Our staycation at Hilton Al Ain involved a great deal of snoozing, floating about the poolside and having an idle lunch at Flavours restaurant. Our dinner reservation was made at Makani Cafe, Hilton Al Ain’s open-aired restaurant specializing in Arabic grills and shisha.
Flavours Restaurant at Hilton Al Ain is the hotel’s all-day dining venue. The restaurant has recently been renovated, and features stunning Arabesque decor.
During our staycation at Hilton Al Ain, this was the very first restaurant we tried out. We got to the hotel around noon, dumped our luggage in our suite, and after a quick cup of tea, we headed to Flavours for their international buffet lunch.
The weekend before last, we had the pleasure of being invited by Hilton Al Ain for a mini break. Did you know that this is the very first international hotel to have opened on UAE soil? Hilton Al Ain opened its doors to the public way back in 1971, and has an impressively long list of celebrity vacationers with the likes of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Their Majesties – The King and Queen of Spain, and legendary boxing champion Mohammed Ali himself.
‘Comptoir’ is French for counter, and is often associated with fancy little canapes at a casual bar scene. However, Comptoir 102 has nothing to do with late-night drinking. On the contrary, this groovy little nook on Jumeirah Beach Road is all about healthful, nutritionally sound eating.
One idle, sunny afternoon, my siblings and I headed to The Square, the heart of the city of Palmerston North, New Zealand. After a few mundane grocery chores, my sister treated us to a taco lunch.
She has been raving about Dos Locos Taco since I landed in New Zealand. This Mexican food truck has been setting trails ablaze in the foodie scene of Palmerston North. Owned and operated by a very lovely couple of Mexican and South American descent, the business first started off in New York, America’s street-food central.
With a population just over 80K and covering an area of 336 square kilometers, my gorgeous little hometown of Palmerston North, New Zealand can be considered pretty tiny by global comparisons.
However, this little city has earned itself a number of titles. It is known as the ‘Knowledge City’ of New Zealand, given the number of highly reputable educational institutions it houses for its size (the biggest, and oldest campus being Massey University from where I proudly earned my three tertiary degrees in Marketing).
Palmerston North is also known as the ‘City of Roses’ owing to its very well-loved Dugald Mackenzie Rose Garden.
A road-trip through sunny UAE, and a walkathon around Yas Island left my skin crying out for rejuvenation once we hit our hotel room at night. I’ve been using the masks from the ‘When Special Package’, and was saving up the ‘Travelmate’ mask for this short trip.
The mask was packed with the rest of my beauty travel stash below:
We spent last weekend at Viceroy hotel. Set half on water and half on land, Viceroy on the man-made Yas Island of Abu Dhabi is set right on top of the Yas Marina Circuit. You therefore get great views of the race track, and a continuous vroom-vroom of the race cars as they whiz across the circuit.
Sunday morning, and I’m back at the start of yet another rigorous week of work. I spent a lovely, fun-filled weekend with the family on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The weather has cooled down significantly, and we enjoyed leisurely walks around the island, did some window-shopping in Yas Mall, and stayed the night at the very futuristic Viceroy hotel.
I kept my outfit comfy and casual, and funked it up with colorful accessories.
Last Thursday saw us in Al Ain. For my day job, I put on the marketing hat for a retail giant here in the UAE, and we will be opening our very first store in Remal Mall this month.
Remal Mall is the newest addition to the mall scene in Al Ain, and is strategically located in the populated residential area of Al Sanaiya. So far only 30% of the mall is operational, and the management plan to have it up in full swing by the end of this year.
The mall has a distinctively Arabesque architecture, and after my meeting with the management, I discovered the perfect place to sit down and relax: the food-court on the topmost floor leads to the roof of the mall, and has a number of cushy seats for idly enjoying the evening breeze. I can envision this space being taken over by a shisha lounge in the near future!
The Tezzy Files 