Bab Al Shams reveals herself slowly, her sandstone exterior—an ode to traditional Emirati forts—half-hidden by spindly date palms and sand dunes. In a city that so often leans into excess, the grande dame of Dubai’s desert resorts works her magic with restraint. This is the place we come to get away from it all—the resort’s much-photographed infinity pool, which drops off into a vast sandy expanse in a paradox of elemental opposites, is the draw for many. For me, it’s the quiet, which is all-enveloping and absolute. The resort comes into its own as the sun sets, the silhouettes of sand dunes framed in pinks and mauves, bamboo torches flickering along the perimeter, and lanterns creating a play of light and shadow in outdoor passageways.
Fresh off a 10-month, no-holds-barred renovation, with new bragging rights as the first property in the Rare Finds Hotels & Resorts collection by the Kerzner group (Atlantis, One&Only). The exterior remains largely unchanged, but interiors have been transformed by a deft hand, the gilded ornamentalism that characterizes the country’s Arabesque-inspired resorts forsaken for a lighter touch. In my terrace garden room, instead of dark woods and heavy upholstery, nods to tradition come in delicate mother-of-pearl detailing on arched mirrors, brass studs on cupboard doors, and majlis-style seating in a corner nook. Teal accents flit from headboards and furniture piping to diamond-shaped mosaic tiles in the rain shower.
The hotel is unassuming, but not devoid of spectacle. At Al Hadheerah, a colossal open-air restaurant, nightly performances accompany the Arabian classic dishes: a belly dancer, whirling dervish, musicians, singers and even a re-enactment of a Bedouin caravan with camels and horses crisscrossing a bordering desert plateau. More sedate meals are served at the Mediterranean-inspired Zala or Pan-Asian Anwā, a prime sunset spot. —S.D.
