Eid Holidays!

Recently it was the wonderful Eid holidays. It was great. We had a few days off, and decided to go to Fujairah. 

Fujairah is another Emirate. Remember, the Emirates are made up of seven states - including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah etc. etc. 

As you can see, Fujairah isn't a massive Emirate, but it has a lovely sea scape. We stayed in the city, which really seemed to me to be a pleasant, relaxed beach town. 

Now, we tried to organise this holiday back in September. We'd initially wanted to go to Dibba as that has a great reputation too. The only problem was, as early as mid-September EVERYTHING was already booked for the Eid weekend. All the hotels we were interested in any way.

So last minute.com CamelMan finds some hotel apartments. We'd never stayed in hotel apartments before so we were quite apprehensive. They were called Siji Hotel Apartments and as we drove up to them I was pleasantly surprised.

As we have an almost-two year old we were absolutely thrilled when we saw our room. It was a single bedroom, with a sitting area, dining area and a massive kitchen that had a washing machine, kettle, toaster, fridge/freezer and microwave... as well as all the relevant cooking pots, pans, plates etc etc. There was one bathroom, an en suite. They also have larger apartments in the hotel.

The usual hotel services are offered. They have a mini-bar, room service, cleaners come around, they have a restaurant and cafe, swimming pool and gym. What you would expect really, from any hotel.

We were only a few minutes from the beach, but not actually on the beach. 

On the way to Fujairah you have to pass through a mountain range. It's just so beautiful and such a change from the usual flat landscapes you get used to in Abu Dhabi. Don't expect the Alps though, the mountains aren't huge, they're large - but I think one could easily walk to the top of most of them.

The ocean is just beautiful - especially as you see these gorgeous mountains just running down in to the sea. The water is clean. As it was Eid weekend though, the beach was heaving - but we managed to find a semi-private area, where the little one could run around pretty freely.

Watch out for the crabs though! And by crabs, I'm not talking about those cute, tiny little friendly Little Mermaid crabs. I'm talking about massive, white, very over-protective crabs!  Luckily I had caught one out of the corner of my eye, all burrowed down in the sand - CamelMan would have maybe lost a little toe if not! Haha!

We visited one of the strangest and delicious restaurants there. It was called Al Meshwar - a Lebanese restaurant which stands in the middle of a green, completely detached from other buildings, and kind of has the shape of a large cardboard box that was lined with faux-rock, and crowned with pretend collapsing Roman-ruins (and yes, it does look as tacky as it sounds). And, though I snubbed it, the food was just amazing. In fact, I used to eat hummus all the time in the UK - but did not find a single hummus, in all the establishments I visited that I actually liked. BUT - oh my goodness me, the best hummus I've ever had in the UAE was from that tacky-looking restaurant! I ordered the hummus that was mixed with coriander and drizzled with pomegranate syrup. It was amazing. Enjoy!

Fujairah is great is you're in to water-sports, or just want to get away from the buzz of the city. I wouldn't recommend it if you like more of a party or a city that is more bustling. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and is lovely especially with children!

I will be updating this post with some more photographs.