Day 1.

Fuelling up the car on Friday just after midday, ready for the drive to Al Ain.


But not before stocking up on some drinks and snacks for the trip.


Telal Resort was located just west of the city of Al Ain with a just under 2 hour drive from Dubai.


I managed to find a good Ramadan deal for one night at Telal Resort for only $247 including breakfast. With our first anniversary coming up I booked a night there for a weekend getaway in Al Ain.

Heading south down the E75 Truck Road.


And crossing into Al Ain on the E16 highway.


Making good time on the E22 Abu Dhabi - Al Ain Highway where the speed limit is a generous 160 kph.


Turning left for the Telal Resort. Telal in Arabic means exquisite, rare and beautiful.


And arriving in the front entrance just after 2:30pm.


We then drove up the hill to the main reception area.


Some awards the five star resort had won on display at the front entrance.


And inside where we completed the usual check-in formalities.


The official check-in time wasn't until 4pm (with check-out of 2pm) but they said we were welcome to relax by the pool until then and that they would notify us when our room would be ready.


And taking a dip. Although the summer temperature was 40°C the pool was chilled to a nice and bearable 30°C.


Enjoying a cool mojito while relaxing on a lounger under a sun lounger.


At 3:30pm our room was ready. As our villa was one kilometre from reception so they had a fleet of Toyota 4WD's to shuttle guests about.


Looking down on the 23-room resort. Our one bedroom villa is on the far bottom-left.


And our room, 1007, just to the right.


And inside the beautifully decorated room.


Complete with bed covered in rose petals.


And a single red rose on each pillow.


The bathroom with the bathtub carved out of a single piece of granite. It was easy to see why the full rate for the room was over $500 per night!


The toilet and bidet.


Complete with Ormonde Jayne toiletries.


We the then went our for a walk to enjoy the surrounding desert landscape.


The resident antelope in the dunes and palm trees.


A local shepherd and his herd of camels top-right wandering the desert dunes.


Long shadows beginning to form over the dunes as the sun begins to set.


A trio of antelope just outside our room at dusk.


We then got a surprise knock at the door with the delivery of some complimentary cake, chocolate-dipped strawberries and baklava!


Although the temperature was still above 30°C we couldn't resist lighting up our own personal fire bed.


After calling up for a ride back to the main hotel building, we took a seat at the Desert Gate restaurant for some dinner.

They had an outdoor grill where you could pick from a range of meat cuts of lamb, kofta, beef and chicken which they could barbecue for you.


And about to enjoy a very tasty dinner from the extensive iftar offering.


We couldn't resist indulging in some of the amazing desserts before retiring back to our villa at the end of a great Friday.



Day 2.

After a relaxing sleep we managed to get out of bed just before 8am. It was overcast today and it took the edge off the summer sun.


A short walk from our villa was the resort lake.


Complete with some beautiful white swans. I was hestant getting too close but they were relatively pleasant and quite well behaved.


Just after 9am we headed back to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast.


With an equally impressive spread as dinner the night before.


And enjoying a decent and sumptuous breakfast with my plan to skip lunch.


Back at our villa were we relaxed and enjoyed a lazy morning.


In the afternoon we called for a ride back to reception to check-out.


And enjoying one last dip in the hotel pool.


After being dropped back off at our car we discovered a bird had decided to make a nest in the rocks right beside it! The mother was flying around us in a bit of a frazzle, but the hotel concierge assured us they would keep an eye on it and put up a small barrier to protect the nest.


And about to make the drive back to Dubai after an amazing and very relaxing stay in Al Ain!