Rixos Saadiyat Island
An all-inclusive Saadiyat Island beach resort with Mediterranean-style sea-view villas, the 2,060-square-metre Ottoman-style Anjana Spa, and Italian cooking at L'Olivio.
Rixos Premium Saadiyat Island is the all-inclusive end of Abu Dhabi’s beach map, set on the long, soft-sand stretch of Saadiyat that the Emirate has chosen to keep relatively low-rise and ringed by the cultural island that already holds the Louvre Abu Dhabi and will soon hold the Guggenheim. The resort reads as a pastel-stuccoed Mediterranean village dropped onto Gulf sand: arcaded courtyards, planted Oriental Gardens, tinkling water features, and a row of sea-view villas with private pools that take the headline rate.
You stay here for the room and the routine. L’Olivio plates a confident Italian menu the kind of nonna would forgive; Mermaid runs Mediterranean seafood beside the sand; the world-cuisine buffet handles the family-friendly middle of every day. The wellness anchor is Anjana Spa, a 2,060-square-metre Ottoman-style spa with a traditional Turkish hammam, a marble gobektasi, cold-plunge tradition and a full bodywork menu. The kids’ programming is properly built out, which is the reason the property’s fans return: the children are entertained, the dinner reservation handles itself, and the afternoon belongs to a sunbed.
Saadiyat does useful work for a hotel this size. The island’s nesting hawksbill turtle population gives the protected beach more gravity than the average Gulf resort strip; the cultural quarter is a short, air-conditioned taxi ride; and the Corniche is the other direction when you want the city’s skyline view rather than its sand. Book Rixos Saadiyat for a week where dinner, beach, spa and children are all arranged on arrival. The all-inclusive promise here is genuinely the point, and the setting earns the format.
