I stayed at The Sheraton on my way back from Oz. Everything was wonderful about the hotel. Check in was smooth even at two in teh morning and I was upgraded to teh club floor. They have a happy hour from 6-8pm on this floor which feeds you lots of food and booze (if you like that type of thing).

Room was wonderful and the poolside meals were unbelievably cheap. A must.

This hotel's beach is under what appears to be a motorway. The water is full of cigarette buts, the service is terrible, full of low rent expats swanning around 'lording it up'. The russian prostitutes are evident in ever increasing numbers having migrated from Dubai for richer pickings one assumes. Will we return? Uh no No NO!

Date : April 19th 2008
Reviewer : Andy from Scotland.
Stayed from March 31st -April 8th.

My wife and myself decided to give Abu Dhabi a try for a holiday having already visited Dubai.
Holiday started rather badly with our luggage left in Heathrow and us in Abu Dhabi (nothing new there then!) Concierge at hotel was excellent in dealing with the problem and luggage arrived next day.
Booked a room on the exec floor but was given a room on a lower level,informed both were identical anyway, so why advertise exec rooms?
Rooms are a tad on the small side but are very well appointed with an excellent bathroom and shower. Room balconies are tiny and are a total waste of time, not even space for one chair.
Staff are exceptional and cannot do enough for you, particularly the concierge and the guys at the hotel beach.
Tried a few of the restaurants at the hotel and found the food very good at the Italian and the Mexican, the Tapas restaurant left a lot to be desired especially if you have ever had a holiday in Spain, can only compare the paella to Uncle Bens boil in the bag rice!!!
The pool, gardens and beach area are very nice with plenty of sunbeds, umbrellas etc. contrary to other reviews we found the beach service very good and had to wait no longer than 10 mins for our food and drinks. There is some building work around the pool area which does become noisy and tiresome at times but at least you cannot hear it in your room.
Best restaurant we found was Trader Vic's at the Beach Rotana, food to die for.
Visited the exec club lounge but found it rather small, hotel then deemed that all club guests could use cloud nine bar as there was more space, this turned out to be good idea and it became pleasant to spend a couple of hours drinking free wine and munching snacks prior to going out for the evening.
Being on holiday we found it rather strange to see so many business people wandering around the hotel, they were all in a hurry to get somewhere with constant referral to watches and mobile phones, god forbid you happened to get in their way as you were quickly hussled sideways amid much sighing and moaning about tourists.
All in all this is very nice hotel with pleasant staff, but I felt it was more suited to business personnel than the tourist fraternity.
Maybe in a few years it will match up to some of the Jumeraih Beach hotels in Dubai, but I don't think I will be holding my breath.

We switched to this hotel because of good corporate rates and we were not disappointed!

On the outward journey, we arrived very early in the morning and were offered a room pretty quickly, just having time to avail of the sumptuous buffet breakfast. On the return, we arrived very late and there again the extra bed was brought and made quite promptly.

We found the staff extremely professional and pleasant at all times and they made our 4-year old daughter feel really special.

We made the most of the pools (heated), small playground and other amenities. The lagoon was closed off until further notice due to construction work nearby.

We also had an enjoyable Mother's Day dinner in La Mamma's, the Italian restaurant attached to the hotel.