The Desert Diva The Radisson Blu Fujairah is an amazing resort in a stunning seaside setting. Every room in the hotel has a balcony overlooking the Gulf of Oman; you can see over the hotel’s private beach in the foreground to Snoopy Island a couple of kilometres away and further out to sea, you might spot merchant vessels heading to the Strait of Hormuz, less than 100kms distant.
The hotel reception was very busy when we arrived on a Saturday around 1.30pm, the queues at the desk were mainly comprised of Dubai based expats checking out at the end of their weekend. Despite being very busy we found the staff very friendly and the check in formalities were completed very promptly.
Having booked a standard room, we were delighted to be upgraded to an extremely spacious one bedroom suite – the floor area is larger than our three bedroom villa in Al Ain! The suite was spotlessly clean and well furnished and would be ideal if you were visiting the area with a small group and needed some private space to relax and have dinner from the extensive in-room dining menu and is well worth the extra cost. The bed was extremely comfortable and the a/c easy to control. There was adequate lighting in the room and we appreciated the dimmer switches on the bedside lights, an unusual feature in hotel rooms in the Middle East. We could hear the waves lapping on the beach and would have liked to leave the balcony doors open, but this was not possible due to the high humidity.
Mind you, one does not visit this hotel to stay inside – its beachside location makes it perfect for a relaxing holiday with as much time spent outdoors as possible. It boasts five swimming pools each with different features and design and provides safe swimming for all the family, and we found these clean and well maintained.
The long sandy beach is raked and leveled each morning, meaning it was extremely clean. There are plenty of sunbeds and parasols, yet not so many that the beach looks overcrowded, as is the case with many seaside hotels. An onsite activities and dive centre offers snorkelling/diving and watersports but if you prefer to stay at the hotel there is a volleyball net set up as well as a crazy golf course. We really liked the “towel cards” we were issued with at check-in; these were used as deposits for free towel hire and ensured that guests leaving the swimming pools or the beach for the day handed back their towels, meaning that unoccupied sunbeds were easy to spot.
Out of the three on-site restaurants we chose the main one, Breeze, for dinner, breakfast and lunch. The hotel can hold over 500 guests so the restaurant has a high capacity but, due to its clever design it does not feel like a school dining hall.
Breeze offers a la carte as well as an international buffet and we settled on the former; and my Australian Angus steak medallion was cooked to perfection (medium) with a tasty mushroom sauce and vegetables of my choosing. Due to our location Neil felt compelled to choose seafood and his lobster ravioli was light and very tasty. Thankfully we had passed on the starters to ensure we were able for desert especially since tiramisu and mango panacotta were offered on the buffet. The bill for our meal, including a bottle of grape beverage was 450aed including taxes which we thought very reasonable for the quality of fare.
Breakfast saw us returning to Breeze and we were very impressed with the selection. From cereals to yoghurts, cold cuts to hummus and Turkish Cheese we were spoiled for choice, not forgetting the juice bar with 5 kinds of juice plus a strawberry smoothie available. Those preferring a hot cooked breakfast were not disappointed either as all the usual choices, supplemented by an “egg station” made sure nobody started their day hungry!
Our final visit to Breeze was for lunch where we were both served delicious Arabic style lentil soup, which I followed by the most wonderful creme brulee, most artistically presented; Neil chose the homemade icecream .
The staff at the hotel were friendly, well trained and dedicated and this elevated a very good hotel to “great.”
We have had hotel based stays at five different hotels in this area over the years, the Radisson Blu resort was our sixth and undoubtedly was the best. We requested a late checkout and when asked “when would you like to check out” Neil’s instant reply was “November please!” We will be back!!!
How to reach there
You can find the Radisson Blu Resort around 8 kilometres from the centre of Dibba at co-ords N25 36.012 E56 20.397.
It took us just over two and a half hours to drive there from our home in Al Ain, a distance of 220kms.