Open Since 1979: Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel and Resort
Flavours is the room where most guests at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi begin the day. It handles all day dining and the breakfast buffet, and it has been reliably good for years, which for a great many travellers is a more valuable quality than a restaurant that makes headlines.
The rest of the programme runs alongside it. Le Bistrot works in French and Italian. Amadeus and Cloud Nine carry the evening. The Tavern is a British pub and among the longer standing in the capital, and a palm fringed garden lounge serves shisha outdoors. A coffee shop, a deli, a pool bar, a beach bar and a swim up bar complete the list. That is a wide programme for a hotel of this size, and almost all of it faces either the water or the garden.
Nineteen seventy nine, and the eastern Corniche
The hotel has been operating since 1979, which makes it one of the first internationally branded houses in the emirate, and it has stood on the Corniche through every phase of the city’s transformation since. Forty seven years of continuous trading on a single site is not a common record here, and the practical consequence is a staff and a set of systems that have been solving the same problems for a very long time.
The address is Corniche Road East in Al Zahiyah, four minutes on foot from the Corniche promenade and two minutes by car from Abu Dhabi Mall. Al Wahda Mall is five minutes and Zayed International Airport 37.2 kilometres. This is the eastern, working end of the Corniche, closer to the commercial districts than to the palaces, and the hotel serves that market accordingly. Valet parking is complimentary, which on a stretch of road where kerb space is contested is worth more than it sounds.
Two hundred and seventy nine rooms
The property holds 279 renovated rooms and suites, with a choice of Corniche or beachfront views.
Categories run from classic rooms through club rooms with executive lounge access to one bedroom executive suites and two bedroom royal suites of more than a hundred square metres. The Royal Suite is configured with a king bedroom and a twin bedroom, which is a family arrangement rather than an executive one, and it is the room to ask about for a multigenerational stay.
The rooms are generous in size, which is characteristic of the property’s era and one of its real advantages. Guests consistently note the space and the quiet. Interiors are comfortable rather than fashionable: the Sheraton Signature bed runs throughout, with pillowtop mattresses and hypoallergenic bedding, and the furnishings are warm and earthy rather than pale.
The beach, and the cabanas
The private beach is the property’s strongest card, and the cabanas, umbrellas and loungers on it are provided without charge. On a Corniche where beach clubs routinely sell day passes, that is a meaningful distinction and it is the detail returning guests cite first.
The sand runs along the Corniche itself, four minutes from the public promenade, so a guest can move between the hotel’s beach and the city’s in a few minutes on foot. Day use packages and beachside food and drink service are available for visitors who are not staying.
> Three outdoor pools and a beach where the cabanas cost nothing, four minutes from the promenade. The Sheraton competes on substance rather than on shine.
Three pools, a rooftop court and the spa
Three outdoor pools serve the resort, with a separate children’s pool and a lagoon, a whirlpool and full poolside service.
A tennis court sits on the roof, which is a genuine rarity on this coast, and table tennis and scuba fill out a sports offer that most city properties of this age converted into meeting space years ago.
Sheraton Spa offers deep tissue massage, Thai treatments, facials and reflexology, alongside a sauna. The fitness centre is open around the clock in a light filled room looking over the water, and yoga classes run on a regular schedule rather than on request.
Children, and the kids club terms
Connecting rooms and cots provided at no charge make this an easy hotel to bring children to, and the beach does much of the remaining work.
The kids club takes ages three to twelve and runs from nine in the morning until seven in the evening. The first hour is free and additional hours are charged at 35 dirhams, which is a transparent arrangement and better known before arrival than after it.
Arzanah, and the meeting floors
The Arzanah Ballroom seats up to 700, which puts the property among the larger event venues on the island, and a set of boardrooms and high ceilinged meeting spaces sits behind it for the smaller end of the same business. Combined with a position among the commercial districts and close to the exhibition venues, that makes this a working choice for corporate groups as much as a beach hotel.
Placing it on the Corniche
Along this coast the choices divide cleanly. The Radisson Blu, at the western end, offers 11,000 square metres of beach, a wave pool and an inclusive rate. Khalidiya Palace Rayhaan runs 443 rooms with no alcohol on the premises. The Sheraton holds 279 large rooms, three pools, a beach with cabanas at no charge and a pub that has been pouring since the seventies, at the eastern end of the promenade where the city actually works.
Ask for a sea view room on a high floor, and get to the beach early enough to claim a cabana.
Contact
HOTEL: Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort
ADDRESS: Corniche Road East, Al Zahiyah E12, Abu Dhabi
TELEPHONE: +971 2 677 3333
EMAIL: 00446Foodandbeverage@adnhmc.com
WEBSITE: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/auhsi-sheraton-abu-dhabi-hotel-and-resort/overview/
AREA: Corniche / Al Zahiyah