Deluxe Sea View Room

The room to take if you are only taking one. Everything inside is the entry room — the dark wood, the marble bathroom, the pillow menu — and everything outside is the reason people come to Abu Dhabi. The balcony gives onto the gardens, then the pool, then the white sand, then the Gulf, in that order and all at once.

The hour that earns it is half past 5. The light goes flat and gold across the water, the sandstone behind you holds it, and the room fills with the reflection. King or twin, chosen when you book.