Nothing much lies on Qatar\u2019s border with Saudi Arabia. A few sunbaked outposts and miles and miles of vast, empty desert in all directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, earlier this year, something very different appeared in the middle of this nowhere: A huge, gleaming luxury hotel complex, complete with its own theme park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hilton Salwa Beach Resort & Villas is clearly no ordinary hotel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seen from the air it resembles an entire coastal town. Pristine twin beaches peel away from a central harbor. Above the sands, bright white villas and buildings cluster around blue swimming pools. Behind them, an oasis of greenery. It\u2019s one of the Middle East\u2019s largest resorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what happens, when a gigantic upscale hotel appears miles from anywhere just as a pandemic freezes global travel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It gets really busy, according to Etienne-Charles Gailliez, the resort\u2019s general manager. On opening its doors in February it became a staycation hit with locals, he says. More recently it\u2019s been a popular destination for visitors and business travelers from the wider region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s plenty of room. Hilton Salwa Beach has 84 villas, ranging from two to four bedrooms, with private pools and direct access to the white-sand beach (prices from US$ 1,500 a night). There are 31 Arabian village-style apartments and villas, while the main hotel has 246 rooms and suites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The huge grounds also contain more than 20 food and drink outlets, including seven gourmet dining options, a high-end spa with VIP suites, sports courts, swimming pools surrounded by landscaped gardens, corporate facilities, and a marina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On top of that, there\u2019s Qatar\u2019s largest theme park, featuring dozens of attractions, including \u201cKing Cobra,\u201d a thrilling twin tube ride that sends riders into the mouth of a massive snake-like structure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nothing much lies on Qatar\u2019s border with Saudi Arabia. A few sunbaked outposts and miles and miles of vast, empty desert in all directions. Then, earlier this year, something very different appeared in the middle of this nowhere: A huge, gleaming luxury hotel complex, complete with its own theme park. The Hilton Salwa Beach Resort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[16,12,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ld-wp73.template-help.com\/wordpress\/prod_3201\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}