Thirty Four Storeys on Al Maryah: Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi

Thirty four storeys, on an island that was largely water within the professional lifetime of the people now working on it. That is the shape of Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi at Al Maryah Island: a single tower on Abu Dhabi Global Market Square, holding around two hundred rooms and suites across a building tall enough that the upper floors look clean over the channel to the main island on one side and the mainland on the other.

Two hundred rooms in thirty four storeys is a deliberately low ratio. It buys generous floorplates, a lift bank that never queues at eight in the morning, and the space on the third floor for an outdoor lap pool that most towers of this height simply cannot accommodate.

The island, and the covered walk

Al Maryah Island is the capital’s financial district, holding Abu Dhabi Global Market and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and the hotel is embedded in it rather than parked beside it.

The Galleria Al Maryah connects directly, which means the emirate’s most concentrated run of luxury retail is reachable in slippers. Abu Dhabi Mall is a short drive, the Corniche around ten minutes and Zayed International Airport under half an hour. For a guest here on business, walking from a meeting at ADGM back to the lobby without going outdoors is worth a great deal between May and September, and it is the single practical reason this hotel wins so much corporate custom.

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi sits on the same island, which shapes a quieter part of the guest list. A proportion of the rooms here are taken by families accompanying a patient, and the hotel handles that trade with the discretion it requires. It is worth knowing, because it explains a house style that is calm at hours when a resort would be noisy

Rooms and suites

Categories run from Deluxe Rooms through Premier Rooms and Deluxe Waterfront Rooms to Premier Suites in one and two bedroom configurations, and Deluxe Executive Suites above them. Deluxe rooms run to roughly forty three square metres, which is generous for a city tower where thirty five is the regional norm.

Every room is soundproofed. Bathrooms carry separate deep soaking tubs and walk in showers, with bathrobes, slippers and designer toiletries, and a pillow menu applies across the house. Rooms come with tablets, minibars and safes sized for a laptop.

City and water view categories both work well, though the waterfront side, looking over the channel towards the main island, is the one to ask for. The light on that side in the hour before sunset is the reason to have taken the room rather than a serviced apartment.

 Six rooms to eat and drink in

Butcher and Still is the American steakhouse and cocktail bar, styled after a Chicago room of the 1920s with leather banquettes and dark wood floors, and cut from prime American beef. It has become one of the fixed points of the capital’s dining calendar and it takes reservations well in advance, largely from residents rather than guests.

Cafe Milano cooks Italian across brunch, lunch and dinner, with handmade pastas and a terrace over the water. Crust handles the healthy global end and is the hotel’s breakfast and brunch room. Al Meylas is the lobby lounge, running coffee, pastries, small plates and afternoon tea, and the hotel describes it as the living room of Abu Dhabi, which is a fair account of how the city uses it. Saikindo is the Japanese listening bar, built around a hi fi system, with a Robata Room hidden behind it serving yakitori. Eclipse Terrace Lounge sits poolside for cocktails and Asian influenced plates.

> Book Butcher and Still before you book the room. A good number of Abu Dhabi residents know this hotel only through that restaurant, and the tables go early.

The Pearl Spa, the lap pool and two fitness centres

The Pearl Spa runs from eleven in the morning until ten at night. Its hammam ritual uses black soap in the traditional way, and the wet facilities take in heated loungers, a vitality pool with hydro jets, experience showers, a sauna and a steam room. Couples’ treatment rooms have floor to ceiling glazing.

The outdoor lap pool sits on the third floor and connects directly to the fitness centre, which is open around the clock and split into two entirely separate facilities for men and women, each with glazing from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. That separation is unusual at this level in the capital and it matters to a proportion of guests who will not otherwise train in a hotel.

Families and the working visit

A children’s club operates at no charge, with an indoor play area, children’s menus and connecting rooms, handled with the discretion the brand is known for. Families are accommodated rather than courted here; the centre of gravity sits with adults.

On business the ballroom and meeting rooms are substantial, and the ADGM connection does the rest: a hotel with a covered route into Abu Dhabi Global Market is a different instrument from a hotel with a shuttle bus. A guest can take a breakfast meeting at Crust, a working lunch at Al Meylas and a closing dinner at Butcher and Still without leaving the building, which is a sequence the hotel has clearly been designed to support.

Choosing between the island’s two hotels

The other of those two is Rosewood, five minutes along the same waterfront, and the division between them is clean. Rosewood has the falcon wing architecture, 148 rooms and 41 suites with 134 residences attached, a wine cellar and tasting room, and one Michelin Key. Four Seasons has thirty four storeys, the third floor lap pool, the two separate fitness centres and Butcher and Still.

A guest who wants a building to look at should take Rosewood. A guest who wants a room, a pool and a steak at the end of a working day should take this one.

Contact

HOTEL: Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi at Al Maryah Island
ADDRESS: Abu Dhabi Global Market, Second Street, Al Maryah Island MI1, Abu Dhabi
TELEPHONE: +971 2 333 2222
EMAIL: tugce.goksel@fourseasons.com
WEBSITE: https://www.fourseasons.com/abudhabi/
AREA: Al Maryah Island