Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara Review

The road does the introducing. Beyond Abu Dhabi the motorway gives way to open desert, and for the last 12 kilometres or so a single road threads between the dunes before the walls of Qasr Al Sarab appear, the same colour as the sand around them. The resort is built in the image of an Arabian desert fort, its ramparts and turrets wrapped around shaded courtyards, and it sits in a valley with the dunes of the Empty Quarter rising behind it. Inside, the mood holds, from lantern-lit corridors lined with tall clay urns to terraces that open straight onto the sand. A resort-wide renovation in 2019 updated the rooms without diluting any of it, and nothing here looks borrowed from a city hotel. Everything begins with the setting. The dunes are immense, and from the terraces there is no town, no traffic and no skyline, only sand running to the horizon and the light changing across it through the day. Plenty of hotels in the Emirates have a desert view; at Qasr Al Sarab the desert surrounds the resort on every side. The resort also holds One MICHELIN Key in the guide's 2026 selection.

The pool villas are the strongest reason to choose Qasr Al Sarab, and Via Privata stayed in a One Bedroom Anantara Pool Villa, the category to start with. There are 29 of them, each 195 square metres, set apart from the main fortress and looking out over the desert valley. The layout is closer to a small house than a hotel room: a separate living room, a bedroom with a king bed, a large bathroom and a dining area inside, and outside a private terrace with a plunge pool, a shaded cabana and an outdoor shower. It sleeps two adults and up to two children. The interiors commit fully to the Arabian theme: dark timber beams, carved wooden doors, pierced-metal lanterns, and a living room built around lit niches of copper and brass vessels. The bedroom opens onto the terrace through glass doors, there is a proper desk, and the bathroom is a room of its own, with an oversized tub set in dark marble beneath an arched window and a walk-in rain shower. The style is rich and traditional, and in the middle of the desert that is exactly the right choice. The terrace is the villa's best feature. The plunge pool is for cooling off and floating rather than swimming lengths, and it sits in a private garden behind sand-coloured walls with the dunes rising beyond: the closest Qasr Al Sarab comes to giving each guest a private piece of the desert. Privacy extends to the service. Every villa has its own host, and drinks in the shade or dinner at the villa's own table can be arranged without leaving it.

The right alternative depends on who is travelling. Inside the fortress, the Deluxe rooms (from 45 square metres) and the Anantara Suites keep guests close to the restaurants and the pools, a sensible base for a short stay, though without the private pool that makes the villas special. Couples who want still more seclusion should look at the ten Royal Pavilion Villas: adults only, each with its own plunge pool, a few minutes' drive from the main resort. Families are well served by the two- and three-bedroom pool villas and the Two Bedroom Family Suite, and for a large family or a group of friends, the four-bedroom Sahra Villa or the Al Sarab Villa, which can be booked with a private majlis, turns the stay into a desert palace of their own. For most couples, the One Bedroom Anantara Pool Villa remains the best balance of space and privacy.

The morning camel trek was one of the highlights of Via Privata's stay, and it is the experience to book first. The resort runs its treks at sunrise and at sunset, when the desert is cool enough to be out in and the light is softest, each with a stop for refreshments in a traditional Arabian setting among the dunes; families with young children can take a gentler ride through the desert valleys instead. The pace makes it memorable. A 4x4 covers the dunes in minutes. A camel moves at walking speed, and without an engine the desert stays quiet, so the landscape has time to register: the ripples the wind leaves on every slope, the scale of the dunes as they build towards the Empty Quarter, the scrub that holds on in the hollows. It is also the oldest way to travel through this desert, the way the Bedouin crossed the Rub' al Khali for centuries, and seeing the dunes from the saddle in the morning light gives a sense of the place that no terrace or window can. In the cooler months, take a layer: desert nights drop to around 12°C and the chill lingers until the sun is up. For a longer version of the same idea, Camp Nujum, the resort's desert camp, begins with arrival by camel and continues with dinner under the stars and stories around the fire.

The rest of the programme uses the same landscape, and a few experiences stand out. A desert drive in one of the resort's 4x4s is the natural counterpoint to the camels, from dune bashing for the adrenaline to a gentler soft drive for the views or a night drive after dark. Guided walks into the dunes at sunrise or sunset are the quietest way to take in the scale of the place, and the Stargazing Escapade makes the most of a sky far from any city. In the cooler months, the falcon and saluki show is the most direct link to the region's desert traditions. For families, Ezba is the place to start: the resort's farm and cultural centre, home to camels, falcons, salukis, Arabian horses, gazelles and the Arabian oryx. Archery, fat biking, horse riding and sand boarding fill a longer stay, and there are floodlit tennis courts and a padel court for a more familiar game. The simplest plan works best: one outing early, one late, and the heat of the day by the pool.

The pools are split sensibly between families and adults. The free-form main pool, with Naseem Pool Bar, is the family pool, with a shallow children's area and a small spray pool. The adults-only infinity pool is the one to remember, its edge looking straight out over the dunes, with Amanie, the Mediterranean restaurant, beside it. Children aged four to eleven have the Little Bedouins Kids' Club, which makes Qasr Al Sarab easier for families than its remote setting might suggest.

The Anantara Spa draws on the desert as much as the rest of the resort does. Its menu combines Middle Eastern remedies, Thai expertise and Biologique Recherche facials, and the treatments to look for are the local ones: the Desert Fusion Massage, with hot stones and a heated poultice of Rub' al Khali sand, and the four-hour Arabian Desert Rose Ritual, which moves from a sand scrub and a rhassoul clay mask to a rose-infused milk bath, a massage and a facial. A Moroccan hammam, steam rooms, a sauna and an ice room make up the thermal side, with a wellness and meditation centre and a fitness centre open around the clock. At a desert resort the spa has an obvious place in the day: the hot hours between a morning outing and an evening one.

Every meal at Qasr Al Sarab is taken at the resort, so the range matters, and for a hotel this remote it is wide. Three restaurants set the tone. Suhail, on the rooftop, is the steakhouse, with dry-aged cuts from the Josper oven and sweeping views over the wadi; Al Falaj serves the flavours of the Levant in the open air beside the dunes, in the cooler months only; and Amanie brings Mediterranean cooking to the adults-only infinity pool. Breakfast is at Al Waha, whose name means the Oasis, and the rest of the day is covered by Ghadeer by the pool, the Al Liwan lobby lounge and Naseem at the family pool. The experiences worth planning around are the private ones. Dining by Design sets a candlelit table out on the dunes, with a butler for the evening and a menu that can be built with a personal chef, and a desert barbecue can be cooked at the villa. For a first visit, a dinner on the sand is the one to book.

Most luxury resorts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are built around a beach or a skyline, with the desert offered as an afternoon safari. Qasr Al Sarab reverses that arrangement: Abu Dhabi is more than two hours away, and the best of a stay happens out among the dunes. For travellers weighing up luxury desert experiences in the UAE, that is the distinction that matters: at Qasr Al Sarab the hotel and the desert are the same place. What makes it one of Via Privata's favourites is how completely the pieces fit together. The architecture answers the scale of the Empty Quarter, a fortress in the colour of the dunes that looks as if it belongs where it stands. Add the privacy of a pool villa and everything a full resort provides, and the result is rare in the region: a place that feels remote without asking guests to give up any comfort. For the coastal side of the Emirates, Via Privata's United Arab Emirates guide covers the beach and city hotels, and Qasr Al Sarab pairs naturally with a few nights in Abu Dhabi or Dubai.

Qasr Al Sarab is just over two hours by road from Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, about two and a half hours from Abu Dhabi city and around three and a half from Dubai. The resort arranges transfers, and a private helicopter cuts the journey to about 50 minutes from Abu Dhabi's airport or 75 from Dubai, landing at the resort's own helipad. The drive has its own appeal as the city falls away and the dunes build, but it is the first thing to know before booking: this is a destination in itself, and it rewards a proper stay. The second is the season. From October to March the desert has sunny, crisp days and clear skies, with daytime highs from the mid-20s to the low 30s°C between November and March and nights that drop to around 12°C, the best conditions for camel treks, drives and dinners outside; Al Falaj and the falcon and saluki show run only in the cooler months. From May to September daytime highs pass 40°C, the activities move to the early morning and after dark, and the resort becomes a quieter retreat of pools and spa. The cooler months show the desert at its most comfortable. Two nights is the minimum to justify the journey: one sunrise, one sunset and an evening on the dunes. Via Privata stayed three, and that is the length to aim for: enough to fit a camel trek, a desert drive, the spa and a dinner on the sand into one stay without rushing. Four or more suits families who want Ezba, the kids' club and the pools as well.

Qasr Al Sarab is one of the most distinctive luxury resorts in the Middle East, and one Via Privata recommends without hesitation. Plenty of hotels in the region offer pool villas and a good spa; very few set them inside a fortress among the dunes of the Empty Quarter, completely surrounded by the desert. That is the reason to go. Plan around the distance and the season, book a pool villa, and go out into the dunes on a camel at least once: for travellers who want something beyond a conventional luxury hotel, this is the stay to choose.