Fairmont Bab Al Bahr

Raja Ali was fantastic, he was in our housekeeping team At Fairmont BabAlBar. As we were travelling with children, we needed to have some specific requirements and he created for everything thank you so much Raja.

The Ritz Carlton was undergoing renovations and we switched to the Fairmont Abu Dhabi, on an all inclusive, Gold Room Level. Warm welcome on arrival and taken to the Gold check-in on the 7th floor, where Stephen was on hand to provide an overview of the hotel, outline the features for Gold Level and show us to our room. The rooms are spacious and well appointed with large comfortable beds and stunning views of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Whenever I book all inclusive, Im always surprised but just how much is excluded. Fairmount Abu Dhabi is no exception. All inclusive, includes: Breakfast in CuiScene Restaurant Lunch in either Marco's Italian, Mazaj Bab al Bahr or Poolside Dinner: either CuiScene Restaurant, Marco's Italian, Mazaj Bab al Bahr or Bridges Bar Selected non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages by the glass at any of the above. It does not include: Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Cafe Sushi The food was excellent and I was particularly impressed by Marcos Italian. Food was flavoursome and plentiful. Likewise the food in the Gold Lounge was excellent. It probably doesn't make sense to book both Gold Level and All Inclusive. The Gold Room provides breakfast on the 7th Floor (egg station and extensive selection), afternoon snacks and then canapés and alcoholic drinks between 5pm and 7pm. This would be sufficient on its own, without the addition of all inclusive. The hotel has its own private beech but it's easy enough to walk between adjoining hotels, along the waterfront, to the local souk where there is a selection of restaurants and shops. The beach and pool areas are clean, spacious and have plenty of loungers to relax. Towels are provided and the service as always, is first rate. There is a swim up adult pool, but as is often the case, the 'adult only' is not enforced and the swim up bar is full of kids, the heated pool (age over 12) is full of kids. Most hotels in the UAE compete to draw in locals at weekends and on public holidays; offering extensive brunches or 'day passes' to visit the hotel and use the facilities. Consequently, at these times, it is overflowing kids. We arrived at on a weekend which was followed by a national holiday so our timing could not have been worse. If possible, try to book Monday - Friday and get out before the weekend arrives. Overall, a very enjoyable stay.

We booked a Fairmont Gold Room for 6 nights for my 60th birthday. The hotel was full on the first day of our holiday, so we spent 1 night in the Hilton Yas Island before arriving at the Fairmont. I emailed the hotel to ask some questions before we arrived. Paolo replied with a welcome email and enquiried about our time of arrival. We arrived around 11:30 and went straight to the 7th floor. As expected, the room was not ready. But Paolo said it wouldn't be long. We filled out our details and gave my phone number so they could text or WhatsApp when the room was ready. At 1pm, having heard nothing. We headed in for afternoon tea. We passed the 7th floor desk and asked Stephen if the room was ready. Paolo appeared from nowhere and said he had just been about to WhatsApp me,and that the room was ready - On the 5th floor. Now the whole point of the Fairmont Gold is that it is supposed to be a "Hotel in a hotel" with a dedicated floor. It was not acceptable to be put on another floor. It became obvious that the hotel was overbooked. There were no rooms on the 7th floor with the creek view we had paid for. They offered to move us after 1 day, but that was not acceptable because my wife wanted to set up decorations and balloons etc for my birthday the next day and did not want to have to take it all down and move room. So we were forced to take a city view room albeit a Junior Suite which is larger. This room also wasn't ready so we had the afternoon tea and headed back to the beach. By 3pm (2 hours later) we had again not heard anything via WhatsApp. We headed to reception by now thoroughly hacked off to speak to the Manager. The manager was summoned and we complained about the whole process. A few minutes later Paolo appeared on the ground floor - The room was ready but they could not contact me on WhatsApp ! I had WiFi and cellular data working. My WhatsApp was working. The Hilton had no problem using it to inform me that their room was ready when we stayed the previous night. Also they knew we were by the beach, so they could have come and found us. Anyway we were taken to our room with no view. We never heard anything back from the manager. It was a very disappointing start to what was supposed to be a special trip. The room was decent although there were stains on several bits of the carpet near the sofa. The Gold Lounge The floor is massive with several areas to sit. The down side of this is that during Happy Hour it was difficult to get a drink. On the first night I had gone to the bar and got drinks. Paolo told me that the drinks are brought to us. So on other nights we waited, but no one came. There did not seem to be enough staff during the early part of the service. We (along with others) were forced to go to the bar or track down staff to get a drink. The food. The food offering was good. We were Half Board so were trying not to eat too much in the evening as we had dinner to go to. But there were several main course dishes during the evening along with some salad. In hindsight as breakfast and afternoon tea are included it would have been better to go Room Only and pay for the occasional meal in one of the restaurants. Breakfast was OK. Afternoon tea had a selection of sandwiches and scones. We found the scones were small hard squares and did not feel freshly baked. A few times the dish description on the dish label was wrong. e.g. Salmon and cream cheese sandwich described as Salmon and Avocado. We tried to explain to one of the chefs that it was wrong, but he started going on about how they take allergies seriously and they could give us anything we wanted. We eventually found one of the Butlers and explained the label was wrong. The Butlers You are supposed to get a dedicated butler. Not the case. There are several Butlers on the floor who can assist, but not a dedicated one like we have had at other hotels. The pool and beach Plenty of beds during our stay. There does not seem as much interaction between the beach / pool staff vs other hotels. If they see you moving your umbrella they will come. They would lay out towels and set up cabanas for some, but not for the majority. Thet would set up ice buckets with water but had to ask vs them automatically bringing it like other hotels. I went to the bar to ask for water 1 day. 4 staff were huddled together looking at their phones with no clue I was standing waiting. I has to attract their attention and ask for the water. The pool was supposed to be 30 degrees. It was cooler, but not too cold to swim. Some of the facilities are dated and broken. One of the two toilets near the swim up bar the left toilet is constantly flushing and the flush mechanism is hangging off the wall. You would think the maintenance manager would be inspecting his area and fixing it. The swim up bar is OK. But people can vape or smoke which is off-putting.There was also a group who had set their own music speaker up by the side of the hot tub trying to drown out the bar music. We had a couple of drinks there during our stay. A beer was 49 AED and a cocktail 69 AED About £24 The pub does a happy hour in the evening. I would imagine it would be half the above price for the above drinks. Restaurants On Half Board we could eat in the Lebanese and Marcos Italian with a set 3 course menu, a soft drink and water or use the buffet. You could also get a 140 Dhiram pp allowance off food in Marcos steakhouse or the pub. We ate in Marcos 3 times, the Lebanese once and the buffet twice. All the food was nice. In the Lebanese you get 2 starters. We were ploughing through them when the waiter tried to bring my main course. We said we were not ready. A few minutes later he tried again. We ended up calling the manager who was very nice. He bought some mint tea and baklava extra during the dessert. The staff also brought a cake and sang happy birthday to me and to others celebrating their birthdays. Again smoking is allowed inside, so we moved table away from a group of smokers. Marcos was also very nice. We sat outside and there was a pianist on two nights. Buffet There were no prawns left our first night, the chef brought some more out for me. Plenty of choice for both breakfast and evening. They don't seem to have Chips/French fries on display, but you just order some via the staff and they bring them. All of the restaurants were enjoyable. Overall It was a decent stay, I got birthday cake brought to our room on my birthday. We thanked Paolo for his help on our final night and as we headed back towards the room to head for dinner, he and a few of the lounge staff brought us a Bon Voyage cake and wished us well, which was a nice touch. The initial issue with the room took the edge off it The Gold Lounge is not as slick or well organised as other hotels in the region. Areas of the hotel need fixing and the beach staff are not as attentive as other hotels. The staff are all nice. But it is not a 5 rating from us. It lacked the wow factor. That said it was a solid stay.

We visited the Fairmont at the beginning of November For my Birthday. The stay was faultless, from checking in to leaving. A special mention for Stephen and his team on the Gold floor who went above and beyond in looking after us. It's the little touches that count! This was our 4th visit to the hotel and we'll be back next year too.

We stayed in a Gold Room on the 7th Floor and recommend this choice. It meant we had peaceful breakfasts with views over to the Grand Mosque instead of going down to the busy restaurant on the lower level. Happy Hour drinks 5-7pm included free with tasty snacks also available 1-3pm. The staff on Floor 7 were very professional and we would like to particularly name Alfam and Christian for their excellent service. The room was a good size, comfortable bed, with an excellent shower. The young man who cleaned our room cleaned well but was a bit hit and miss about refreshing towels. The pool staff were excellent and looked after us very well - positioning umbrellas to block and allow the sun as required. We swam each day and my husband used the gym most days. Taxis are plentiful and cheap. The Grand Mosque was fantastic and The Louvre fascinating - the Mamluk exhibition was so interesting. I enjoyed the gold coffee experience at The Emirates Palace and watching the sun go down on Saadiyat Beach. We didn't visit Ferrari World because they were getting ready for the upcoming Grand Prix. Plenty to do next time when, hopefully, the Guggenheim will be also be open. Daily temperature 29-30 degrees, no rain and no mozzies. Perfect.