We will be staying at this hotel next month and wondered if anyone had any hints, tips or information to make our stay even more enjoyable?
Personally I loved it when I went in May, even though it was hitting 45 degrees. I went with 2 small-ish children, so not sure if that's your situation as well, but what we really enjoyed:
1) Aqua park - we were in there almost every day. The sheer scale of the lazy river is amazing.
2) Hopefully you're on a B&B deal, as that's the best value IMHO - Saffron for breakfast - it's fairly industrial in scale, but literally has every sort of food you'd want. There's even (real) bacon and sausages tucked away discreetly, but I tended to prefer the Indian/Chinese offerings
3) the bar/club at Nasimi Beach was good for post dinner drinks and chilling out - the kids were happy playing in the sand. One night, I think Thursdays, they have ladies nights which mean cheaper drinks for women, but only until about 10pm
4) Favourite restaurant - Seafire (for me, as I'm a carnivore - their steak is very good), Levantine (for the children who adored the belly dancer)
5) The beach itself is a little disappointing in that they clearly used sharp builders sand, so it's very gritty. But the water itself was like being in a bath. You can only swim in the bay facing inland, there's no beach on the sea facing side, it's just a barrier of rocks.
6) Dolphins - not that I have a lot of experience, but I'm told that it's a much better set up than in places like Florida, so if you are interested in that sort of thing, go for it. My kids loved it. You will get stung for photos though unless you pay to have someone sit on the side and take their own.
Assuming you're coming in on the VS flight, you'll have some time to kill until your room is ready, so dump your bags with the concierge and head to the pool. They come round fairly frequently handing out free ice lollies, so keep an eye out for them...
The other thing I found really good was that the time difference worked to our advantage - we got up around 10, had a late breakfast/early lunch, and then didn't need anything else till dinner. Not that I'm a cheapskate or anything, but the food is fairly expensive and it's easy to get a shock at the end of the week when you get your final bill.
Have fun.
