If you plan to disconnect from the fast life of Dubai then Tilal Liwa Hotel should be a good choice to slow down and spend quality time in the desert(Al Khali Desert) with your loved ones. Your journey to the hotel from Dubai is far enough and at one point your company around are just sand dunes and camels. A point comes where you find no petrol stations and you hope your petrol never gets over before you find the next one. Thanks to google maps I was able to locate the hotel easily.
Along the way to Tilal Liwa hotel eveything you see around looks dead but once you reach inside Tilal Liwa Hotel there is a big sigh of relief. The views from the rooms are outward facing the dunes of the Rub Al Khali desert or inwards looking at the center courtyard of the hotel facing their signature pool and garden. The interior design of the hotel is very much themed Arabic and feels like a home in the desert. Their swimming pool is long and front facing the desert. So you have this beautiful panaromic view of the sand dunes while you are in the pool. I could just be at the tip of this pool and stare at the majestic views of the beautiful sand art of nature.
Tilal Liwa hotel usually has a starting price from Dhs 649 for their rooms. We had two rooms attached together. Our views were facing the pool. Every room had nice leather chairs with typical Arabic carpets found on the floor. The only disappointing factor is you need to ensure you remember to bring all your charging ports as they don’t have the modern usb power ports.They also don’t offer leading newspapers such as Gulf News and Khaleej Times. I guess being far away in the desert has its limitations.
Our balcony was nice but the only threat were the birds. It’s a lovely scene in the mornings with lot of birds lined up together on the terrace of your balcony but at the same time you need to pray they don’t poop all over your balcony. Good to see they use Villeroy and Boch products in the bathroom 🙂
Tilal Liwa hotel has lot of complimentary activities suited for all ages. This is one of the best part of this hotel. No additional charge for these activities and you enjoy them in full swing. Imagine playing billiards with a superb view of the desert. Table tennis, foosball, giant chess. The real beauty was the little kids play area. A lovely tent filled with loads of toys to keep them busy. The first time I pulled out my son from here, it was an endless cry from him.
Dhafra Oasis is a pleasant setup of a typical oasis gathering with flowing water and Palm trees perfectly suited for private functions. You can have barbeque get-together and that’s what we had. They could arrange a special setup just for a couple even. Recently while I was here there was a proposal that just happened at a private space in Al Dhafra Oasis. Look down the pictures to see what Dhafra Oasis had to offer us during dinner.
You can always customize the menu for your event at Al Dhafra Oasis. For us it was Grilled meat like Jumbo prawns, steaks, lamb chops etc. along with hot and cold mezzeh. The night was cold but there was bon fire in the middle to keep us warm. The only issue we faced was the lighting. There wasn’t good enough light to see my overloaded plate of food clearly. The BBQ experience was fantastic and the jumbo grilled meats were a treat to cherish in the cold desert.
The desert Safari is an exciting activity in the sand dunes. We had a private 4X4 vehicle waiting for us who picked us from the hotel into the thick sand dunes of Rub Al Khali Desert. We were driving in the vicinity of the hotel itself, we really didn’t have to drive far to find a desert as Tilal Liwa Hotel was already located deep in the desert. The sand was clean and beautiful. The driver was an expert of dune bashing so we had a great experience climbing the sand dunes with the SUV and gliding down the mega sized dunes.
The hotel provides complimentary cycle for all ages. We picked the cycles of our size and started exploring the desert through the quiet road. It definitely was an experience and the climate being cool just made it even better.
This time for a change we didn’t join the usual breakfast buffet served in the all day dining restaurant. Instead we experienced the in room breakfast. Basically we gave our order in the night by marking our breakfast selections on the menu and hanging our breakfast order on the door at night. In the morning our breakfast was delivered at exact time which came in two round tables. You have four choices for breakfast which is American, light&healthy, Tilal Liwa signature or continental breakfast. The breakfast is ensured to come hot as under the table the hot plates are closed in hot containers. The nice part of having breakfast in your own room is that you never have to rush to beat the breakfast time and you could have it slowly and peacefully. Kids can wake up at their own time. Perfectly comfortable.
The hotel has a gymnasium which includes sauna and steam bath. A volley ball court. I remember during our lunch at Al Badiya restaurant the giant pieces being broken down by naughty kids. I guess now that’s history.
The private quad bike safari is a joy here. I’ve been to quad bikes safaris’ before but this one was the safest by far. You don’t have too many quad bikes around you to cause you any accident. It’s a massive desert for you to explore on your quad bike. Different sizes of sand dunes which you can happily drive along. The quad bikes is charged dhs 150 for every half an hour. But to be honest half an hour is a lot of time.
These cabanas are a nice spot to relax and specially when it rained it was a beautiful scene with rain all around the cabana but we were safely enjoying the weather inside the cabanas in the open.
With this comes an end to our stay at Tilal Liwa hotel. The desert experience has been very satisfying. By the way they also have conference room, ballrooms, meeting rooms, presentation rooms so this can also be picked as an Ideal location for business activities. Even staff team building would not be a bad idea here. You can have a look at some of their rooms as below.
Click here to visit their official webpage. click below to see pictures in full screen view:
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