Thirty Villas in the Savannah: Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Al Sahel Villa Resort

Sir Bani Yas was Sheikh Zayed’s project. He took a natural island eight kilometres off the western coast of Abu Dhabi, stocked it with animals over decades and planted it with millions of trees, and what grew there became the Arabian Wildlife Park. Al Sahel is the lodge built inside the resulting savannah, thirty villas set into grassland where cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes and oryx range free.

The resort opened in 2013 under Anantara and it does not look like the rest of the group’s portfolio. Timber, canvas and earth tones, low buildings, no gloss. Grassland runs away on both sides of the approach road, gazelle scatter from it, and somewhere in the middle distance a giraffe is standing in the shade of an acacia. This is the Arabian Gulf, and it reads as East Africa.

The crossing

The island is reached by water taxi from the Jebel Dhanna jetty, a journey of about thirty minutes, with four scheduled crossings each day. Light aircraft also serve the island. From the island jetty the transfer to Al Sahel takes twenty to twenty five minutes.

Baggage is capped at one piece up to thirty kilograms plus one hand bag up to seven, which is worth knowing before packing for a long stay. Abu Dhabi International Airport is more than two hundred kilometres away by road, and the mainland staging point is Jebel Dhanna, where Danat Jebel Dhanna Resort sits beside the same jetty.

The remoteness is not incidental. It is the reason the wildlife behaves as it does.

Thirty villas, and what they measure

The thirty villas are placed so that each looks out into the park rather than at its neighbours, and the arithmetic of that placement is why animals pass within sight of the sun loungers.

A Savannah Pool Villa runs to 315 square metres with one bedroom, a private pool and terrace living turned towards the grass. A Wilderness Pool Villa steps up to 415 square metres. The Anantara Two Bedroom Family Pool Villa reaches 573 square metres and takes two bedrooms. All three carry private pools.

Interiors are lodge in register, warm rather than sleek, and the departure from the Anantara house style elsewhere in the emirate is deliberate and entirely right for the setting.

The two bedroom villa is the one that changes how a family uses the island. At 573 square metres it removes the need for a second booking, and the private pool means the hours between the dawn and dusk drives have somewhere to go.

Savannah Grill, and the island’s other tables

Savannah Grill and Lounge is the resort’s own room, a Southern African grill serving breakfast from six, lunch from noon and dinner from half past six, with the bar running until midnight and the grassland in view throughout. An African menu in the Arabian Gulf sounds like a conceit until the oryx walk past the window.

Beyond it the island adds Olio Restaurant and Lounge at the sister resort Al Yamm, Mediterranean and on the beach, and two further restaurants at Desert Islands Resort and Spa. A complimentary shuttle links all three properties. Spice Spoons cooking classes and Designer Dining are arranged on request, and in villa dining runs around the clock.

Bonfire feasting on the boma and Tea on the Savannah are both fixtures, and with thirty villas the kitchen learns a guest’s preferences inside a day.

Thirty villas means the dining room is never full, and the grill can cook to order for every table in it. That is the practical dividend of building small in a place this remote.

Game drives, and why they are the point

Wildlife safaris run through the Arabian Wildlife Park by vehicle, and the park is home to cheetahs, hyenas, giraffes, Arabian oryx, gazelle, peacocks and thousands of other free roaming animals.

Beyond the drives the island offers an archery range, horse riding from its own stables, a water sports centre, a tennis court, desert biking, guided nature walks in the wadi and kayaking through the mangroves. There is also a Christian monastery site dating from the seventh century, the oldest in the Emirates.

Guests who treat this as a beach resort with animals attached have misread the property. The park is the reason to come, and dawn is the hour to book.

Pool, gym and what the island adds

A main pool serves the resort and a boutique fitness studio carries Technogym equipment. A complimentary shuttle reaches Desert Islands Resort and Spa, where a full gym, a spa and a kids club are available to Al Sahel guests, along with two further restaurants.

That shuttle is the reason a thirty villa lodge can offer what it does. Al Sahel keeps its own facilities small and borrows scale from the island, so guests get the quiet of a lodge with the provision of a much larger resort twenty minutes down the road.

Childcare can be arranged. This is not a resort for a short break: the journey rewards three nights or more, and the game drives are worth booking for consecutive mornings rather than once.

Al Sahel or Al Yamm

The two Anantara villa resorts on the island hold thirty villas each and share the same park, the same crossing and the same shuttle, and the choice between them comes down to what is outside the window.

Al Sahel sits inland in the savannah, and its villas run from 315 to 573 square metres with grassland on every side. Al Yamm sits on the coast, its villas run from 284 to 865 square metres, and the outlook is beach, lagoon or mangrove. Take Al Sahel if the wildlife is the purpose of the trip and you want it visible from the terrace at breakfast. Take Al Yamm if you want the sea as well and are content to drive twenty minutes inland for the game drives.

Contact

HOTEL: Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Al Sahel Villa Resort
ADDRESS: Al Dhafra Islands, Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. P.O. Box 12452
TELEPHONE: +971 2 801 4300
EMAIL: contact@visitabudhabi.ae
WEBSITE: https://www.anantara.com/en/sir-bani-yas-island-al-sahel
AREA: Sir Bani Yas Island