Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah: Dubai Luxury, Half the Price

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.

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.