Al Maha Review – A Luxury Collection Property

If you have Marriott Bonvoy points, immediately add Al Maha to your bucket list. It’s a part of their Luxury Collection and you will not only wine, dine, climb sand dunes, and watch birds of prey eat raw meat and soar inches from your head, but days later you’ll find sand in places you didn’t know exist. It’s hand’s down one of the best ways you can use your Marriott points from a value and experience perspective.

I may have had to change may short after this picture.

It’s located roughly an hour outside Dubai and my wife and I chose to spend one night there celebrating, and we loved every minute of it. We redeemed 94k Marriott Bonvoy points when prices were roughly $1200 a night so we got somewhere around 1.3 to 1.4c per Marriott Bonvoy Point which is significantly above the 7/10 to 8/10 a cent I’d peg them at.

Note that the 85k free night award certificates that you receive from the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant and Ritz Carlton Card could be used here since you can add up to 15k points to them. A wonderful redemption should you make it.

 

As any Marriott Bonvoy member, you know full well that it’s often hard to extract insane value from them. The program has some incredible aspirational redemptions like St Regis Maldives, St Regis Bora Bora, JW Marriott Masai Mara, and Al Maha. These are properties that can often cost between $1k and $3k a night!

Al Maha is all inclusive, offers 2 guests not only full board, but the selection of two activities while on property. There are additional excursions that you can indulge in like spa treatments and off road adventures, but those will cost you extra.

Let’s take a look at Al Maha!

The entrance gates in the middle of the desert!

Trip Details:

• When: September 2023
• Where: United Arab Emirates
• Rate: 94k Marriott Bonvoy Points
• What’s Included
  • 3 meals per day, per person ( 2 people max )
  • 2 activites per day
    • Sundowners ( camel ride included if you want )
    • Falconry
    • More listed below

Booking

You’ll find the best rates and deals at Al Maha when it’s hotter than Satan’s armpit in the UAE and the most expensive rates in the Northern Hemispheres winter. It was over 100F in the afternoon when we visited, around 90 at night, but honestly didn’t mind it too much.

Personally, I’d say 2 nights is more than enough. Both my wife and I could have stayed another night, but felt perfectly satiated just spending a single night at Al Maha

Getting There

You could quite easily rent a car in Dubai and drive out. I imagined it would be siginificantly harder to get there and booked us a car service through the hotel in both directions. If I were to go again, I’d likely just rent a car and drive myself ( there is parking and plenty of signage ).

The Pricing of the vehicles:

Arrival

Since we booked a car service from the Park Hyatt Dubai we were greeted upon arrival by the staff and escorted promptly to a waiting area. We arrived at roughly 2pm.

Al Maha is located in a protected reserve where wildlife abound ( you can even see the mountains of Oman in the distance from certain vantage points ) and we were told that they had stopped serving lunch in the main restaurant but could accommodate lunch in our villa should we want to have it.  Ummmm yes, please!

After a quick welcome drink, we were put in a golf cart and whisked off to our villa.

Al Maha Common Spaces

The Gallery

located just off the main lobby area was filled with historic art and literature on the region.

The Bar

There are snacks setup here throughout the day and there is a very nice bar setup at night. If it’s not too hot, and especially in the morning for sunrise, it’s a great place to sit outside and observe the area.

The Business Center

If you’re looking to have a quick meeting, print something, etc you can do it here; however, I spent no time here at all, only snapped a quick pic.

The villa

How is this a Marriott?! Points will never cease to amaze me, and accessing places like this is a mind bending experience.

The Entrance

Immediately upon entering, on your right, you’ll find bottled water, coffee, and a mini bar. The non-alcoholic items are included in your vila price, but the other beverages are charged.

Bedroom

The villa, while a bit older, is in fantastic shape, and the view from the bed or sitting area is out over your private plunge pool to the dunes.

As soon as we were settled and our bags delivered we ordered room service and had an absolute feast – yes, all included!

The large cabinet stores the safe, robes, tv, etc

Bathroom

The bathroom had dual vanities, a separate bathtub, and shower.

The vibe was exactly on point with the property – safari meets desert meets luxury. Below you can see the amenities provided – this is what sets 5 star properties, especially in the Middle East and Asia, apart from 4 star.

Pool

We had a quick dip in the pool where we saw the camels being brough in for rides, and then called down for a golf cart to take us to the main building where we’d head out for sundowners. You can see in the bottom left of this photo that an animal had wandered into frame. It’s a true luxury to have a private plunge pool right outside your backdoor.

Activities

The two activities that we chose to partake in were sundowners and falconry. We would have probably opted for archery had we had more time, but we loved the two activities that we experienced and figured we could probably do archery back home in Georgia.

Sundowners:

You can out in a Land Cruiser, or as many did, take a camel ride out. It’s a roughly 15 min drive, and likely 45 min+ camel ride once you include the getting on/off the camels that many say is quite uncomfortable lol to a beautiful setup in the middle of the desert to watch the sun go down. We arrived, and within seconds were handed a glass of champagne, or juice, soda, whatever you’d like + they have little snacks to eat as well. It was a gorgeous experience that I’d highly recommend.

Falconry

I have ALWAYS wanted to do this…I dunno, something about having a bird of prey land on my arm, potentially look death in the face, has appealed to my more visceral self.

It did not disappoint.

Various staff members have a bird that they work with, some for weeks, some for months. They train it, and bring it out to show you what it can do. Don’t miss this if you visit, it’s truly something that you’ll never forget.

Dune Rides

One additional fee excursion that I really wanted to try out was hopping in a roll caged Land Cruiser and seeing what those bad boys can really do. We whipped, dipped, got stuck, unstuck, and even got out and hiked some of the dunes. It was worth the price of admission since you got to not only see what those vehicles can do, but I personally love pumping my adrenaline. Be prepared…it gets REAL bumpy.

Food:

The food delivered to the room was an absolute feast. I mean look at how much they sent to us for a casual afternoon meal.

Was it the best I’ve ever had? No.

The dining room is quite formal, as in I would dress up, which is different from other safari styled properties I’ve had the pleasure of dining at around the world. The staff pride themselves on providing very attentive service with a smile. Sadly, I found the food to be a bit on the dry side, not bad by any means, but not extraordinary.

Dinner

Note we did have to pay extra for mocktails and cocktails

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Breakfast

There is a buffet as well as a la carte options to choose from…all included, unless you order something alcoholic, or speciality.

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The Spa

The spa is located in its own facility away from the main building and features a plunge pool, multiple treatment rooms, and a pool that anyone can use throughout the day. Our villa was a short walk from here.

Spa treatment room

Spa Pool

We didn’t make use of this pool, but it looked very nice!

The Gym

The only time I spent in the gym was to take a quick picture, but was bright, however had very few pieces of equipment. I can’t imagine too many people make use of this during their stay.

Overall:

I’d visit again in a heartbeat. Would I pay $1000+ a night? It’s a property, especially considering all the extras included, that is an experience, and the price seems about right compared to other commensurate properties around the world. For me personally, having experienced, wouldn’t drop a grand. Is it worth 100k Marriott Bonvoy points, give or take, yes, yes it is, and I’d spend it again.