A Wave Pool in the Room Rate: Rixos Premium Saadiyat Island

The aqua park is the first thing to understand about this resort. It runs a wave pool and a set of water slides, with a separate aqua park for smaller children alongside, and all of it is covered by the room rate rather than sold at the gate. Three outdoor pools serve the rest of the property, and a private stretch of Saadiyat’s protected shoreline runs in front of the whole arrangement.

That is the argument Rixos makes here: three hundred keys, two hundred and eighty eight rooms and twelve villas, on a private beach, with the water park included. The resort holds one Michelin Key, which suggests the guide’s inspectors found the model worth taking seriously.

None of the other Saadiyat resorts in this series carries a wave pool. The nearest comparable water offer on the island is the lazy river and slide at Saadiyat Rotana, which is a smaller complex built for younger children.

What the rate covers

The all inclusive rate covers buffet meals, snacks, alcoholic beverages including premium spirits, the in room minibar, the water park and the daily activity programme. Some venues carry availability limits, which is standard for the format and worth confirming at the time of booking.

For a family working to a fixed budget across a week, that removes an entire category of decision. It is also the clearest point of difference within the Saadiyat cluster. Jumeirah sells rooms and then sells dinner. Saadiyat Rotana offers a meal plan as an option. Here the inclusive rate is the premise the resort is built on.

Six kitchens and six bars

The dining count is broad for a resort of this size and the range is real. L’Olivo handles Italian. Aja and the teppanyaki counter cover Asian. Mermaid deals in Mediterranean and Greek seafood. Orient works the grilled meats. People’s is the casual beachside option, and Turquoise runs the all day buffet that most guests use for breakfast.

Six bars follow: Savanna Sol, the Highlights Pool Bar, the Aqua Bar, the Vitamin Bar, Ame Beach Bar and the Lobby Bar. The spread means a guest can move through a whole day without repeating a room, which is the practical requirement of a resort designed around stays of a week rather than a weekend.

The honest measure of an inclusive resort is whether you would still eat there if you were paying. On the Mediterranean and the grill menus here, the answer is yes.

Villas, rooms and family sizing

Fourteen categories are listed. Deluxe rooms start at around forty five square metres with garden, sea or pool views, and premium categories add direct pool access. Above them sit four family room configurations, five suites including a Presidential Suite, and two villa types, the Club Villa and the Villa Privé.

The villas are the reason to look seriously at this property rather than at the inclusive rate alone. Several carry private pools, and the largest sleep eight adults and two children, which puts them in a bracket almost nothing else on Saadiyat competes with for two families travelling together.

Rooms are contemporary and comfortable rather than distinguished. The money has gone into the grounds, the water and the programme rather than into the interiors, which is a defensible allocation for the guest this resort serves.

Anjana Spa

Anjana Spa carries a traditional Turkish hammam, sauna, steam room and hot tub alongside a full menu of facial and body treatments. It also has a snow room, which the resort states is the only one in Abu Dhabi.

The spa is one of the areas where the inclusive format shows its limits, since treatments sit outside the rate. Guests who intend to use it regularly should budget for it separately, and it is worth doing, because a snow room after an afternoon on a Gulf beach in July is a more sensible facility than it sounds in print.

The daily programme

The activity programme is more serious than the format usually implies, running yoga, pilates, functional training, cycling, paddling, football and basketball across the day, with tennis courts and a fitness centre on site and water sports off the beach. Beach yoga and volleyball run on the sand.

For a certain kind of guest, that programme is worth more than any of the dining. The Teens Club and the sports schedule between them are also what keep older children occupied, which is a harder requirement than entertaining a six year old.

Children, and the noise question

The Rixy Kids Club runs supervised activities, a separate Teens Club handles the older ones, and the children’s aqua park keeps the smallest guests out of the main pools. Connecting and family rooms are widely available, and four distinct family room configurations means a party of five is not automatically pushed into a suite.

Couples should know what they are booking. This is a lively resort with a full programme and a water park at the centre of it, and guests looking for silence will be happier at Jumeirah’s property further east or at Park Hyatt.

Setting

The resort sits closer to the bridge than the eastern Saadiyat properties, with the Louvre Abu Dhabi within about ten minutes and Saadiyat Public Beach a short walk. That suits guests who stay a week and want the option of a museum afternoon without a serious drive.

The arithmetic

For a family working to a fixed budget across a week, this is the simplest arithmetic on Saadiyat, and the villas make it work for two families travelling together. Not the choice for a quiet weekend, and it makes no claim to be.

Contact

HOTEL: Rixos Premium Saadiyat Island
ADDRESS: Al Saadiyat Island SDN1, Abu Dhabi
TELEPHONE: +971 2 492 2222
EMAIL: reservations.rixossaadiyat@accor.com
WEBSITE: https://saadiyat.rixos.com/
AREA: Saadiyat Island