Спасибо персоналу отеля за спокойный и комфортный отдых! Thanks to the hotel staff for a relaxing and comfortable stay!

I chose a hotel for a family vacation (I rested with my mother and daughter for 2 years 10 months), remote from civilization, without animation, discos and hordes of intrusive merchants.
The hotel is located on one of the man-made islands of the Al-Marjaan archipelago, in practice this means that around the hotel there is a desert, the Persian Gulf, hotels under construction and a road with palm trees, a sidewalk and a cycle path along which you can ride a rickshaw. A taxi is constantly on duty near the hotel, 4 times a day there is a shuttle to the nearest shopping center (about 20 minutes one way), where there is a supermarket, pharmacy, food court, and a bunch of boutiques. As usual, guides offer excursions.
For children, Marjan Island Resort & Spa is a real paradise: a well-groomed area with an embankment where you can feed the fish, and a park area with restaurants for birds, a warm paddling pool in the Persian Gulf with sand and a smooth entry into the water in the best traditions of the Sea of ​ ​ Azov (you go, and everything is knee-deep, and when, finally, you hit the buoys up to your neck), a children's pool (so childish that children over 5 years old frolicked in an adult, which not all adults were delighted), a football field, large and small tennis, bike rental, a playground with slides, a second playground with trampolines (unfortunately, it was not working), a kids club with a corner for kids (you can play and watch cartoons, for an additional fee - leave the child in the care of a nanny) and slot machines for older . I want to note the friendliness, friendliness and responsiveness of the staff in general, as well as the exceptional attitude towards children: everyone (from the room cleaner to the manager at the restaurant) greets the kids, extends his hand, asks how things are going. A lifeguard was always on duty around the pool and on the beach during daylight hours.

While the children are sleeping (if they still sleep during the day), parents can go to the wellness center on the 1st floor of the hotel (ladies and gentlemen separately, children from 16 years old) run on the tracks, swim in the pool, take a steam bath in the sauna and soak up the jacuzzi.
Upon check-in, we were offered a baby cot, but we declined in favor of a huge double bed, which to some extent compensated for the lack of a trampoline for our daughter. The room is just great - spacious, well-renovated and with a balcony overlooking the pool and the Persian Gulf, in the bathroom - new Italian plumbing, sparkling taps, everything works and nothing leaks by itself. There were not enough bathrobes - at first I told the girl on duty on the floor. But it turned out that she did not speak English, and had to go to the reception. The bathrobes were brought in 10 minutes. By the way, there are employees at the reception who speak Russian and German (this is at least).
The contingent of vacationers in the hotel: the vast majority are families with children (on average 2-3 children from 0 to 10 years old), grandparents and nannies. Multicultural environment: approximately 30% of holidaymakers are locals and natives of neighboring Arab countries, another 30% are Indians (or Pakistanis) and a small number of Chinese (or Koreans); 10% are Europeans and the remaining 30% are Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia. The inscriptions in the hotel are in Arabic and English, the announcements are also duplicated in German and Russian.
When I read in the description of the hotel that there is a shuttle to the beach, I thought that it was for the disabled and mothers with babies (distance is about 300m), however, the cars that ran between the beach and the hotel were rarely without passengers : ) About sticky beach merchants. They really aren't here. The specifics of the UAE and the island location of the hotel also affect. If on the beaches in Egypt, in addition to food, they offer cheap knick-knacks and massages of dubious quality, in India - rags and souvenirs, the purchase of which is almost impossible to refuse, except to leave the beach, then here taking money from vacationers is elevated to a qualitatively different level. On the beach on the first day, two decent ladies came up to us one after another, one offered to come to the store to look at products with diamonds with a 75% discount, and the second - to take them to the warehouse with Greek fur coats made of natural fur for free. We refused, and no one else bothered us. Feel the difference : ) Well, if you can't resist the charm of natural furs, consider their possible influence on the overweight of luggage: on the way back at Sharjah airport, two girls at the check-in desk overloaded Greek fur coats into hand luggage for a long time.

Now about nutrition. I chose between BB and HB when I realized that there is no infrastructure on the island, incl. cafes, restaurants and shops (except those in the hotel), stopped at HB. This turned out to be more than enough. For the baby there was a lunch of fruits, juice and instant porridge (all from home), for adults - tea or coffee with dates. It is not in vain that local dates are so praised, if they are not the best in the world, then they are probably one of them. The room has a kettle, cups, tea and coffee. Water is brought daily during cleaning at 0.5 liters per person, also without restrictions in the restaurant and can be bought at the hotel shop (1.5 liters costs 5 AED). The cuisine is mainly Arabic, Lebanese, Indian, Italian, and the chef is just great. The menu includes biryani, lasagna, many lamb dishes, grilled poultry, every day fish and seafood, spicy masalas, dal, delicious soups, up to 10 different fruits and panna cotta with different flavors. There is a children's corner in the restaurant: vegetable puree, chicken soup or broth, pasta, sausages. Personally, I will miss 8 types of olives, awesome real hummus and tiramisu…