Thalassa, Oia Oasis and Twenty Two Rooms: Anantara Retreat Santorini Abu Dhabi

Thalassa is the Mediterranean room at Anantara Retreat Santorini, and it does the work that the architecture promises: Greek influences, seafood at the centre, tables set where the Gulf is the view rather than the backdrop. Oia Oasis sits alongside it serving Arabic cooking, and Apollo works poolside with a botanical bar menu and the water directly in front.

Three venues is the whole programme, which is the correct number for a property of twenty two rooms. Beyond them the retreat runs Designer Dining, a private table arranged anywhere on the site with a day’s notice, and Spice Spoons, a Mediterranean cooking class held with the chef on forty eight hours’ notice. In room dining operates around the clock.

Twenty two rooms, and no children

The retreat opened in 2023 at Al Jarf, near Ghantoot in Al Samha, and it is adults only. That single decision shapes the stay more than the whitewashed walls do.

Twenty two rooms, no children, no kids club, no water slides. What follows is a quiet that no family resort in the emirate can offer at any price, and it explains the following the property has built among couples from both cities. Pets are not permitted either.

The drive from either city

Al Jarf sits on the coast between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which puts the retreat within reach of both. Al Maktoum Airport is around twenty five minutes by road. Abu Dhabi International Airport is roughly thirty five minutes.

The setting is a private stretch of beach with the Gulf in front of it, away from any resort strip, and there is very little else nearby. Parking is complimentary and check in runs from three in the afternoon.

That position matters more than it sounds. A weekend here does not require a flight or a long inland drive from either capital, which is a rare combination for a property this small and this quiet.

Rooms, and one suite of 255 square metres

The twenty two rooms and suites follow the Cycladic idiom throughout: white plaster, curved walls, blue accents, arched openings and terraces turned towards the water. The categories are named for the villages the architecture borrows from, and every one of them faces the sea.

The Oia Sea View Room measures forty three square metres and carries a private balcony. The Fira Sea View Terrace Room runs to forty four square metres and trades the balcony for a large outdoor terrace. The Perissa Sea View Beach Access Room is also forty three square metres and opens from its terrace directly onto the sand, which is the category to take if the beach is the reason for the trip. Each sleeps two adults and each carries an espresso machine.

Above them sits the Royal Santorini Duplex Suite at 255 square metres, arranged over two floors with panoramic sea views, a separate living area, a walk in wardrobe, two outdoor terraces and breakfast served in the suite. Upper categories carry private pools, and the sense of occupying a small house rather than a hotel room is deliberate throughout. Rooms across the property run up to sixty three square metres.

The retreat is three years old, so the plaster, the joinery and the bathrooms are all still new.

A hotel of twenty two rooms does not need a buffet. It needs a kitchen that remembers what you ate last night, and the room count here is low enough to make that a reasonable expectation rather than a promise.

The pool, the beach and the cinema room

The pool and the private beach carry the day, arranged so that the white architecture frames the water in the manner the reference demands. Apollo sits alongside the pool, which means lunch never requires moving far.

The retreat also keeps a beachfront cinema room, which is an unusual provision at this scale and a sensible one for a property where the evenings are long and deliberately uneventful. Water sports and beach activities run daily. A fitness centre operates on site, and a day pass is sold to visitors who want the pool and the beach without staying the night.

Two named experiences sit above the daily programme. Tides of Renewal is the retreat’s discovery offering, and Dining by Design places a table wherever the guest chooses along the Gulf. Neither requires leaving the site, which is consistent with a property whose nearest neighbour is some distance away.

Anantara Spa

The spa brings the group’s treatment programme, drawn from Asian traditions, to a property small enough that treatments are private by default rather than by arrangement.

There is no queue for a slot at twenty two rooms, and no sense of a facility running to a timetable. That is the practical benefit of the scale, and it applies to the pool, the beach and the restaurants in exactly the same way.

Who it suits, and who it does not

Couples first, without qualification. Solo travellers seeking quiet second. Small groups taking the whole retreat for a celebration third, and twenty two rooms makes that a realistic booking rather than an extravagant one.

Families cannot stay, since the property is adults only. Business travellers will find no meeting space and no reason to come. Within the Al Dhafra and desert group covered here, this is the outlier: every other property in the set runs to hundreds of keys, or sits hours inland, or both.

Come between November and March, take a room with a private pool, and expect the days to pass without incident.

Contact

HOTEL: Anantara Retreat Santorini Abu Dhabi
ADDRESS: Al Jarf 22, Ghantoot, Al Samha, Abu Dhabi 136333
TELEPHONE: +971 2 817 0000
EMAIL:santorini@anantara.com
WEBSITE: https://www.anantara.com/en/santorini-abu-dhabi
AREA: Al Jarf / Ghantoot