1) the view from our suite with its lovely plunge pool
After spending a few days in Dubai, we decided to wrap up the month touring with a three day visit to the stunning Al Maha. Al Maha is about an hour drive outside of Dubai set in United Arab Emirates first National Park, the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. It is tricky to get to so my advice would be to use the car service provided by the resort or have your driver call to get directions. After passing security at the entrance to the reserve you’ll drive over dunes amid oryx and gazelles for about 20 minutes before arriving at the resort and its 42 private suites, which are essentially permanent Bedouin tents each with its own plunge pool and complete with Bedouin artefacts. Everything is included at Al Maha: your room; three meals a day which can be taken at its lovely restaurant or brought up to your tent suite; and a choice of 2 desert activities each day of your stay. We opted for the sundown camel trek each night (which includes champagne) and the falconry display each morning, which was really neat.
Al Maha is opulence defined and is utterly worth a visit should you find yourself in Dubai. In fact, I’d urge a direct trip to the resort and skip Dubai city altogether. It is a perfect place to unwind, idle away hours reading or watching the wildlife poke around the watering hole or amid the resort pathways, and enjoy a spa or three. Service is discreet and exceptional and some guests even arrived by helicopter! Such is life in Dubai!
2) arriving at Al Maha
3) the lobby
4) here’s our wee home during our stay
5) complete with real keys
6) the lounge
7) the bathroom
8) the work area with all sorts of greetings from their team
9) fresh fruit awaited our arrival
10) as did fresh goodies (including those Bateel dates on top left side which are OMG fabulous
11) our room at night
12) and during the day
13) G enjoys lunch with a view
14) time for an evening skinny-dip?!
15) with clothes though in the daylight
16) champagne, but of course, pool side
17) here is the Indian spread the team brought to the tent one evening
18) what lovely moments at dawn
19) and the sun starting to peek up over the mountains
20) dawn!
21) in lower right is the falconry area
22) G heads down to watch the birds
23) three await
24) he looks hungry eh
25) caught this one in flight
26) so pretty!
27) here is one coming in for the lure which has a wee bit of quail on it (with feathers)
28) she got it!
29) she did too!
30) stunning!
31) gosh, no prey could survive those talons eh!
32) we got a chance to hold the birds too
33) G heads to the main pool
34) time for a swim
35) one of the many flowers in the compound
36) and here you can see a gazelle wandering right on the path we walked down to get to main lobby
37) and here is an Arabian oryx outside the front of our tent
38) the restaurant
39) served some damn fine food, for sure!
40) I had a salad
41) a camel trek heads out
42) meet my camel
43) I seem excited … this was my first camel ride ever
44) the camel cam!
45) we watched the sunset into the sand … it was SO magnificent
46) G with champagne enjoys the sunset on one of the evenings
47) so breath-taking
48) on our last evening (I love this photo)
AppsScraps 
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