Against the Forest: The Mangroves Abu Dhabi, LXR Hotels and Resorts
The Mangrove National Park begins where the built city stops, on the eastern edge of Abu Dhabi island, and a forest of grey mangroves takes over the shallows and the channels behind it. One five star hotel is built against that edge, at Eastern Mangroves on Sheikh Zayed Street, with the water and the forest in front of it and the city immediately behind.
Hilton’s own listing puts the city centre three kilometres away and Zayed International Airport twenty four. The Corniche is around fifteen minutes by road and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque a short drive. Dubai International Airport is a hundred and sixty kilometres up the coast, which makes this a plausible base for anyone splitting a trip between the two cities.
A marina and a public promenade run alongside the hotel, carrying restaurants and cafes that trade independently of it. That gives guests somewhere to walk in the evening without leaving the district, which is rarer in Abu Dhabi than the map suggests.
A property between three names
The hotel is in transition, and the transition needs stating before anything else.
It opened and traded for years under Anantara. It has since moved into Hilton’s LXR portfolio, where the brand’s own page lists it as The Mangroves Abu Dhabi and gives an opening of September 2026. Hilton’s property listing carries the longer form, The Mangroves Abu Dhabi, LXR Hotels and Resorts, and marks the hotel as coming soon. The verified master listing for this series records it as Eastern Mangroves Abu Dhabi, LXR Hotels and Resorts.
Separately, Hilton and Aldar have announced that the property will become Waldorf Astoria Abu Dhabi, the first hotel under that brand in the capital.
At least three trading names are therefore in circulation and the position is not settled. Anyone booking should confirm the current name, the telephone number and what is actually open directly with the hotel. The telephone line in the contact panel below is left open for that reason.
What has been announced
The Waldorf Astoria announcement is specific, and it is the clearest published picture of where the property is heading.
It commits to 167 guest rooms and suites, which is a small number by the standards of the capital’s five star resorts and points at a quieter operation than the address has carried before. Three swimming pools are planned, one for adults, one for families and one for children. A fitness club and a spa are included.
The dining programme announced runs to a brasserie, a rooftop restaurant, a pool lounge and a Peacock Alley, the lounge format that Waldorf Astoria operates across the brand. Two ballrooms and five meeting rooms cover events, and a personal concierge is to be assigned to every guest. The developer partner is Aldar.
The forest, which is the argument
The Mangrove National Park protects a substantial run of the emirate’s coastline, and its channels are navigable by kayak and paddleboard. Guided tours launch from beside the hotel.
Morning is the time to go. Herons work the shallows, flamingos appear in season, and the quality of silence fifteen minutes from the Corniche is the thing visitors report as the surprise. The channels narrow as you paddle in, the city noise drops away behind the trees, and the return leg brings the skyline back into view all at once.
The forest is also the reason the site was protected in the first place. Grey mangroves hold the shoreline, shelter juvenile fish and support the bird life that makes the paddle worth doing, and the park’s status is what keeps the water either side of the hotel free of development.
No other five star hotel in the capital opens directly onto a protected national park, and a guest can be paddling through it within ten minutes of leaving the lobby.
Rooms and outlook
Accommodation runs across rooms and suites with mangrove and marina outlooks, and the mangrove facing categories are the ones to insist on at booking. Rooms are generously proportioned and carry balconies, and the interiors have been calm and natural in register throughout the property’s life, which suits what is outside the window.
Given the change of operator and the announced conversion, current categories, sizes and inclusions should be confirmed directly rather than taken from any listing, including this one.
Water, wellness and the absence of a beach
The pool overlooks the water, and the spa has long been among the better regarded in the capital, with a full treatment menu and thermal facilities. A fitness centre completes the offer.
There is no beach. The mangrove setting makes that inevitable, since the shoreline here is root and silt rather than sand, and the hotel has never pretended otherwise. The kayaking is the compensation, and for the guest this address suits, it is a straight trade rather than a loss. Anyone who wants to swim from sand is better served on Saadiyat or along the Corniche.
Booking a hotel in transition
The forest is the reason to come and the forest is not going anywhere. Every other hotel in Abu Dhabi looks at water, sand or a skyline; this one looks at a protected ecosystem, and that will remain true under whichever name is finally painted on the door.
What is uncertain is everything else. Take a mangrove facing room, book a dawn paddle, and telephone the hotel before you commit to anything, because the name, the operator and the room count are all subject to change and at least one of them is due to change again.
Contact
HOTEL: Eastern Mangroves Abu Dhabi, LXR Hotels & Resorts
ADDRESS: Sheikh Zayed Street, Eastern Mangroves, Abu Dhabi. P.O. Box 128555
TELEPHONE: [confirm directly with the hotel]
EMAIL: lxrabudhabi.Info@hilton.com
WEBSITE: https://www.hilton.com/en/lxr/
AREA: Eastern Mangroves