All posts by swimmer1

Al Qana Abu Dhabi

Beautiful new location just before the Musaffah bridge to Abu Dhabi. Corniche style full of reataurants.

Easy to walk, bike, skate, jog as well as there is a public golf cart for elderly completely free. Same area has Abu Dhabi Aquarium located there. Several bridges you can cross from side to side of the canal or just hang out on the bridge and look around.

Well maintained, clean, great for evening morning walks.

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Yas Bay

Great place for evening stroll, full of restaurants. Next to Yas Arena facing the Al Raha beach.

Joging, skating, cycling, or just walking around the Bay is really nice, lot of interesting statues, locations, weekend live music.

Definitely worth of visiting once on the Yas Island.

Lot of space/cosmonauts themed statues, also giant diver popping from the water.

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The WB Abu Dhabi, Curio Collection by Hilton

Amani Score:

Great place for family holiday. Themed hotel with lot of WB characters. Quite busy place, better to come early for the check-in, different types of rooms in the same category, with without sofa, different room themes.

Tickets to park included

Location

Located directly next to the parks entrances, Yas WaterWorld and Warner Bros World entertainment park, easy walk from hotel, no problem with parking at the hotel.

Yas Island Abu Dhabi has really developed in last years, there is new Yas Bay area opposite Al Raha beach, vibrant place full of restaurants, walking/cycling/jogging tracks, large space cosmonauts figures even the huge diver popping up from the sea.

Accomodation

Spacious rooms with WB cartoon characters themes, great for children. Roof top swimming pool for adults, children pool at the ground floor. Busy hotel but very clean and well managed.

We enjoyed every minute and got completely exhasted from both parks 🙂

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Anantara World Islands Dubai Resort

Amani Score:

Unbelievable place in the middle of Arabian sea, build on artificial islands off the coast of uae. Short boat ride away you can experience luxury and magical views of city of Dubai.

Location

You need to leave your car at the main resort on the Palm Island, and take the boat ride to the World Islands (arranged by hotel). Once you reach, there is a initial welcome meeting with coconut drink and brief resort introduction.

The location is still newly open, with more areas on the island being developed, as well as neighboring islands, however the views back to Dubai main land are amazing. You can walk around the whole island in an easy walk. There is a paddle tennis hall, water activities, several restaurants, and different styles of accommodation.

There is as well garden being build and animals, lots of peacocks.

For the more adventurous ones, you can take a kayak or paddle board or just swim around the place to another islands, have a walk and explore the area, I personally loved the experience of swimming from island to island combined with the walking on another islands, this way you could travel the whole”World” located in the middle of the Arabian sea.

The hotel transport boat to and from the Worlds islands is not very big, and in our case there were more people than seats available, there is new boat only every 2 hours or so. In my opinion there should be either bigger boat or more of them to accommodate for the hotel guests who came to this top of the world class resort and have been charged extra cca 200 AED each for the island transport, without ensuring they have actually a seat.

Accommodation

We have been upgraded to private villa with sea view, and I have to admit it was very impressive. One bedroom villa design is very spacious for the couple, contemporary design with sea theme, private swimming pool on the terrace, direct sea views and The World islands view, wonderful foldable wooden partition to create complete privacy even on the front terrace.

There have been two drawbacks during our stay which are to be honest not acceptable for the top world class resort standard.

One, there is no central AC control in any of the rooms, villas. Each hall or room in your accomodation has several AC units located inside the room, and each unit has to be controlled separately by infrared remote control. You need to locate the remote control in very specific location only in order to allow the AC unit to receive the infrared signal and you have to do it several times, without any feedback on how each unit is set.

The second drawback is the huge power generator providing power for the resort as well as for several other islands, constantly running 24×7 practically in the middle of the resort. You can not avoid hearing constant hum, which is very irritating for the advertised “tranquility” of this place. One would wonder how was the resort layout planned. Some rooms/villas are less affected than others, some are directly opposite the generator.

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Ritz Carlton Al Hamra

Amani Score:

Beautiful resort, hidden in Ras Al Khaimah perfect for relaxing getaway. Villa resort, ideal for couples.

Arrival, departures via short boat ride, make you feel like at Maldives. Peaceful place great for recharging from busy week.

Location

The resort is located in the proximity of Marjan Island and Al Hamra Golf Club, easy walk to Al Hamra Mall. It feels like you are on the private island apart from small road connecting you to the mainland.

You can walk along the main beach all the way to Waldorf Astoria, lovely open beach

Accommodation

The highlight of the stay is the luxury of the accommodation itself, The bungalow has very spacious garden and private beach area. It has one outdoor private pool as well as outdoor private jacuzzi, private large garden house with sunbeds, tanning area next to the pool.

Bungalow is very spacious, with smart design, large bedroom area, cabinets dividing the bedroom area from the bathroom area, smart tv,

All space is surrounded by vegetation, trees and flowers giving you feeling of complete privacy from other guests but with easy access to main beach, restaurant and wonderful hotel natural landscapes.

There is as well bikes available throughout the resort, you can cycle around and enjoy many romantic spots on the beach.

Welcome :-)

WhereAmaniGoes is a resource for travelers and similar minded people, who like to explore new places, new sun sets and sun rises, oceans, mountains, glaciers, deserts, snow caves, waterfalls and all the beauty this planet Earth has. People who love life.

Banan Beach, Marjan Island

Amani Score:

We came to have nice camping experience, different from hotel rooms, it was great we had a chalet with a private pool, directly opposite the beach, went for swim several times, walk around the Al Marjan Island corniche and coffee shops, visit Al Hamra Mall.

Next day did our own breakfast and learned how to ride the old style 3 wheel bikes:-)

Location

Right next to Marjan Island Ras Al Khaimah, beach basketball field on the beach, swimming pools, Close to Al Marjan corniche, close to Al Hamra mall.

Accommodation

No hotel rooms, tent, chalet, loft, tent, very beautiful, greece/italy feel, white blue colors, old time bicycles, nice beach. Tents with shared bathroom, loft with bathroom, challet with 3 bathrooms and small private pool.

Make your own breakfast in the outdoor kitchen with all supplies/basic ingredients provided

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InterContinental Fujairah Resort

Amani Score:


Great place love to come again and again, beach is beautiful, location away from any city distraction. we did a long walk o nthe beach, talk to local fishermen bringing the morning catch from the sea, did a small hike next day.

Afternoon travel to Khorfakkan city, visit the corniche, later old town area for lunch/dinner, explore the area around Wadi Shees, Shees Park, Rafisah Dam.

Location

Incredible Al Aqah beach, long walk without any hotel walls or chains for separate beaches for each hotel. Basic shops, restaurants across the hotel.

Mountains behind the hotel offer plenty hike opportunities.

Nearby town Khorfakkan is a gem, long cornice walk, old town area with traditional shops and restaurants, waterfall, amphitheater.

Accomodation

Hotel is beautiful, clean, well maintained, rooms are spacious, large balcony, great views on mountains and ocean.

Reception always slow, seems to have issues with allocation empty rooms, even when they are empty. Always 30min+ to checkin even when empty.

Hotel Activities plentiful, badminton, table tennis, 3 pools, falcon show. Great breakfast

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