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# Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah: Dubai Luxury, Half the Price
- URL: https://www.outoften.travel/waldorf-astoria-ras-al-khaimah-review/
- Published: 2019-10-30T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-08T06:38:18.000Z
- Description: A UAE winter-sun break that undercut a Canary Islands price and came in half the cost of Dubai.
- Author: Out of Ten
- Tags: Reviews, Stays, #Anonymous, Beach, Hotels, Resort, #review, #scorecard, UAE, #score-yes

### Out of Ten Verdict

7.8/10

YES 

A UAE winter-sun break that undercut a Canary Islands price and came in half the cost of Dubai.

Ras Al Khaimah, an hour up the coast from Dubai, was booked on a whim after the Canary Islands quoted £2,500 for flights and £4,500 for a five-star half-board week during October half term. The Waldorf Astoria RAK came in cheaper than both — for more luxury, more heat, and considerably less wind. We travelled as four: two adults and two children.

## The Verdict

Everything Dubai does, at close to half the price, with a more relaxed edge. Score: 7.8/10\. This is now the default UAE choice over Dubai unless a special occasion calls for a waterpark. We'd go back.

| Booking & Arrival | ●●●●●●●●○○ | 8/10 | Booked on a whim against a £2,500 Canary Islands flight quote and came in cheaper. Emirates flights for four at £2,150, no friction logged.                                                                         |
| ----------------- | ---------- | ---- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Space & Setting   | ●●●●●●●●●○ | 9/10 | The family suite has a bigger footprint than some UK homes — three walk-in wardrobes, three bathrooms, a living room larger than ours at home, and a balcony running the full width.                                |
| Cleanliness       | ●●●●●●●●○○ | 8/10 | Would have been a 10\. Old fruit left uncleared and sides not wiped down across a ten-night stay — housekeeping doing the big things and missing the small ones.                                                    |
| Service           | ●●●●●●●○○○ | 7/10 | No specific complaints; general tone relaxed and easy-going throughout, with no sense of being upsold.                                                                                                              |
| Food & Drink      | ●●●●●●●●○○ | 8/10 | Half-board buffet good for breakfast and one dinner only; à la carte is excellent — Lexington Grill chateaubriand fed four for £350\. Corona £6.50 against £14 in Dubai.                                            |
| Pool              | ●●●●●●●○○○ | 7/10 | Solid pool offer as part of a relaxed, low-key resort — no complaints logged.                                                                                                                                       |
| Sunbeds & Beach   | ●●●●●●●●○○ | 8/10 | Beds 8, sand 8\. A huge beach out front with a golf course alongside, plenty of room to spread out, and none of the lounger scramble seen in Dubai.                                                                 |
| Extras            | ●●●●●●○○○○ | 6/10 | Golf course, tennis courts, football pitches and a marina exist, but the area is still building out and there's little to do beyond the resort. Desert safari transfer was 80 minutes and £150 for a family return. |
| Feel              | ●●●●●●●●○○ | 8/10 | Quiet, low-key, slower and less transactional than Dubai — no sense of being upsold at every turn.                                                                                                                  |
| Value             | ●●●●●●●●●○ | 9/10 | £10k for ten nights half-board in a family suite, plus £2,150 Emirates flights for four — roughly half the cost of an equivalent Dubai stay and under a Tenerife alternative.                                       |

## The Scorecard

- **Booking & Arrival** — 8/10 — Booked on a whim after the Canary Islands quoted £2,500 for flights and £4,500 for a five-star half-board week at October half term. The Waldorf came in cheaper than both, with Emirates flights for four at £2,150\. No friction at arrival worth recording.
- **Space & Setting** — 9/10 — The nicest and largest hotel room we have ever stayed in, and the score is mostly about sheer size. The family suite has a bigger footprint than some UK houses: three walk-in wardrobes, three large TVs, a bar unit, three bathrooms each with a separate bath and shower, a living room bigger than the one we have at home, and a huge shared balcony running the entire width of the suite. With two adults and two children in it for ten nights, three bathrooms stopped being a luxury and started being the reason nobody fell out.
- **Cleanliness** — 8/10 — Would have been a 10\. Housekeeping handled the big things but consistently missed the small ones — old fruit left uncleared and surfaces not wiped down over a ten-night stay. Not a red card, but noticeable at this price.
- **Service** — 7/10 — No specific complaints; general tone is relaxed and easy-going throughout.
- **Food & Drink** — 8/10 — Half-board buffet is good for breakfast and one dinner but gets repetitive beyond that. À la carte is the strength: Lexington Grill's chateaubriand fed four adults for £350, in line with Gaucho or less. Drinks noticeably cheaper than Dubai — £6.50 for a Corona against £14 at Al Qasr.
- **Pool** — 7/10 — Solid pool offer as part of a relaxed, low-key resort. No complaints logged.
- **Sunbeds & Beach** — 8/10 *(beds 8, sand 8)* — A huge beach out front with a golf course alongside and plenty of room to spread out. Beach and pool loungers came without the scramble seen on Dubai's city beaches.
- **Extras** — 6/10 — Tennis courts, football pitches and a marina exist, and there's a golf course out front, but the area is still building out and there is very little to do beyond the resort itself. The desert safari is a reminder of how remote RAK is: 80 minutes each way and £150 for a family return on a shared nine-seater.
- **Feel** — 8/10 — Quiet, low-key, more relaxed than Dubai. The pace is slower and less transactional, with no sense of being upsold at every turn.
- **Value** — 9/10 — £10,000 for ten nights half-board in the family suite, with Emirates flights for four at £2,150 on top. Roughly half the cost of an equivalent Dubai stay, and the whole trip came in cheaper than a Canary Islands alternative that quoted £2,500 for flights alone. For the size of room that buys you, it's the strongest value line on the card.

**Overall: 7.8/10** — **Would we return?** Yes. This is now the default UAE choice over Dubai unless a special occasion calls for a waterpark.

## The Good

- Roughly half the cost of an equivalent Dubai stay for the same standard of luxury — flights for four on Emirates came to £2,150, against £2,500 for Canary Islands flights alone.
- A huge beach, a golf course out front, and none of the crowding found on Dubai's city beaches.
- Lexington Grill's chateaubriand is outstanding — £350 fed four adults a full steak each, in line with what you'd pay at Gaucho, or less.
- Drinks are noticeably cheaper than Dubai: a bottle of Corona was £6.50 in RAK against £14 in Dubai's Al Qasr/Madinat.
- The pace is slower and less transactional — no sense of being upsold at every turn.
- The family suite is the largest hotel room we've ever stayed in — a bigger footprint than some UK homes, with three walk-in wardrobes, three bathrooms (each with separate bath and shower), three large TVs, a bar unit, a living room bigger than ours at home, and a full-width shared balcony. Three bathrooms for four people over ten nights is the single best thing about it.

## The Bad

- Half-board only covers the buffet restaurant, which is fine for breakfast and one dinner but gets repetitive beyond that — à la carte options (Italian, Japanese, steak) are worth budgeting for separately.
- There is very little to do beyond the resort itself. Tennis courts, football pitches and a marina exist but the area is still building out.
- A desert safari transfer to the conservation gate took 80 minutes each way and cost £150 for a family return, shared on a nine-seater — a reminder that RAK is genuinely remote from Dubai's sights.
- Housekeeping misses the small stuff. Old fruit left uncleared and surfaces not wiped down across a ten-night stay — the difference between a 10 and an 8 on cleanliness.

## The Detail

Book B&B rather than half-board unless the plan is to eat every meal in the hotel buffet — à la carte at Waldorf RAK isn't expensive enough to justify the half-board mark-up, and the buffet options for Italian, Japanese and steak restaurants are reasonably priced on their own. Total food and drink spend for a week on B&B came to around £2,000, roughly double what half-board would have covered, but with much more variety. Beyond the hotel there isn't much to see — a golf course, a large beach, and building work in progress nearby — so this only works as a pure pool-and-beach relaxation trip, not a sightseeing base. A day trip into Dubai for a waterpark or shopping is entirely feasible from here and still cheaper overall than staying in Dubai itself.

The family suite came to roughly £10,000 for ten nights half-board. That sounds steep until you price the same footprint in Dubai, or note that the Canary Islands wanted £2,500 for flights alone before a room. For a suite that sleeps a family in genuine comfort, with three bathrooms and a balcony you can lose people on, it's the best-value luxury room we've booked.