Banyan Tree Al Wadi

100   Recommended
Al Sahari
October 20, 2014 by EXPERT

 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended
Share
Save
Liked:
Location
 
Service
 
Food
 
Amenities
 
Room
 

{{ oRightNav.heading }}

Banyan Tree Al Wadi
 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended

Save

Share

Al Sahari

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
Stats
Room
Al Sahari

Banyan Tree gets a bad rap here and for the most part I get it. Having said this, I have had good luck with my various Banyan Tree stays and generally would recommend them, if expectations are set accordingly. For this trip we were debating between the BT and the Anantara Qasr Al Sarab. Ultimately, the deciding factors were that the BT was less than half number of keys as the Anantara; and since we were not going to Abu Dhabi, the BT was much easier to get to.

I am glad we stayed here. We were in their top level tented villa – Al Sahari. This (and only this) type includes butler service. And in this case, we had an excellent butler, which helped make the stay very pleasant. You are provided with a mobile phone which rings to the butler. Everything that we needed to arrange was done through him and he was very responsive.

Room

We found the tented villa to be very nice, with an excellent layout – a large bedroom and office area, separate (small) living area and a huge bathroom. The outside area was also well designed, with a large daybed (shaded), a couple of chaise longues (in full sun) and a small dining table. The pool was also a very decent size (10m X 3m) and quite deep (5 feet). I was concerned that the A/C would not be able to keep up with the heat, but this was not the case (however, we did find that it was a bit noisy). The Al Sahari villas are quite well spaced from each other, allowing for ample privacy and the villa we were in had very nice views of the sand dunes that surround the resort.

Dining

Al Sahari villas include breakfast in the main dining room (which consisted of an average buffet) or in villa (which was an excellent choice and a better option than the buffet, in my option). Also included are evening hors d’oeuvres and drinks – a nice touch, but nothing extraordinary. Dinner at Safran (Thai) was excellent.

Amenities

As far as facilities, there is a small gym and an excellent spa. At the time of our visit, there was no main pool, but one was being built. There are stables and some kind of facilities for falconry and other sports, but we did not visit these. The resort is somewhat spread out, but walkable. Bikes are also provided, but we did not use them. Buggy service is also decently prompt.

Overall

This is no Amanzoe (as you will see below), but it is a fine resort if you set expectations accordingly. Service was good, but not excellent. Honestly, we spent most of our time here in and around our villa, so we did not interact with many staff members other than the butler. And given the price that we paid, I found it to be very acceptable. Because we were there in May and the heat was already considerable, our main goal was to relax around the villa and enjoy the pool and the view and we were very happy doing this here.

0 Comments

This review lives in the Banyan Tree Al Wadi thread.
0 comments and Y review
Comment In Thread

Hotels you may also be interested in