I can't say I know anybody who doesn't experience an almost childlike enjoyment of five-star hotels. With their cloud-like beds, extra-fluffy towels, luxury toiletries, spas, fancy gyms and exceedingly polite staff who speak in hushed tones, what's not to like?
It was a gruelling journey into Abu Dhabi's city centre amid gridlocked traffic and the incessant blasts of car horns, and the calm that greeted my companion and me at Grand Millennium Al Wahda was a welcome respite.
It quickly become clear why the almost 850-room hotel — the largest in the emirate — was situated smack bang in the centre of town; to cater mainly to business travellers who need some downtime.
Conveniently located on Hazza Bin Zayed Street, just off Airport Road, the venue will also host business conferences and has complimentary business facilities that include secretarial services, computer, fax and photocopy services, satellite TV, private offices, meeting rooms, wireless internet, audio-visual equipment, and translation and interpretation services. In addition, the hotel rooms are equipped with free wireless internet and you can also surf the internet using your television screen.
The hotel is exactly the kind of sanctum business people would look forward to after a day of wheeling and dealing. And for those who enjoy retail therapy, the hotel is conveniently attached to the Al Wahda Mall.
The 1.5-million-square-foot Al Wahda Mall features more than 138 stores offering electronic goods, fashion garments and accessories, home decor, jewellery, health goods and cosmetics, besides a hypermarket.
After check-in, we looked around the hotel lobby, which had a muted decor, with splashes of maroon and brown. After a quick survey of our premium rooms — soothing beiges, browns and greens — we eagerly made a beeline for the Zayna day spa for men and women.
Here guests can enjoy a range of treatments from five-hour deluxe packages — with essential oils, body polish, Moroccan mud wrap and facial — to specific skin, massage and hydrotherapy treatments.
We opted for the hot-stone massage and the therapist was incredibly deft at ironing out all the kinks in our tense shoulders and backs.
The hotel has seven themed bars and restaurants serving Asian, Italian and other international cuisines.
We sampled dishes from Toshi, which is the hotel's signature Asian Restaurant offering a taste of Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and China, and Portobello — it includes dishes from all over Italy. While the food — especially the smoked duck risotto with mushrooms, foie gras and truffle oil and the grilled black cod at Portobello — was scrumptious, the staff were not very knowledgeable about the dishes the restaurants served. Nevertheless, the hotel's restaurants are already popular with local residents who were seen with their families enjoying al fresco dining.
The hotel's steakhouse, Porterhouse, was not open when we went there but listening to the restaurant's band practising, it could very well be the next fun, foot-stomping hotspot in the capital.
So whether you're a harried business traveller, an avid shopper needing somewhere to stop over or a UAE resident wanting to try something new, the colossal Grand Millennium Al Wahda has enough on offer to meet your needs.
