Three Hundred and Forty Keys and Thirteen Villas: Saadiyat Rotana Resort and Villas

Rotana arrived on Saadiyat with a resort that was planned from the outset as two things at once, and the name records it. Three hundred and twenty seven rooms and suites occupy the main building across five floors. Thirteen beach villas sit separately on the sand. Three hundred and forty keys in total, and the split between them is the reason the property works for the guest it was built for.

The cultural district then grew up around it. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is three kilometres away, teamLab Phenomena the same, and the resort now sits within ten kilometres of the city centre, a drive of roughly a quarter of an hour. Zayed International Airport is twenty five kilometres out.

That combination of a beach address and a short run to the museums is what the property trades on, and it is a materially different proposition from the resorts at the eastern end of the island, which put more sand and more road between the guest and the city.

The beach, and the certifications that go with it

The resort has private access to Saadiyat Beach, a stretch of protected white sand running some nine kilometres along the island’s eastern shore and home to the hawksbill turtle. The property holds Blue Flag and Green Key certification, which are audited standards for bathing water quality and environmental management rather than marketing badges, and it has taken a number of World Luxury Hotel Awards.

Saadiyat Beach Golf Club is a short walk. Yas Waterworld is eighteen kilometres away for families who want a day of it. Three hundred basement parking spaces and valet parking mean arriving by car is straightforward, which sounds unglamorous until you have circled a resort car park with children in the back.

Eighty square metres and upward

Rooms run from classic and deluxe categories through sea view and garden view. Above them the suites are properly sized rather than a standard room with a sofa bed pushed into it: one bedroom suites at eighty square metres, terrace suites at ninety, two bedroom family suites at a hundred and twenty sleeping five, sea view two bedroom suites at a hundred and thirty, the Saadiyat suite at a hundred and seventy, and a Royal Suite of two hundred and seventy five square metres.

Club Rotana Lounge access runs across the suite categories, which is the detail that makes the eighty square metre suites worth the step up from a deluxe room on a longer stay. Above all of it sit the thirteen beach villas, with private terraces and direct proximity to the sand, and enough separation between sleeping areas to make a trip with grandparents and grandchildren viable in one booking.

The two bedroom categories are the ones to look at hardest. A hundred and twenty square metres sleeping five, or a hundred and thirty with sea views, is a different kind of space from two connecting rooms, and it is what the resort is really selling above the deluxe categories.

Eight places to eat and drink

Si Ristorante Italiano and Bar handles the Italian end. Turtle Bay Bar and Grill deals in prime cuts and seafood and looks out over the bay and the bridge, and the Roof Bar above it is the better spot for a drink before dinner. Hamilton’s Gastropub covers British and American comfort cooking. Sim Sim runs all day dining and the breakfast buffet, which is substantial.

Sama Lobby Lounge does artisan tea and light bites, Nasma Beachfront Bar covers drinks and sharing plates on the sand, and the Pool Avenue serves the water. An all inclusive meal plan is available, which is unusual at this level in Abu Dhabi and worth the arithmetic for a family stay.

The all inclusive plan is the quiet reason many families choose this resort over its neighbours. It removes a week of decisions about lunch.

Zen the Spa, ten treatment rooms and the courts

Zen the Spa runs ten treatment rooms alongside a Turkish and Moroccan hammam. Bodylines Fitness Club provides the gym, with sea views and separate saunas for men and women, and it opens from six in the morning until eleven at night.

Outside, the resort keeps one tennis court, three padel courts, a football pitch and a mini golf course, with the courts open from seven in the morning until eleven at night and the mini golf from nine until ten. The lagoon style outdoor pool is the centre of the daytime, and the children’s water complex adds a lazy river, a splash pool and a water slide. Three padel courts is a serious provision for a beach resort and reflects how quickly the game has taken hold in the emirate.

Families, and why the resort admits it

The children’s club takes children from six months to eleven years, and adds a cinema zone and a teen area for the older ones. There is a children’s pool, a playground and children’s menus across the restaurants, and connecting rooms are widely available.

Saadiyat’s other resorts are quieter or more formal. This one was built on the assumption that a good proportion of its guests will arrive with a seven year old and a pushchair, and it handles that without becoming a holiday camp.

Ballrooms, banquets and weddings

One ballroom and three banquet venues serve conferences, weddings and incentive groups, with flexible layouts and audio visual technology fitted throughout. The resort handles both ends of that business at scale, though its centre of gravity remains firmly leisure.

Saadiyat, and where this one sits

Take the all inclusive plan, take a beach villa if there are more than four of you, and put an evening aside for Turtle Bay. Jumeirah’s property further east has the more secluded beach and Rixos has the bigger water park, but neither has this combination of suite sizes, a nine kilometre beach and a three kilometre run to the Louvre.

Contact

HOTEL: Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas
ADDRESS: Al Saadiyat Island SDN1, Abu Dhabi
TELEPHONE: +971 2 697 0000
EMAIL: saadiyat.resort@rotana.com
WEBSITE: https://www.rotana.com/rotanahotelandresorts/unitedarabemirates/abudhabi/saadiyatrotanaresortandvillas
AREA: Saadiyat Island