I want to go to Al Ain for two nights next week but all I can find are five-star hotels. I would prefer to stay at something that's comfortable but low-key and relaxed. Can you help?
Al Ain is home to a handful of hotels, half of which are in the luxury category. The other half include a few three-star resorts that attract visitors looking to explore the city's main sites while enjoying a quiet poolside break, and smaller hotels and serviced apartments, mostly in the city centre, targeted at business travellers.
City Seasons Hotel (www.cityseasonsgroup.com; 03 755 0220), located beside the Ruler's Diwan and close to the city centre, is a three-star business hotel with a roof-top swimming pool and massage rooms, plus a gym and sauna and free parking. Standard rooms have a bedroom, living area and a kitchenette with tea- and coffee-making facilities, and cost from Dh550 per night, including taxes. The front desk supplies tickets to Al Ain Zoo and Al Ain Oasis.
Al Massa Hotel Apartments (www.almasahotels.com; 03 761 8288) on Hamdan Bin Mohamad Street is a practical option located in the heart of the city and popular among business visitors, with simple rooms and an inexpensive restaurant. Double rooms cost from Dh400 per night, including taxes.
Opposite Safeer Mall on Al Masoody Street is the slightly more expensive Asfar Resort (www.asfarhotels.com; 03 762 8882), a four-star that offers rooms, suites and seven villas. The rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows and high-speed internet, and the restaurant has a live band playing most nights. A one-bedroom suite costs from Dh700, including breakfast and taxes.
The three-star Danat Hotel & Resort (www.danat.com; 03 704 6000) on Al Salam Street and five minutes from the city centre, offers large, comfortable rooms, three swimming pools and an in-house masseuse. A short drive away are the Al Ain Zoo and the National Museum. Double rooms costs from Dh400, including breakfast and taxes.
If you want to avoid the heat and dust of the city, head to Mercure Grand Jebel Hafeet (www.mercure.com; 03 783 8888), a resort at the top of a 915m mountain. The general atmosphere at this four-star "mountain oasis" is laid-back, and the rooms are airy and spacious, with views of Al Ain city hundreds of metres below. There are three temperature-controlled swimming pools, a sauna and steam room, and a fairly good restaurant and cafe. At the bottom of the mountain lies the "Green Mubazzarah", a collection of natural hot springs that are worth a visit; nearby is a man-made lake. Double rooms cost from about Dh500 per night, including breakfast and taxes.
Al Ain also has a "Couchsurfing community" - for details, visit www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=17600.
Do you have travel questions or queries? E-mail them to us at travel@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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