the fastest slide in the world, in 4 seconds it develops a speed of 250 km / h, it's not scary at all! )))) and the Ferrari car museum. But I don’t recommend the Ice Land water park, we left there full of disappointment (this is a local water park in Ras Al Khaimah, the largest in terms of area in the Emirates). Half of the slides are dry, the water in the pools is 15-20 cm, the water is icy, there are no sunbeds. If anyone decides to go there, then do not buy tickets at the Bin Majid Beach Hotel 4 * from Yulia. In case of disappointment with this water park, you will not be refunded the cost of tickets, since they were bought by the hotel, and not in the park itself. Drive en taxi for 15-20 minutes. But everyone is terribly satisfied with the water park located in the Atlantis Hotel. It is located in Dubai on the Palm Jdumeira. By the way, a tour of Dubai bought from Yulia differs from the one provided by Natalie Tours, they don’t feed there, they bring it to Parus in the evening and straight to the beach...

We changed money right in the malls, it's easy and fast. The rate of 3.65 has been constant for 20 years now, regardless of the economies of other countries and global crises.
If anyone is going shopping in Dubai, I recommend Dubai Mall (there are very interesting children's soft toys dedicated to marine fauna in the aquarium - octopuses, sharks, turtles) I regret that my daughter didn’t buy a lot of branded departments. If you need cheaper, then the stock store Outlet Mall or Emirates Mall. In Sharjah, Sahara Center and City Center stores.
If one of the ladies intends to buy a fur coat, I recommend taking a taxi to Dubai (you can cooperate with someone so that it is not so expensive) not to the Fur Planet, where they are taken from hotels, but to Nasser Square, this is a street of shops and boutiques, which is located in Old Dubai. There, a Russian-speaking guide will stick to you and it’s better not to dismiss him, no matter how much he bothers you. He will guide you through all the shops and boutiques that you would not have found without him, and help you bargain for a fur coat. He does not need to pay anything, the boutique will thank him for you)))
Who needs silk carpets - go on a tour of the Indian Ocean or Oman or Fujairah, they bring them to the carpet market and give 30 minutes to choose carpets. So know the dimensions and the desired color in advance.
Whoever wants to buy gold (there is no lower than 18 carats at all, this is a 750 sample) must go either to the largest gold market in the East in Dubai or to the local Golden Souk. These are 8-10 tents with jewelry (behind our hotel on the left). The price per gram is between 178-185 dirhams. Local 22 carat gold is slightly more expensive.
And I also recommend leaving money on Duty Free. In general, the Duty Free in Dubai is the largest in the world, but we did not get into it. We flew with Fly-Dubai, where it is smaller, but still very large and sensible!
I wish you all a pleasant holiday and a lot of positive emotions!