My last weekend trip in the United Arab Emirates was to Al Aqah Beach which is part of the Fujairah Emirate. The reason my friends and I picked this location for a weekend trip was not really because of the nice beaches and the gorgeous sea. We picked it because we heard about Snoopy Island! A rock in the sea which resembles the cartoon dog Snoopy.

Al Aqah

We had chosen Le Meridien in Al Aqah because of the gorgeously enticing pictures and reviews on various websites.

At first, I wanted to go to Sandy Beach Hotel & Resort because that’s where Snoopy Island is. The pictures persuaded me otherwise though and we all agreed on Le Meridien. I mean look at the view over the swimming pool!

The drive from Abu Dhabi was easy and most of the time you’re driving over highways. It took us around 4 hours, but with a bunch of girls in the car time passes quickly because you’re just chatting.

The hotel reception was super busy upon arrival around 1pm. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who thought of going to the hotel at that particular weekend. Not only that, we noticed straightaway that service wasn’t great and some areas in the hotel looked a bit dirty. Of course, we have been spoilt with impeccable service and cleanliness in hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi – especially since you pay a hefty price for hotel in the UAE. None of this could ruin our weekend away though.

The only thing which had the potential to ruin everything was the fact that it was hot and humid. 47 degrees Celsius with a humidity of 80% which put the real feel temperature to 54 degrees. The moment we arrived (our room wasn’t ready yet) we got undressed and made our way to and into the pool. We did attempt to enjoy the beach but with the weather being so hot, the sea was equally warm so there was no cooling down there.

The only way to cool down was inside the pool, and luckily for us there was also a bar.

The view to Snoopy Island was not as spectacular as we had thought. In the picture below you can see the view from the hotel beach. We could’ve booked a snorkelling tour (which is apparently really nice), but we didn’t manage to catch the service manager of the diving school to make the reservation. Also, an early morning start was not in our plans, so we decided to leave all possible trips and to just enjoy the cool water of the pool. Can you imagine kayaking for example in 54 degrees Celsius heat?

The surroundings of the hotel were nice, with some waterfalls and rivers all around the premises. What bothered me though was the animal cage which was tucked away. If guests don’t walk around like I did, no one will see the cage and the animals will just suffer in the heat. And actually now that I’m writing this rant, you can’t even see inside the cages because the way the gauze is installed.

We didn’t use the hotel’s restaurants because we had brought our own food and drinks, so apart from the drinks by the pool we had everything else on the balcony of one of our rooms. Due to a complaint we had raised about one of the guest beds not being ready (we found out when we went into the other room around 12am), the hotel offered us all free buffet breakfast. This was a really nice gesture and I can also recommend this breakfast! If you’re planning to visit the hotel it might be worth booking the breakfast.

The next day we did exactly the same as the first day. We chilled at the pool and then we left to the next Emirate Sharjah to have lunch at Khor Fakkan.

Khor Fakkan

The drive to Khor Fakkan was uneventful, apart from this sign on top of a hill there was not much else to see. Just a lot of small town we were driving through.

The town itself is known for its container terminal, so when you’re driving by the coast you can see a lot of industry.

We were lucky that one of my friends knew a restaurant there, because on Tripadvisor we couldn’t find anything remotely nice looking. Bab-Al-Bahr is a delicious sea food restaurant in Oceanic Hotel & Resort in Khor Fakkan.

The service was great, we were the only people there so they served us really fast and attentively. We ordered two sea food platters, so we had all kinds of fresh fish from the region. Finger-licking good, nothing makes a group of girls happier than completely de-boning a fresh fish.

Drive Back to Abu Dhabi

My favourite part of the two days, apart from spending time with the girls of course, was the fact that we were stuck in traffic in the middle of a desert on a two-lane highway. Apparently an accident had happened.

We were waiting around half an year until the first few cars started driving on the hard shoulder and a traffic jam appeared there as well. Then 4x4s started to race by us through the desert hills. We were laughing at how you can only see this in the UAE, but we would be laughing harder, because when the accident was cleared up (a car had completely burnt down, the passenger were sitting safely next to the car) and we drove by the accident site we saw 4×4 after 4×4 stuck on the desert sands. All the guys thinking they could beat traffic, actually got stuck themselves!

Conclusion

I’ve stated this many times and I can say it enough. The UAE is a great and beautiful country to travel through. There’s no need to stick to Dubai or even Abu Dhabi. The East Coast offers a beautiful ocean and nice beaches (don’t go in summer like I did). There’s so much more to explore in the region, and even though I’m not living there anymore I’m confident I’ll be back.