The St. Regis Abu Dhabi

The St. Regis Abu Dhabi is built for a diving holiday with rather more polish than salt on the handrails. You get a city hotel on the Corniche, a private beach club reached through a marble air-conditioned underpass, several places to eat and drink, and enough room to retreat properly when the day has taken its toll. The atmosphere is formal without being cut off from the practical business of relaxing: you can move from the Gulf to the pool, from the pool to the spa, and from the spa to dinner without turning the evening into an expedition.

The hotel has 283 rooms and signature suites, with the St. Regis Butler Service included for every guest. That is a useful distinction if you prefer someone else to deal with the small arrangements while you concentrate on tides, tanks and whether dinner should involve shoes. The hotel's website is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and Arabic, so you can at least research the stay in English before arriving; the available staff-language information does not identify a specific spoken-language team.

You are in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the Corniche and directly beside the sea. The Nation Towers sit nearby, while Al Khubeirah Garden is about 0.7 miles away and Abu Dhabi Breakwater about 1.3 miles away. This is an urban waterfront base rather than an isolated beach resort, which matters when you want restaurants, shopping and recognisable city life within reach of the lobby.

Corniche Beach is about 0.8 miles away by road, but the hotel's own Nation Riviera Beach Club is the more useful piece of geography: a private 200-metre beach, reached by the covered underpass beneath the Corniche. Marina Mall is about a 5-minute drive, World Trade Centre Mall about 7 minutes, Abu Dhabi Mall about 10 minutes and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque about 15 minutes. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is about 8 miles away by road, giving you a solid cultural option for a non-diving day.

Zayed International Airport is about 22 miles away by road, with a drive of around 23 minutes. The hotel is therefore well placed for combining diving with Abu Dhabi's museums, landmarks and shopping, rather than treating the city as scenery glimpsed through a transfer window.

The entry-level rooms already give you 45 square metres, which is enough space to avoid staging a minor disagreement with your dive bag. City-view and sea-view versions are available, while the room with two double beds is the practical choice when three people need to share without pretending that one enormous bed solves every logistical problem. For two, the sea-view room keeps the choice simple: a super-king bed, Gulf outlook and no need to spend suite money merely to acquire somewhere to put a pair of wet flip-flops.

If you travel as a couple and want more separation between sleeping and sitting, the Junior Suite is the sensible step up. The larger sea-view suites bring more room to spread out, and the Al Mushref Suite accommodates up to four, making it the more workable option for a small family or a group travelling together. The very largest suites are another category entirely, including the Abu Dhabi Suite with its three-bedroom penthouse layout and views from the skybridge between the Nation Towers. The room card below gives you the measurements and capacities; the useful question is how much space you genuinely need after a day in the water.

Air conditioning is fitted throughout, and soundproof rooms are available for anyone who values a quiet night over a soundtrack of corridors and closing doors. Rooms have a seating area, desk, wardrobe, kettle, flat-screen television and minibar, with a bath and shower listed among the bathroom facilities. Daily housekeeping, room service, bathrobes and slippers round out the unglamorous but important part of recovery: somewhere cool, comfortable and reasonably self-contained when you would rather not go downstairs yet.

Breakfast comes as a buffet, with continental, vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten-free, Asian and American choices. The Terrace on the Corniche covers breakfast, lunch and dinner, working across regional and international flavours from its terrace setting. That gives you an all-day restaurant rather than forcing every meal into the same narrow routine, particularly useful when dive timings make the idea of a fixed lunch look optimistic.

Villa Toscana handles lunch and dinner with rustic Tuscan Italian cooking, a reliable answer when you want pasta rather than another negotiation with a buffet. The St. Regis Bar is the evening stop, with a livelier setting for a drink after the day's exertions. There are seven restaurants in total, so the address is not short of dining choice, even though only the named venues above need to do the heavy lifting in your decision.

For something less formal, Cabana Beach Bar & Grill serves salads, burgers, fresh paninis and cocktails throughout the day beside the beach club. Azura Panoramic Lounge is an outdoor rooftop bar overlooking the Arabian Gulf and the Corniche. A snack bar, minibar, breakfast in the room, special-diet menus and wine or champagne service give you useful ways to keep the evening flexible; the hotel also runs themed dinner nights and happy hour.

The Nation Riviera Beach Club is the centre of the afternoon: a 200-metre private sandy beach with sun loungers, parasols, showers and a beach bar. The infinity pool is heated and has a swim-up bar, while gardens and cabanas give you somewhere to sit without having to perform enthusiasm for a timetable. Three pools are available across the property, with pool and beach towels provided.

For the more deliberate form of recovery, the spa offers massages, facials, a hammam, sauna, Jacuzzi, mud baths and body wraps, as well as a lounge for doing very little. Couples can book a couples massage; after a few days of early starts and boat schedules, that may be more productive than another ambitious excursion. A fitness centre and fitness classes cover the people who believe rest days should still involve some form of effort.

Families have a proper option in Treasure Island Children's Club, designed as a pirate ship for children aged 4 to 12, with supervised indoor and outdoor activities, a pool and a water slide. Outside the resort routine, bicycle rental, cycling and horse riding are available, while Heritage Village is about 1.2 miles away by road and Qasr Al Hosn about 2.7 miles. For a quieter cultural outing, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is about 8 miles away.

Check-in starts at 3pm and check-out is by midday. You need photo identification and a credit card at check-in, and the hotel asks you to share your expected arrival time in advance. The minimum age for check-in is 21. A 24-hour front desk, concierge, luggage storage, currency exchange, tour desk and private or express check-in and check-out make the arrival mechanics fairly straightforward, particularly if your flight and your room do not line up neatly.

Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel. Free private parking is available on site, with an electric-vehicle charging station, and valet parking is also available. Car hire, laundry, dry cleaning, ironing, a safe, an on-site ATM and an infirmary are among the practical services. The property has lifts, step-free access and accessible rooms, and upper floors can be reached by lift.

Children of all ages are welcome, with cots and extra beds available on request according to the room selected. Pets are not allowed. Payment by cash, Visa and Mastercard is accepted. Cancellation and prepayment conditions vary by accommodation type, so the room rules deserve a look before you commit rather than after the bags are packed.