Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi ( pulled from Le Meridian)

Reason for Choosing

My wife and I stayed at the Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi in November, 2013 on our way back from the Seychelles. We only had 8 hours, so we wanted to stay “close” to the airport. Ultimately we chose the hotel primarily because we found a cheap cash and points SPG rate.

Airport to hotel map

Lobby and Check-in/Check-out Experience

The lobby — unique. To say that arriving after midnight to the hotel was an experience would be an understatement. It really felt like we were arriving to a nightclub (including the clientele). The front desk area is set to the right of the entrance, and feels almost claustrophobic compared to how big the lobby looks. Check-in and Check-out were both fairly prompt.

Where the hotel stood out

It’s really hard to identify much for a hotel when you spend less than 8 hours in it. I will say that I had excellent sleep. I felt the bed was very comfortable. This was also one of the few places where I’ve been woken up at 5am hearing the adhān. I found this interesting, mostly because of my interest in other cultures.

Room

Bathroom

Where the hotel fell a little short

The hotel didn’t really have time to fall short, aside from the feeling like we were walking into a nightclub, rather than a hotel. We’re not nightclub people, so we felt a bit awkward, especially with me in my aloha shirt (what, we had just been in the Seychelles!).

Wrapping Up

We’ve been back to Abu Dhabi once more (and a few times to Dubai), I don’t really have any draw back to this hotel. I don’t think it was a bad hotel, in fact, it was more than sufficient for our time there, but there is nothing spectacular, at least that we experienced.