LOCATED on sandy shores of Umm Al Quwain in the UAE, Flamingo Beach Resort is easily reachable from Sharjah, Ajman and Dubai, being only 58 km or a 60-minutes drive) from Dubai International Airport and 45 km (37 minutes’ drive) away from Sharjah International Airport.
Taking the exit to E55, Flamingo Beach Resort is 15 minutes off the main Dubai – Ras Al Khaimah highway E 311, commonly known as Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. The two-storey homely resort features 52 spacious rooms and suites offering pool and garden view from the balcony. The resort offers an idyllic budget getaway for families with a host of activities. Dinner is served in the open-air lawn facing the private beach and guests may choose from a wide variety of refreshments at the pool bar. The property is a stone’s throw from a natural wild live mangrove housing the families of graceful flamingos. It offers an array of engaging water activities like flamingo tours, deep-sea fishing and crab hunting. Flamingo Beach Resort happens to be the only destination in the UAE that provides a perfect opportunity to the experienced crab hunter or the first timer. Every hunting party is ably supervised by sea captains, who are the friendliest teachers and companions in the mangrove environment, if a bit competitive. Set 500 m off the coast, amidst knee-to-waist deep mangrove waters, armed with a spear and waterproof torch, and led by an expert, our group of couch-softened hunters chased those intuitive eight-legged creatures in circles, but soon with the help of the expert most of us finished the trip victorious. After taking pictures with their trophy kills and tweeting about it, everyone turned in pity towards that one member of our gorup (cannot be named), who could not snare a crab even if it came and waited under her spear. As though in a Disney version of a caveman tale, the crab and squid we had ‘gathered’ was cooked by the hotel team and served on a large white table by the sea, right in time for the hunger pangs. I was not shy of poking them this time, but with my fork. By Rashi SenLink for the Deal Alert!: