Your rating of this hotel:
9.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
9.0
Service:
9.0
Cleanliness:
9.0
Food:
9.0
Amenities:
9.0
A very detailed description of the hotel, beach, rooms and hotel services from a seasoned traveler.
A hotel for a relaxing family holiday, and holidays with children. Cozy, green, many palm trees, beautifully decorated green lawns, small in area (compared to hotels in Egypt and Turkey), and with a calm rhythm of life. Something reminiscent of hotels in Sri Lanka, small and cozy. You will not find parties, noisy parties, etc. here, this is a hotel for a secluded holiday. For many people who just want to relax from the hustle and bustle of the city, it is extremely difficult to find such a hotel now.
The hotel has free Wi-Fi, but it only works in the restaurant and reception areas. Unfortunately, there is no Wi-Fi in the rooms. The quality of communication, by modern standards, is not very good, but it is possible to talk to the house using Skype with video, even if you have brought a laptop or other electronic device with you that allows you to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.
If you arrived without a laptop (which is not desirable, and this is from many years of experience), then there is a computer connected to the Internet at the reception, I don’t remember the cost, because I didn’t use it. There is also an opportunity to buy a set for 30 - 60 Derhams - fins, a mask, a snorkel. The price depends on the size of the fins and the mask. This is for those who did not bring their kit from home. And they will be very useful to you on vacation in this hotel. For the beauty of the underwater world, numerous excursions from Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah and nearby hotels come to this hotel daily. Excursions to 6 emirates and to the Indian Ocean, the cost of such an excursion is from $ 100 and more. From the neighboring 5 * hotel, tourists come here every day on foot to swim in the area of the island. In all other hotels on the coast there is no such beach, and even more so the island and what swims here (I’ll tell you about what swims here a little lower).
And for you, all this is free, since you are already in this hotel. Local employees look at these trips from other hotels calmly, because today they came on foot, and next time they will take a tour not to that notorious and expensive 5 * hotel, but exactly here. Many tourists who came from neighboring hotels complained that they paid two or three times more, and as a result they only go to spend the night in this 5 * hotel. Since they only have breakfast, they had breakfast, and walked to our hotel (about 1 km), and until the evening they rest on the territory of the Sandy Beach hotel, immediately dine in a restaurant, for money, and again to the beach. And in the evening back to the 5 * hotel. So why pay more? For spending the night in that hotel and all?
The hotel is also very popular with residents of Fujairah and Dubai.
Therefore, it is filled, as a rule, by 30%, all other rooms and houses of the hotel are intended for residents of the cities of Dubai and Fujairah, who come to this hotel on Fridays and Saturdays to relax in the fresh air, take a walk, have a barbecue, and in the evening street near the house at the round table just to talk. As a rule, they do not swim or sunbathe on the beach. According to a resident of the city of Dubai, getting into this hotel for the weekend (Friday and Saturday) with the family is hard, all these houses and rooms are sold out many months ahead of the season.
In the hotel, right on the beach, there is a playground with swings, slides, houses, etc. , there is expanse for children. There is a swimming pool for adults and very young children with an awning from the sun. There are a lot of sun loungers both on the beach and by the pool. Approximately 200 sunbeds for 30 people. So you can stay in any convenient place, even on the beach, even by the pool.
You get beach towels by the pool, no cards or other form of deposit. I just walked up, asked for the required number of towels, got it and went to sit on the sunbeds. There is also a bar by the pool where you can buy various drinks, cocktails, etc. for money.
The hotel restaurant is small, cozy, but there are no queues, as in Turkey and Egypt, to find a place at the table where to sit. Restaurant tables are located both inside the building and on the street. Everything is measured, the waiters are courteous, polite, they will always bring you to a table, offer to sit down, serve water. This attitude towards tourists pleases. The menu does not shine with variety, but the food is very appetizing and cooked with love by the chef. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and everything was delicious. If these are sausages, then they are really sausages, and not the herb that is served under the guise of sausages in Egypt.
If it's cheese, then it's really cheese. Soups, fish, stir-fries, meats, etc. are all very tasty. I really regret that I didn’t go up to the chef and thanked for such a delicious menu. In the restaurant for lunch and dinner, drinks (tea, coffee) are paid. If you wish, you can order from the waiter. Not expensive (compared to Moscow). Tea or coffee costs 15 derhams. I ordered coffee with milk every time. The waiters bring a mug of coffee, a coffee pot with hot coffee, milk separately, sugar in a sugar bowl, all this looks beautiful in Arabic style. So, coffee there, for two and a half mugs. So that was enough for me and my wife. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner on a buffet basis. But if you only have breakfast included, or you are from another hotel, then the waiters will serve you the lunch or dinner you ordered from the menu. All this can be ordered in the hotel room. Many did just that. We ordered dinner in the hotel room.
I don't know how much it costs, as I had an FB power system. But I saw how the waiters carried the ordered dinner to the rooms. By the way, the room has a prospectus with a restaurant menu and prices. You can pay in a restaurant with both derhams and dollars, but it is more profitable to pay in dirhams. The bar serves beer and spirits. By the way, you can’t buy alcohol or even beer anywhere else. In the United Arab Emirates, alcohol is not available for sale. There is only in the bars at the hotels, and then for tourists. A bottle of beer costs from 20 derhams. So pre-purchase in the dutik of the airport of departure. The restaurant has a separate bar where you can smoke shisha (shisha), order a drink, or just sit.
The beach at the hotel is sandy, quite spacious. There are sun loungers, deck chairs of various shapes, for every taste. For those who just got out of the ocean, there are several shower stalls on the beach. You can immediately rinse off the salt water. There are locker rooms near the pool.
There is also a diving center on the beach, rental of canoes, masks and flippers. As in Egypt, this hotel requires you to take an underwater camera with you. An irreplaceable thing, believe me. The best soap dish in this series is Pentax WG-1. The cost is around $300. At one time, I actually tested various models of underwater cameras from different companies, such as Panasonic, Olympus, Sony, and a camera in a box. As a result, the Pentax underwater camera won by a wide margin. I use them to this day. Take care of purchasing one of these cameras in advance.
And now, what is it for you! Opposite the hotel, 100 meters from the shore, Snoopy Island rises majestically from the ocean. And around the island there are corals, and all that living creature that relies on a coral island. I have personally filmed turtles, cuttlefish, rays, parrot fish, Picasso fish, etc. with an underwater camera.
, a lot of different colored fish and large schools of fish, and most importantly and most importantly, and because of what I came to this hotel, I filmed reef sharks. From a meter to two in length. They live here, swim a little to the right of the island.
As a rule, guides warn tourists who come to this hotel from Dubai on an excursion to see the underwater world about the presence of reef sharks in the area of the island, and the group, together with the guide, swim to look at these sharks. Sharks are shy like chickens in the village, they are very afraid of people, therefore, in order to see them, some skill is needed (more on this below). Sharks never swim from the island towards the coast, there is sand, and they do not swim here. And in general, you will hardly see fish on the beach, because they all swim near the corals.
Now here are the instructions on the rules of swimming in the coral area. Swim with a mask, fins and coral slippers.
Once you've reached the island, please don't get up. There, the depth is from half a meter to a meter and there are a lot of hedgehogs. Coral slippers are called coral slippers because they protect your feet from cuts on coral, but in no case protect against powerful sea urchin quills. Such a needle will pierce your slippers easily. What does it threaten. An elevated temperature for a week, a headache and a ruined rest, but these are generally flowers, compared to the fact that you have to swim backwards with an injured leg (if you manage to swim). And it does not matter that the depth is from 50 centimeters to a meter. Reef sharks are safe for humans, moreover, they are very shy, but when they smell blood, they go berserk. No matter how they attack. I tell all this because I myself saw how people carelessly, some in coral slippers, some without them at all, wander around the island, watching corals and fish near them.
When touched with such a thread, you get a chemical burn, as the stinging glands release poison. Do not immediately run out of the water. Stay aground, hold the affected area in sea water. In salty sea water, the pain will pass faster.
Sitting near the shore in the water (not in the pool!! ! ), very lightly and gently, without making any effort, and without scratching the skin, rub this place with sea sand with sea water to remove the remnants of the stinging glands. The stinging glands are almost invisible, but you will always feel where they are, this place must be gently rubbed. In no case do not wash off the stinging glands, and do not wash the affected area with fresh water. By doing this, you will only greatly enhance the effect of the poison and you can get a painful shock. The pain resembles a feeling as if you were very badly burned by nettles. Maybe blisters pop up. But it depends on the characteristics of each person.
Remember, this is not a thermal sunburn, so all sorts of ointments for burns are generally useless. The best remedy for the poison of threads and jellyfish is a piece of lemon, alcohol, or any alcohol-containing substance. For example, aftershave gel, vodka, rum, etc. The burn from the thread disappears in about a day, maybe more. It all depends on how badly you got burned. Just touched the thread, or it wrapped around your arm or leg.
Jellyfish burns are less painful, barely noticeable, and heal faster, usually within 10 minutes to an hour, as long as you keep swimming in the sea. Once again, all these burns pass quickly in sea water. When I was swimming, I did not pay any attention to the burns from jellyfish. Reminiscent of a light touch in nettles. Similar threads and jellyfish swim everywhere in the Indian Ocean, therefore, when choosing a hotel, keep in mind that if they are not written about, this does not mean that they are not there.
By the way, the behavior of sharks is very similar to the behavior of dogs.
For those who want to see not only corals, fish, but also sharks, then you will have to be patient. Because, as I said above, sharks are very shy, but also very curious. Try to be as quiet as possible, smoothly, with a group of 2-3 people located in the surf area of u200bu200bthe central part of the island or to the right of the island. Sharks were not seen to the left of the island. I think this is due to the current around the island. I always swam alone, because everyone else is curious, with their cries, exclamations like “I saw a shark! ! ! ” scared away all the sharks in the area, and, unfortunately, they swam away very quickly. To see a shark, you need to lie on the water in a mask, look not straight down, as we always do, but into the distance. As I already wrote, a shark does not fit closer than 2-3 meters, so look for it further than this distance. As a rule, the shark appears from behind or from the side (right or left). Rarely in front.
Therefore, lying in the water, you need to look for a shark looking into the distance on the sides. That's when you'll see her. Since there is a lot of plankton in this area, the water near the island is cloudy, and the shark is gray in color, it is difficult to detect it. Best of all, you can see her rear fin with a black stripe, and look for it. By the way, the water is much clearer near the shore. But there are no sharks.
Sharks, as a rule, swim in a circle, from the right side of the island they swim to the surf near the central part of the island, and back. I used the same method of watching sharks, hiding behind some kind of pitfall and waiting for the moment when the sharks came. As soon as the sharks appear and you see them, do not make any noise, otherwise they will immediately, very quickly, swim away from you. Just lie on the water and wait, they will swim near you and around you, moreover, no closer than 2-3 meters.
They are very curious, like little children, they are interested in everything, but no matter how much I tried, how much I mentally begged them, I could not attract a shark closer than 2 meters.
Don't feed the sharks! Do not go spearfishing where reef sharks swim. All this can end badly for you. During such feeding, reef sharks go berserk and tear apart their prey in a matter of seconds, and can start feeding. While spearfishing, if you catch a fish and swim in the reach of reef sharks, expect an attack. Do not do this. Save yourself. Just swim and watch the sharks and marvel at their gracefulness, streamlined shapes and sheer beauty. Get your dose of adrenaline.
On the right side of the island, in addition to sharks, there are two turtles, about a meter in diameter. Two cuttlefish live there, one large, the other smaller, two stingrays, also a meter in diameter. And many, many, different fish.
This is certainly not the Red Sea, but still it is the best underwater world at the hotel on this coast. It is not for nothing that a lot of tourists from other hotels come here from Dubai. To the left of the island there are beautiful corals and a lot of fish. But in this area, no one noticed any turtles, or stingrays, or sharks. But it is in this part, from various diving clubs, that tourists come on boats, from other hotels, and it is there that they scuba dive. There it is somewhat deeper (depth from 2 to 5 meters) than near the right side of the island. But if you swim from the right side of the island towards the buoys, then you will see very beautiful corals and their underwater inhabitants at a depth of 2-3 meters. It is better to swim in this area at low tide, then the corals are closer, the depth is a little more than a meter, and you will see them in all their glory.
One day a funny thing happened at the hotel.
One of the tourists, who arrived with another group of tourists from Dubai, either slept on the bus and did not listen to the guide's story, or the guide did not warn, but it is unlikely that there are sharks near the island. He, at his pleasure, swam on the right side of the island, calmly watching the fish and corals. And all around is silence, you can hear the surf, the birds are singing, tourists are lying on the beach, sunbathing. And at this moment, breaking the quiet idyll, he suddenly jumps out of the water, on half of his torso, with a terrible, heartbreaking cry of “Sharks! ! ! ". And almost above the waves, rowing to the shore, with such speed that if a world champion in swimming were swimming next to him, he would have overtaken him, and much more. Made a lot of noise. Other tourists crowded around him, and when he found out that the excursion to this hotel was organized precisely because reef sharks swim here, he laughed at himself for a long time. But the second time he did not swim to the island.
Enough impressions from one meeting with sharks. Good thing it was before lunch...
The hotel rooms, where tourists are accommodated, are located in a new two-story building. All rooms are standard with ocean view. Rooms on the first floor have their own veranda, table, deck chair and a couple of chairs. Rooms on the second floor are simply extended, they do not have loggias or balconies. You can only open the sliding window. We lived in a room on the first floor, were in rooms on the second floor, and we liked the first floor better. The rooms include everything you need: air conditioning, TV, refrigerator, electric kettle, safe, coffee table, bedside tables, armchairs, table, bed, large mirror, hair dryer. The room has access to its own veranda, through a glass mirrored sliding door (like a showcase), it is possible to use a mosquito net instead of closing the door. The furniture in the room is mostly made of bamboo.
Two beautiful oil paintings on Arabic motifs hang near the bed. The bathroom has a modern shower cubicle with different shower jets. There are also bathing caps, soap, shower gel, shampoo and two towels each, a large bath and a small one for the face. There are no foot towels. But there are disposable slippers. Soap, shampoo and shower gel replenished regularly. The rooms are cleaned daily. In the room after cleaning, leave two half-liter bottles of water. Refrigerator (mini bar) is not replenished. We ourselves bought various goods in the supermarket and stored them in the refrigerator. As soon as you have free time, then look through all the TV channels in a row, among them I found 6 Russian-language channels, wrote down their numbers, and then switched only between them.
The supermarket is far from the hotel, we went to the city of Karfakan. And in general, leaving the hotel, you will not get anywhere, one road and mountains.
No village, no shops, no mini markets. Therefore, at the reception we order a taxi to the supermarket. I recommend at the beginning of the holiday immediately go to the supermarket for small purchases. Buy all at once for the holidays, and maybe something home. A trip to the Saffir supermarket costs 40 dirhams. The more people will travel with you, the cheaper the road will be. You need to take a taxi back with checkers, which have a counter. The trip back will cost 20 dirhams (according to the meter). The supermarket is the most ordinary, as in any city in the world. No frills or embellishments. There is everything from jeans to milk. The products are not expensive. You can choose whatever you like to taste. Lots of children's clothes. We collected natural juices, drinking water, fruits, sweets (halva), various cheeses, of course, after tasting them first. We found there the Royal Coconut from Sri Lanka.
When we were in Sri Lanka at one time, we could not bring it with us, due to the fact that there was an excess of luggage, and these coconuts are very large and heavy. But coconut milk is the most delicious of all the coconuts that I have tried. No wonder they are called Royal Coconut. In appearance, it is smooth, large, orange in color. In Sri Lanka, it is used as a thirst quencher. They bought this curiosity and brought it home with them. We left the supermarket with two huge bags, taxi drivers ran up, loaded everything into the trunk themselves, and we drove back to the hotel.
There is no ATM in the hotel, therefore, if you want to withdraw money from the card, then this must be done either during a trip to the supermarket or during a trip to Dubai, where you can also pay with a card for any purchased goods.
A trip to Dubai is organized by your tour operator. The cost of the trip is from $100 per person. The drive to Dubai is two hours.
But I did not use the services of a tour operator, because you will not have time to see all the sights of this metropolis, and even more so to get into the Burj Khalifa tower. All due to the fact that the departure with your tour operator is not early in the morning, and the arrival back is not late in the evening. Total for everything, about everything, about 8 hours. Of these, 4 hours on the road. Believe me, spending so much time in Dubai is very, very little. Therefore, a taxi is ordered for a trip to Dubai. A round trip, with a tour of the sights that you specify, will cost you from $ 160. It turns out cheaper than the tour operator. But there is one downside. You must know English. Since the drivers do not speak Russian. And he will act as a guide around the city. So if one of you in the group speaks English, you can safely go on your own. And one more important point.
In order to get to the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa tower (the largest building in the world), you need to order and pay tickets in advance via the Internet. A ticket for one costs 100 dirhams. If you did not buy a ticket in advance via the Internet, then it will cost you at the box office, in the Bursh Khalifa building, already 400 dirhams per person. So get ready for this trip in advance, plan the route. Here is one of the exemplary independent routes that we found on the Internet and used it (the article “Sights of Dubai - we plan and see for ourselves”), slightly correcting it to suit our desires.
We started sightseeing from the famous 7 * hotel Burj al-Arab or "Sail" drove up to it from the sea, held it in our hands for beautiful photos and set off to conquer another miracle of Dubai - artificial islands in the shape of a palm tree.
Then we continued our journey along the trunk of the Jumeirah palm tree, drove up to the Atlantis hotel through an underwater tunnel, looked at an oriental fairy tale, and walked around the hotel lobby. We returned back on a monorail train, from a height of 15 m a panorama of the Atlantis Hotel and the entire palm tree and the city of Dubai opens up. We drive to Dubai Mall by car and hurry to register by email. ticket to Burj Khalifa. We rise in a minute to the 126th floor and admire the beauty of the oasis city in the middle of the desert. There is an open observation deck with the opportunity to photograph Dubai through the openings in the glass. And a closed area with the opportunity to view the city's buildings in three states through electronic binoculars - at the moment (in a haze), at its best and at night. Tickets for this attraction are bought at the box office on the 1st floor. We were lucky and we saw the performance of the fountains in the afternoon at 13-30. An aquarium can be visited at the Dubai Mall.
Representatives of the marine fauna swim in the 40-meter tunnel under the 11-meter water column. We have already visited this one in Bangkok, so in the Dubai Mall we admired the open part of the aquarium, accessible to everyone.
We didn’t do shopping, we had a goal to see more interesting things. We relaxed near a waterfall with divers, gawked at luxury boutiques and left the Dubai Mall for a trip to Dubai's past. Dubai Creek is the old part of Dubai. On a motor boat with local residents for 1 dirham, we crossed to the other side, wandered around the "Old Bazaar", bought souvenirs. Nearby is the house-museum of Sheikh Al Maktoum. We examine the houses on the territory of the museum, photographs of the sheikh himself, from the life of artisans, pearl divers. Lots of pictures of Dubai in the past when it was a fishing village.
Nearby along the embankment, you can look into the ethnic village, where the life of local Arabs is represented, there are souvenir shops. On the embankment we had dinner in a cafe with national cuisine.
The most important show awaited us in the evening - the show of singing fountains. It got dark, the illumination turned on, a lot of people came out, we took a position on the bridge and saw, with open mouths, amazing miraculous singing and dancing - just living famous fountains of Dubai. We saw two performances, the music was Michael Jackson and oriental. During the breaks, they tried to take a full-length photo of the Burj Khalifa, but it was not possible, the tower is too high. On such a wonderful note, the holiday ended on March 8 in Dubai.
A hotel for a relaxing family holiday, and holidays with children. Cozy, green, many palm trees, beautifully decorated green lawns, small in area (compared to hotels in Egypt and Turkey), and with a calm rhythm of life. Something reminiscent of hotels in Sri Lanka, small and cozy. You will not find parties, noisy parties, etc. here, this is a hotel for a secluded holiday. For many people who just want to relax from the hustle and bustle of the city, it is extremely difficult to find such a hotel now.
The hotel has free Wi-Fi, but it only works in the restaurant and reception areas. Unfortunately, there is no Wi-Fi in the rooms. The quality of communication, by modern standards, is not very good, but it is possible to talk to the house using Skype with video, even if you have brought a laptop or other electronic device with you that allows you to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.
If you arrived without a laptop (which is not desirable, and this is from many years of experience), then there is a computer connected to the Internet at the reception, I don’t remember the cost, because I didn’t use it. There is also an opportunity to buy a set for 30 - 60 Derhams - fins, a mask, a snorkel. The price depends on the size of the fins and the mask. This is for those who did not bring their kit from home. And they will be very useful to you on vacation in this hotel. For the beauty of the underwater world, numerous excursions from Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah and nearby hotels come to this hotel daily. Excursions to 6 emirates and to the Indian Ocean, the cost of such an excursion is from $ 100 and more. From the neighboring 5 * hotel, tourists come here every day on foot to swim in the area of the island. In all other hotels on the coast there is no such beach, and even more so the island and what swims here (I’ll tell you about what swims here a little lower).
And for you, all this is free, since you are already in this hotel. Local employees look at these trips from other hotels calmly, because today they came on foot, and next time they will take a tour not to that notorious and expensive 5 * hotel, but exactly here. Many tourists who came from neighboring hotels complained that they paid two or three times more, and as a result they only go to spend the night in this 5 * hotel. Since they only have breakfast, they had breakfast, and walked to our hotel (about 1 km), and until the evening they rest on the territory of the Sandy Beach hotel, immediately dine in a restaurant, for money, and again to the beach. And in the evening back to the 5 * hotel. So why pay more? For spending the night in that hotel and all?
The hotel is also very popular with residents of Fujairah and Dubai.
Therefore, it is filled, as a rule, by 30%, all other rooms and houses of the hotel are intended for residents of the cities of Dubai and Fujairah, who come to this hotel on Fridays and Saturdays to relax in the fresh air, take a walk, have a barbecue, and in the evening street near the house at the round table just to talk. As a rule, they do not swim or sunbathe on the beach. According to a resident of the city of Dubai, getting into this hotel for the weekend (Friday and Saturday) with the family is hard, all these houses and rooms are sold out many months ahead of the season.
In the hotel, right on the beach, there is a playground with swings, slides, houses, etc. , there is expanse for children. There is a swimming pool for adults and very young children with an awning from the sun. There are a lot of sun loungers both on the beach and by the pool. Approximately 200 sunbeds for 30 people. So you can stay in any convenient place, even on the beach, even by the pool.
You get beach towels by the pool, no cards or other form of deposit. I just walked up, asked for the required number of towels, got it and went to sit on the sunbeds. There is also a bar by the pool where you can buy various drinks, cocktails, etc. for money.
The hotel restaurant is small, cozy, but there are no queues, as in Turkey and Egypt, to find a place at the table where to sit. Restaurant tables are located both inside the building and on the street. Everything is measured, the waiters are courteous, polite, they will always bring you to a table, offer to sit down, serve water. This attitude towards tourists pleases. The menu does not shine with variety, but the food is very appetizing and cooked with love by the chef. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and everything was delicious. If these are sausages, then they are really sausages, and not the herb that is served under the guise of sausages in Egypt.
If it's cheese, then it's really cheese. Soups, fish, stir-fries, meats, etc. are all very tasty. I really regret that I didn’t go up to the chef and thanked for such a delicious menu. In the restaurant for lunch and dinner, drinks (tea, coffee) are paid. If you wish, you can order from the waiter. Not expensive (compared to Moscow). Tea or coffee costs 15 derhams. I ordered coffee with milk every time. The waiters bring a mug of coffee, a coffee pot with hot coffee, milk separately, sugar in a sugar bowl, all this looks beautiful in Arabic style. So, coffee there, for two and a half mugs. So that was enough for me and my wife. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner on a buffet basis. But if you only have breakfast included, or you are from another hotel, then the waiters will serve you the lunch or dinner you ordered from the menu. All this can be ordered in the hotel room. Many did just that. We ordered dinner in the hotel room.
I don't know how much it costs, as I had an FB power system. But I saw how the waiters carried the ordered dinner to the rooms. By the way, the room has a prospectus with a restaurant menu and prices. You can pay in a restaurant with both derhams and dollars, but it is more profitable to pay in dirhams. The bar serves beer and spirits. By the way, you can’t buy alcohol or even beer anywhere else. In the United Arab Emirates, alcohol is not available for sale. There is only in the bars at the hotels, and then for tourists. A bottle of beer costs from 20 derhams. So pre-purchase in the dutik of the airport of departure. The restaurant has a separate bar where you can smoke shisha (shisha), order a drink, or just sit.
The beach at the hotel is sandy, quite spacious. There are sun loungers, deck chairs of various shapes, for every taste. For those who just got out of the ocean, there are several shower stalls on the beach. You can immediately rinse off the salt water. There are locker rooms near the pool.
There is also a diving center on the beach, rental of canoes, masks and flippers. As in Egypt, this hotel requires you to take an underwater camera with you. An irreplaceable thing, believe me. The best soap dish in this series is Pentax WG-1. The cost is around $300. At one time, I actually tested various models of underwater cameras from different companies, such as Panasonic, Olympus, Sony, and a camera in a box. As a result, the Pentax underwater camera won by a wide margin. I use them to this day. Take care of purchasing one of these cameras in advance.
And now, what is it for you! Opposite the hotel, 100 meters from the shore, Snoopy Island rises majestically from the ocean. And around the island there are corals, and all that living creature that relies on a coral island. I have personally filmed turtles, cuttlefish, rays, parrot fish, Picasso fish, etc. with an underwater camera.
, a lot of different colored fish and large schools of fish, and most importantly and most importantly, and because of what I came to this hotel, I filmed reef sharks. From a meter to two in length. They live here, swim a little to the right of the island.
As a rule, guides warn tourists who come to this hotel from Dubai on an excursion to see the underwater world about the presence of reef sharks in the area of the island, and the group, together with the guide, swim to look at these sharks. Sharks are shy like chickens in the village, they are very afraid of people, therefore, in order to see them, some skill is needed (more on this below). Sharks never swim from the island towards the coast, there is sand, and they do not swim here. And in general, you will hardly see fish on the beach, because they all swim near the corals.
Now here are the instructions on the rules of swimming in the coral area. Swim with a mask, fins and coral slippers.
Once you've reached the island, please don't get up. There, the depth is from half a meter to a meter and there are a lot of hedgehogs. Coral slippers are called coral slippers because they protect your feet from cuts on coral, but in no case protect against powerful sea urchin quills. Such a needle will pierce your slippers easily. What does it threaten. An elevated temperature for a week, a headache and a ruined rest, but these are generally flowers, compared to the fact that you have to swim backwards with an injured leg (if you manage to swim). And it does not matter that the depth is from 50 centimeters to a meter. Reef sharks are safe for humans, moreover, they are very shy, but when they smell blood, they go berserk. No matter how they attack. I tell all this because I myself saw how people carelessly, some in coral slippers, some without them at all, wander around the island, watching corals and fish near them.
When touched with such a thread, you get a chemical burn, as the stinging glands release poison. Do not immediately run out of the water. Stay aground, hold the affected area in sea water. In salty sea water, the pain will pass faster.
Sitting near the shore in the water (not in the pool!! ! ), very lightly and gently, without making any effort, and without scratching the skin, rub this place with sea sand with sea water to remove the remnants of the stinging glands. The stinging glands are almost invisible, but you will always feel where they are, this place must be gently rubbed. In no case do not wash off the stinging glands, and do not wash the affected area with fresh water. By doing this, you will only greatly enhance the effect of the poison and you can get a painful shock. The pain resembles a feeling as if you were very badly burned by nettles. Maybe blisters pop up. But it depends on the characteristics of each person.
Remember, this is not a thermal sunburn, so all sorts of ointments for burns are generally useless. The best remedy for the poison of threads and jellyfish is a piece of lemon, alcohol, or any alcohol-containing substance. For example, aftershave gel, vodka, rum, etc. The burn from the thread disappears in about a day, maybe more. It all depends on how badly you got burned. Just touched the thread, or it wrapped around your arm or leg.
Jellyfish burns are less painful, barely noticeable, and heal faster, usually within 10 minutes to an hour, as long as you keep swimming in the sea. Once again, all these burns pass quickly in sea water. When I was swimming, I did not pay any attention to the burns from jellyfish. Reminiscent of a light touch in nettles. Similar threads and jellyfish swim everywhere in the Indian Ocean, therefore, when choosing a hotel, keep in mind that if they are not written about, this does not mean that they are not there.
By the way, the behavior of sharks is very similar to the behavior of dogs.
For those who want to see not only corals, fish, but also sharks, then you will have to be patient. Because, as I said above, sharks are very shy, but also very curious. Try to be as quiet as possible, smoothly, with a group of 2-3 people located in the surf area of u200bu200bthe central part of the island or to the right of the island. Sharks were not seen to the left of the island. I think this is due to the current around the island. I always swam alone, because everyone else is curious, with their cries, exclamations like “I saw a shark! ! ! ” scared away all the sharks in the area, and, unfortunately, they swam away very quickly. To see a shark, you need to lie on the water in a mask, look not straight down, as we always do, but into the distance. As I already wrote, a shark does not fit closer than 2-3 meters, so look for it further than this distance. As a rule, the shark appears from behind or from the side (right or left). Rarely in front.
Therefore, lying in the water, you need to look for a shark looking into the distance on the sides. That's when you'll see her. Since there is a lot of plankton in this area, the water near the island is cloudy, and the shark is gray in color, it is difficult to detect it. Best of all, you can see her rear fin with a black stripe, and look for it. By the way, the water is much clearer near the shore. But there are no sharks.
Sharks, as a rule, swim in a circle, from the right side of the island they swim to the surf near the central part of the island, and back. I used the same method of watching sharks, hiding behind some kind of pitfall and waiting for the moment when the sharks came. As soon as the sharks appear and you see them, do not make any noise, otherwise they will immediately, very quickly, swim away from you. Just lie on the water and wait, they will swim near you and around you, moreover, no closer than 2-3 meters.
They are very curious, like little children, they are interested in everything, but no matter how much I tried, how much I mentally begged them, I could not attract a shark closer than 2 meters.
Don't feed the sharks! Do not go spearfishing where reef sharks swim. All this can end badly for you. During such feeding, reef sharks go berserk and tear apart their prey in a matter of seconds, and can start feeding. While spearfishing, if you catch a fish and swim in the reach of reef sharks, expect an attack. Do not do this. Save yourself. Just swim and watch the sharks and marvel at their gracefulness, streamlined shapes and sheer beauty. Get your dose of adrenaline.
On the right side of the island, in addition to sharks, there are two turtles, about a meter in diameter. Two cuttlefish live there, one large, the other smaller, two stingrays, also a meter in diameter. And many, many, different fish.
This is certainly not the Red Sea, but still it is the best underwater world at the hotel on this coast. It is not for nothing that a lot of tourists from other hotels come here from Dubai. To the left of the island there are beautiful corals and a lot of fish. But in this area, no one noticed any turtles, or stingrays, or sharks. But it is in this part, from various diving clubs, that tourists come on boats, from other hotels, and it is there that they scuba dive. There it is somewhat deeper (depth from 2 to 5 meters) than near the right side of the island. But if you swim from the right side of the island towards the buoys, then you will see very beautiful corals and their underwater inhabitants at a depth of 2-3 meters. It is better to swim in this area at low tide, then the corals are closer, the depth is a little more than a meter, and you will see them in all their glory.
One day a funny thing happened at the hotel.
One of the tourists, who arrived with another group of tourists from Dubai, either slept on the bus and did not listen to the guide's story, or the guide did not warn, but it is unlikely that there are sharks near the island. He, at his pleasure, swam on the right side of the island, calmly watching the fish and corals. And all around is silence, you can hear the surf, the birds are singing, tourists are lying on the beach, sunbathing. And at this moment, breaking the quiet idyll, he suddenly jumps out of the water, on half of his torso, with a terrible, heartbreaking cry of “Sharks! ! ! ". And almost above the waves, rowing to the shore, with such speed that if a world champion in swimming were swimming next to him, he would have overtaken him, and much more. Made a lot of noise. Other tourists crowded around him, and when he found out that the excursion to this hotel was organized precisely because reef sharks swim here, he laughed at himself for a long time. But the second time he did not swim to the island.
Enough impressions from one meeting with sharks. Good thing it was before lunch...
The hotel rooms, where tourists are accommodated, are located in a new two-story building. All rooms are standard with ocean view. Rooms on the first floor have their own veranda, table, deck chair and a couple of chairs. Rooms on the second floor are simply extended, they do not have loggias or balconies. You can only open the sliding window. We lived in a room on the first floor, were in rooms on the second floor, and we liked the first floor better. The rooms include everything you need: air conditioning, TV, refrigerator, electric kettle, safe, coffee table, bedside tables, armchairs, table, bed, large mirror, hair dryer. The room has access to its own veranda, through a glass mirrored sliding door (like a showcase), it is possible to use a mosquito net instead of closing the door. The furniture in the room is mostly made of bamboo.
Two beautiful oil paintings on Arabic motifs hang near the bed. The bathroom has a modern shower cubicle with different shower jets. There are also bathing caps, soap, shower gel, shampoo and two towels each, a large bath and a small one for the face. There are no foot towels. But there are disposable slippers. Soap, shampoo and shower gel replenished regularly. The rooms are cleaned daily. In the room after cleaning, leave two half-liter bottles of water. Refrigerator (mini bar) is not replenished. We ourselves bought various goods in the supermarket and stored them in the refrigerator. As soon as you have free time, then look through all the TV channels in a row, among them I found 6 Russian-language channels, wrote down their numbers, and then switched only between them.
The supermarket is far from the hotel, we went to the city of Karfakan. And in general, leaving the hotel, you will not get anywhere, one road and mountains.
No village, no shops, no mini markets. Therefore, at the reception we order a taxi to the supermarket. I recommend at the beginning of the holiday immediately go to the supermarket for small purchases. Buy all at once for the holidays, and maybe something home. A trip to the Saffir supermarket costs 40 dirhams. The more people will travel with you, the cheaper the road will be. You need to take a taxi back with checkers, which have a counter. The trip back will cost 20 dirhams (according to the meter). The supermarket is the most ordinary, as in any city in the world. No frills or embellishments. There is everything from jeans to milk. The products are not expensive. You can choose whatever you like to taste. Lots of children's clothes. We collected natural juices, drinking water, fruits, sweets (halva), various cheeses, of course, after tasting them first. We found there the Royal Coconut from Sri Lanka.
When we were in Sri Lanka at one time, we could not bring it with us, due to the fact that there was an excess of luggage, and these coconuts are very large and heavy. But coconut milk is the most delicious of all the coconuts that I have tried. No wonder they are called Royal Coconut. In appearance, it is smooth, large, orange in color. In Sri Lanka, it is used as a thirst quencher. They bought this curiosity and brought it home with them. We left the supermarket with two huge bags, taxi drivers ran up, loaded everything into the trunk themselves, and we drove back to the hotel.
There is no ATM in the hotel, therefore, if you want to withdraw money from the card, then this must be done either during a trip to the supermarket or during a trip to Dubai, where you can also pay with a card for any purchased goods.
A trip to Dubai is organized by your tour operator. The cost of the trip is from $100 per person. The drive to Dubai is two hours.
But I did not use the services of a tour operator, because you will not have time to see all the sights of this metropolis, and even more so to get into the Burj Khalifa tower. All due to the fact that the departure with your tour operator is not early in the morning, and the arrival back is not late in the evening. Total for everything, about everything, about 8 hours. Of these, 4 hours on the road. Believe me, spending so much time in Dubai is very, very little. Therefore, a taxi is ordered for a trip to Dubai. A round trip, with a tour of the sights that you specify, will cost you from $ 160. It turns out cheaper than the tour operator. But there is one downside. You must know English. Since the drivers do not speak Russian. And he will act as a guide around the city. So if one of you in the group speaks English, you can safely go on your own. And one more important point.
In order to get to the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa tower (the largest building in the world), you need to order and pay tickets in advance via the Internet. A ticket for one costs 100 dirhams. If you did not buy a ticket in advance via the Internet, then it will cost you at the box office, in the Bursh Khalifa building, already 400 dirhams per person. So get ready for this trip in advance, plan the route. Here is one of the exemplary independent routes that we found on the Internet and used it (the article “Sights of Dubai - we plan and see for ourselves”), slightly correcting it to suit our desires.
We started sightseeing from the famous 7 * hotel Burj al-Arab or "Sail" drove up to it from the sea, held it in our hands for beautiful photos and set off to conquer another miracle of Dubai - artificial islands in the shape of a palm tree.
Then we continued our journey along the trunk of the Jumeirah palm tree, drove up to the Atlantis hotel through an underwater tunnel, looked at an oriental fairy tale, and walked around the hotel lobby. We returned back on a monorail train, from a height of 15 m a panorama of the Atlantis Hotel and the entire palm tree and the city of Dubai opens up. We drive to Dubai Mall by car and hurry to register by email. ticket to Burj Khalifa. We rise in a minute to the 126th floor and admire the beauty of the oasis city in the middle of the desert. There is an open observation deck with the opportunity to photograph Dubai through the openings in the glass. And a closed area with the opportunity to view the city's buildings in three states through electronic binoculars - at the moment (in a haze), at its best and at night. Tickets for this attraction are bought at the box office on the 1st floor. We were lucky and we saw the performance of the fountains in the afternoon at 13-30. An aquarium can be visited at the Dubai Mall.
Representatives of the marine fauna swim in the 40-meter tunnel under the 11-meter water column. We have already visited this one in Bangkok, so in the Dubai Mall we admired the open part of the aquarium, accessible to everyone.
We didn’t do shopping, we had a goal to see more interesting things. We relaxed near a waterfall with divers, gawked at luxury boutiques and left the Dubai Mall for a trip to Dubai's past. Dubai Creek is the old part of Dubai. On a motor boat with local residents for 1 dirham, we crossed to the other side, wandered around the "Old Bazaar", bought souvenirs. Nearby is the house-museum of Sheikh Al Maktoum. We examine the houses on the territory of the museum, photographs of the sheikh himself, from the life of artisans, pearl divers. Lots of pictures of Dubai in the past when it was a fishing village.
Nearby along the embankment, you can look into the ethnic village, where the life of local Arabs is represented, there are souvenir shops. On the embankment we had dinner in a cafe with national cuisine.
The most important show awaited us in the evening - the show of singing fountains. It got dark, the illumination turned on, a lot of people came out, we took a position on the bridge and saw, with open mouths, amazing miraculous singing and dancing - just living famous fountains of Dubai. We saw two performances, the music was Michael Jackson and oriental. During the breaks, they tried to take a full-length photo of the Burj Khalifa, but it was not possible, the tower is too high. On such a wonderful note, the holiday ended on March 8 in Dubai.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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OTHER REVIEWS ABOUT THE HOTEL
- There is no WI-FI in the room, but there is at the reception. The hotel is good
- Wonderful holiday
- The nicest beach on the coast
- Spring break
- Spring break
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