Another accolade for Al Maha

Al Maha won the accolade from readers of Condé Nast's Traveller Magazine, one of the industry's best-known publications.

Traveller editor Sara Miller said readers were impressed by Al Maha's top quality personal service, stunning desert location and respect for the environment.

The resort, 45 minutes from Dubai, scored an overall average of 90.57 per cent, making it the clear winner in its category and the world's fourth best leisure hotel after a New Zealand lodge and hotels in Thailand and the Maldives.

Tony Williams, Manager Al Maha, and Mary Bishara, Sales and Marketing Manager, were at London's Science Museum to accept the award from Traveller editor Sarah Miller and celebrity compère Rory Bremner.

More than 35,000 readers submitted nominations in this year's poll, making it the magazine's most successful awards scheme yet.

Secluded, exclusive Al Maha, 45 minutes' drive from Dubai, is set within a private 25 square kilometre desert nature reserve, and opened in March 1999.

Its 30 individually-designed suites are designed to resemble a traditional Bedouin desert camp, each with its own unique artwork and antiquities, hand-crafted furniture, and beautiful woollen rugs and carpets.

Each suite at the relaxed seven-star resort has its own temperature-controlled pool and outdoor deck with stunning views over the desert. Guests enjoy top quality personalised service, with a staff/guest ratio of three to one - 24 hours a day.

Widely spaced to guarantee privacy, the suites offer panoramic views of the nearby Hajar mountains and the nature reserve where rare local species of wildlife, including the threatened Arabian Oryx, are gradually being reintroduced.

Flexible dining arrangements allow guests to choose between a sophisticated gourmet restaurant offering international and Arabic cuisine, a private supper in their suite -- or a picnic in the dunes at an elegantly laid table under the stars.

Al Maha Field Guides organise a wide range of activities recalling Arabia's unique desert traditions, such as falconry, camel trekking, guided desert safaris, dune-driving, sand boarding and horse riding. Guests can also explore further afield with individual excursions to historical sites in the region.