Holiday at the Mercure Grand hotel at Jebel Hafeet

Our friends recommended that we spend a day at the Mercure Grand Hotel at Jebel Hafeet. This is a five star resort about 30 km from  Al Ain in the mountains. The resort is located at an altitude of 1300 meters and a 17 km road winds up to the resort. The road is beautiful as it is cut through sheer rock.

The resort is one of the most beautiful I have seen and is nestled in the rocky mountains that tower over Al Ain. Incidentally Al Ain is 130 km from Abu Dhabi. We drove in our hired car and the drive was smooth and easy as touching 140-150 km is no big deal given the excellent road.

The resorthas a lovely temperature controlled swim pool and a café that looks down on Al Ain. It is an exclusive joint with a belly dancer performing in the bar till midnight. Two kilometers up the hill is the highest point in Abu Dhabi and one can sit there and relax. It’s very cold here in February and I wore a leather jacket.

We stayed only for a day, but it was wonderful. I however missed Indian food as that is not part of the menu