My girlfriend and I stayed here from 8-13 December. We had been due to stay for the GP in 2020 but this was closed to spectators. The hotel very kindly moved our stay to 2021 and honoured the original price of 120,000 points for five nights (should be something like 160k now).

My SNAs remarkably cleared into a Fantastic Suite for the whole five nights, which I thought was incredible for Grand Prix dates. We were given room 2004 which directly overlooks turn 12-14 of the race track - indeed, the balcony is about 20 metres from turn 13 and about five metres above the ground - an incredible experience for formula one fans.

The room was very large and in good condition. The air conditioning was amazing - I am a very hot sleeper - and cooled both rooms to 16.5-17 degrees centigrade despite exiting and entering the balcony frequently. The view was literally mins blowing.

Breakfast was included in our race fee, a mandatory charge for the race weekend (this was only 2800 AED for two people for the four nights that counted as the GP). The race fee also included access to the after race concerts every night, and a free parking space. We did not bring a car and the concerts did not appeal to us (we needed to test negative for covid a few times and the acts weren’t to our taste - the Foo Fighters cancelled and they were the only band we wanted to see). The breakfast was a large buffet with a very good selection; eggs were served separately to order, and you could order different types of omelette and poached eggs etc. I didn’t take any photos of breakfast because it was very very busy.

For the welcome gift, we could choose either breakfast, 1000 points, or some free drinks and snacks - we chose soft drinks and protein balls, which were fairly decent.

Even though the hotel was absolute pandemonium due to the Grand Prix, we felt the service always ranged from decent to excellent. I suspect the service is superb when the poor staff aren’t being relentlessly harassed by horrendous divas and Instagram people. Shout out to the endlessly cheery housekeeping team and the lovely chap who was in charge of the gym. A manager also took the time to walk us from one end of the hotel to the other to make sure we could find a way to access the marina for a walk.

The hotel showered us with different gifts every day, which I presume was in recognition of my ambassador status. This included everything from snacks and drinks to race and hotel merchandise. They even gave me a Marriott Bonvoy branded Bluetooth speaker. I felt genuinely touched by the race themed gifts they provided; it was especially appreciated during their busiest weekend of the year.

We used the gym a few times and it was substantial enough to get in a good cardio workout or an acceptable resistance training session. It had a lovely view of the marina too. We didn’t use the spa but I did briefly check out the sauna and steam room in the changing rooms, which looked decent quality.

Overall, we had an excellent stay here and I can’t fault the elite recognition, which was superb. I stay at a lot of higher end Bonvoy hotels, including three other Ws, and this hotel stacks up very favourably. It is a measure of the quality of the W Abu Dhabi that it still felt up to scratch over we had just spent three flawless nights at Grosvenor House in Dubai. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay at W Abu Dhabi again.

Edit: I have some lovely panorama photos from our balcony but the system throws an error every time I try to upload them, regardless of the browser, device, or file type. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know, as I would love to share them with the forum.