We stayed in Danat for one week, mid January. Our stay was a part of a vacation package (flights/hotel) with all inclusive option. The review is written from this perspective.
The hotel is placed in Abu Dhabi Emirate, 250km from Abu Dhabi Airport, to the west, toward Saudi border. So it took little over two hours on minivan. The transfer was smooth, driver was waiting for us where he should. The minivan could be a little bigger though – it was a six persons capacity, and to accommodate four guests plus the luggage and the driver, some suitcases ended on back seat, next to a person – perhaps not the safest solution. Hotel is nicely placed over a private beach, in fact there are two hotels managed by same company, side by side, so exclusive beach has about one km. It is clean fine sand and the hotel staff takes good care of it. Hotel area consists of nice, well maintained garden, with two tennis courts, children playground, pool for adults and pool for kids. Water in pools was heated, which was very good for January outside temperatures (around 23 deg C in shadow). Some reviews were mentioning presence of big oil refinery in the area. Yes it is true, but it is some kilometres away,and in fact does not have any negative influence on quality of time spend in Danat. For us, at least ,it did not matter, no smell,no noise, just visible on the horizon to the east.
Food for all inclusive guests covered three meals in buffet restaurant (Tides). We were previously several times on vacation with all inclusive package, and in Danat the food was the best. There was great variety of dishes to chose: European, Arab, Indian, Chinese,etc. My wife is vegetarian, and she was always satisfied with the selection. One tip: do not go for option with a-la-carte Italian restaurant. As all-inclusive guest, you would get allowance of 100DH per person, and if you want to have a decent meal with wine, you need to double the amount (at least). We were there once and it was not really worth spending extra money. The service in Tides (our normal buffet) restaurant was really exceptional. Crew of young waiters and waitresses was never late with change of cutlery or topping up a wine glass. Speaking about drinks: all inclusive package was giving us an option of house wines, beers and other beverages, but all of them was good quality and we never really had to go outside the all-inclusive choice. The buffet included sushi, good deserts, very wide selection of salads etc. So even though the food was served in form of buffet, due to high quality of food and service, the touch of luxury was still there. Luxury is actually present in the whole hotel. The gym is very well equipped, you have steam bath and sauna, squash, tennis, all within all-inclusive. A tip for using the gym: it can be crowded during evenings because people from outside hotel use it (mostly Europeans working for local oil companies).
Service by the pool and on the beach was also very good. Always plenty of sun beds to chose from. The staff always smiling and helpful. Sun umbrellas were equipped with push-buttons for calling a waiter and we got assistance within seconds.
The hotel is also used for conferences, there were many guests clearly visiting the hotel as part of business trips. The clientèle is really cosmopolitan, guests of various nations and cultures were there and we found it as a big plus.
We had basic room, but it was spacious, clean and with decent furniture. Flat screen TV with many channels. Bathroom as well had all what you might expect in fife stars.
On our way back to airport, the hotel provided big Lexus with a driver, just for me and my wife,so it compensated for inconvenience of to small vehicle on the way in.
Danat is really luxurious hotel, expensive, but if you are with all-inclusive, it is a true bargain. We never had better value for money. We definitely recommend this hotel with all-inclusive option. It would be really nice to go back there again.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
