During the August holidays, we spent a week at the Mirimar Al Aqah resort. It was a really great holiday. The staff are friendly & polite with a sense of humour. The grounds although still young, a very pretty. The pool area was always clean, as was the pool, with ample loungers, towels & shade. There is a lifeguard on duty during the day at the pool as well as on the beach. Refreshments are easy to get, as there are always waiters milling about.
The rooms are comfortable and well furnished with ample wardrobe space and good sized bathrooms. Mini bar, safe, tv are all standard. A can of coke out the mini bar will cost 16 dirhams (just over £2), which is expensive, considering that it is 22 dirhams (just over £3) for a case of 24 in the supermarket. If you buy a can of coke from the bar it will cost you 14 dirhams (about £2).
The heat can be intense, if one is not used to it. If heat & sun isn't your thing, then this isn't the place for you. It is impossible not to have the aircon on & if you step outside with your sunglasses on they will steam up. It takes about a minute for them to aclimatise.
Fujairah, is 150km from Dubai. By car the trip is about 1 1/2 hours, by coach it can be as much as 3 hours.
The hotel itself isn't near anything as such, even the city of Fujairah as a good 45 minutes by coach. So, if you are wanting a holiday full of shopping then this is not the place for you. However, if you just want to relax, lie by the pool or on the beach with lots of sunshine, then this is a great place for that.
Evening entertainment is available, there is usually some active in the lobby bar.The night club, Bliss, is open every evening from 10pm onwards, apart from Mondays.
There is also a kids club, but there weren't that many small kids at the time of our stay. Older kids were kept busy by Maria & Joel, the animators.
The majority of guests were from mainland Europe, particularly Germany, so the Hotel is geared more for them then the English. Saying that, all the staff we spoke to, could speak English, not always fluently, but good enough. Beans on toast, eggs, etc, was always available for breakfast, as was sausages, pancakes, waffles etc. Dinner usually had a theme, but normal conventional dishes were always available. We stayed half board, which as per usual is breakfast & dinner. We usually had lunch at the pool bar, which was Italian. However, things like chicken nuggets or just a plate of chips (they call it french fries) is available.
There is a small shopping center in the resort, which includes a hairdresser, so if you need a haircut it's on you're doorstep. There is a jewellers, a smart clothing shop, beach wear shop, just to name a few. However, they are a bit pricey.
Currently there are no watersports (windsurfing, jet skies, skiing, etc). But apparently there are plans for a watersport centre to go up next to the hotel.
The resort also becomes busier from Thursdays to Saturdays as a lot of the locals come down for their weekend from Dubai because Fujairah is a bit cooler then Dubai. The staff didn't appear to have any problems coping with the influx of guests.
All in all, it was a good holiday & we had a great time. Found no faults & nothing to complain about. But I do believe that there were some guest who had some complaints. To be fair, there will always be complaints where ever one goes.