One of the perks of being in Dubai is that you get to enjoy city life, beach life and desert life. Visitors want to see first hand how the desert is and I was one of them. There are a few luxury hotels in Dubai’s desert but we chose Al Maha Luxury Desert Resort by Marriott (@almaha_resort).
Al Maha is located in Dubai’s Desert Conservation Reserve, surrounded by beautiful sand dunes, desert flora and wildlife—and talking about wildlife deserts gazelles will be roaming around the property and your villa. The property has 42 villas with private pool overlooking the desert, it has full board and two activities per day are included.
Arriving to Al Maha Dubai Desert Resort
It takes about 1 hour drive to arrive from Dubai’s DIFC to the Al Maha desert resort. We booked an uber driver to get into the the resort and it was very convenient. Arriving to the hotel is a bit confusing, directions of where the main entrance for guests isn’t clearly stated. For that reason, our driver ended up in the hotel staff entrance road. Luckily, a girl who worked there as a guide offered to drive us to the hotel as our driver seemed lost and our car wouldn’t be able to drive through a very bumpy road. If you want to rent a car and drive to the resort, I would recommend a 4×4 type of car.
Check-in
Once we arrived to the property, we were greeted by hotel staff. They took us to a stunning private room next to the lobby, offered some drinks, did all the check-in formalities and explained to us everything we needed to know during your stay. We also checked all the activities we were going to do in the next few days. We stayed for 3 days and 2 nights and it was more than enough.
The Room
We stayed at the entry level room which is a one-bedroom, king-size bed—one of the most comfortable beds if slept in—a small living area and a terrace with a private pool. The villa felt spacious and loved that the roof was like a tent. It has the best of both worlds, the comfort of a proper villa and the ambiance of being in a bedouin tent. The interiors were nice, with wooden furniture and bedouin style decor. The bathroom was roomy and convinient as it had two sinks, a big bathtube and a shower. If Marriott refurbish this property and update it a little bit it would be the most perfect and wonderful place.
The terrace with the private pool was very practical, you can chill there when you don’t have any activities during the day and the pool was large enough to swim and cool from the heat. You have a dining area in your terrace too, perfect for morning breakfast. Since morning activities where early, I always had breakfast on the room so I could prepare myself for the day.
Sharing space with Gazelles
The magical thing about Al Maha Dubai desert resort is having the desert gazelles roaming around. They come to your villa to chill and stare. If you are afraid of this cute little animals, don’t be! They are a bit silly, easily scared and always keep a safe distance from humans. They’ll stare at you and at your food—if you leave food on the terrace, the minute you stand up they’ll try to eat the remains. Two gazelles even fought each other as they wanted the food, it was very funny.
Always keep your room closed, sometimes they got confident enough to stand near your door and you don’t want a desert gazelle snooping around your things. Other than that, you’re safe. Occassionally, you would spot some Onyx in the desert, but when I went they where all in care as they are in danger of extinction.
Food
Food in the resort was good but nothing exceptional. But keeping in mind that it was full board, it was good enough to enjoy it. Drinks are payed apart.
Activities at Al Maha Dubai Desert Resort
Two activities per day are included in your stay but you can pay for extra activities.
Sundowners
The first activity we did was sundowners— a vehicle drive through the desert to watch the sunset. You can do this by camel but since we have been in a camel before we weren’t in the mood. We shared the little car ride with another couple as they need to fill the spots in the car.
Once you get to the sunset spots, drinks are offered to you. I expected some champagne but they offered italian sparkling wine, water was my choice then. You stay for half an hour until the sun sets with other hotel guests, but you can easily find your spot away from people and enjoy the views. I recommend going with sandals so you can walk bare foot in the dunes as it is windy and your shoes will be covered with sand. It is also easier to walk through the sand with no shoes.
Falconry
The next activity we did was the Falconry. You need to wake up early, it starts at 7 am so desert hotness don’t boil you and the animals up. They teach you everything about traditional Arabic falconry.
It was very interesting and special, you witness how this animals are trained, how Bedouin use them for and how they hunt and eat their pray—they don’t use a living animal. I enjoyed watching this beautiful animals, quite impressive.
Desert Dunes Ride
The last activity we did was a paid activity, the desert 4×4 dunes ride. No, you don’t drive the car and if you are only a couple, chances of sharing the car are high, like we did. If you get car sick I would skip this activity or try sitting in the front seat if you really want to do it as it is very extreme. I would recommend skipping breakfast too, unless you want to throw up everything you ate. This activity lasts roughly 2 hours and most of it is done off road, over the dunes.
After a bumpy ride through the dunes you reach the top of the biggest dune that was 250 m tall. At the top, you get off the car and contemplate the breathtaking views of the desert. Kilometres of no ending sand dunes. We spotted some locals with their desert cars having fun in the dunes, so be cautious.
To get back to the hotel you’ll need to drive undo all the way and drive through the dunes again. We didn’t think twice when we booked it, it sounded cool and I enjoyed the experience but one in a lifetime is okay for me. Maybe if you get to drive the car is better.
Do I recommend it?
Absolutely, I would recommend staying at Al Maha in Dubai desert. I think it’s a very nice experience with the gazelles roaming around, learning about falconry and overlook the desert every morning when you wake up. Chilling by the pool was fantastic, after all the activities it’s nice to relax a bit.
Hotel staff and service was excellent, very caring and helpful at all times. I think 3 days are more than enough enjoy it all. We went in November, it was hot but not super hot, perfect weather.
