Howdy all, time for another Accommodation Review as I like to call them! Back in time to late February and my digs whilst I stayed in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. This was my first hotel in Saudi after spending the night on the bus coming from Dubai, and knowing I was getting in potentially at 6am or so in the morning I paid for the night at the hotel so that when I arrived, no doubt after receiving very little sleep, I could go straight the hotel, check in and then SLEEP!

And that’s exactly what happened. I wasn’t sure what to expect really. The Dabab by Warwick was a convincing title for a hotel though, I will give you that. Who Warwick is, well I haven’t the faintest idea but it sounded posh but with a price of around $114AUD a night or $71USD it was probably a mid-range option, at least in context of 2023.

The traffic in Riyadh was pretty bad, although not worse than Dhaka it was very slow and stop-start. The good news was that Uber along with Kareem operate in in Saudi Arabia, and although there was a frustrating wait at the bus station and then I had trouble getting to the car, I did get transport to the hotel.

Location-wise, Riyadh is a very hard city for me to tell you where a good location is to stay in the city. One part is the new town with the flashy skyscrapers like the Kingdom Centre, in the opposite direction you find the old city and the fortress. So the hotel was sort of in the middle of these parts of town, the two you’d most likely spend time in as a visitor to Riyadh. There was a useful bus that stopped outside the hotel (and a Burger King too for reference). So in some ways it was a decent location.

I was able to check in pretty quickly and get some sleep. The room was… a little drab but not too bad. A very large bathroom, the shower was ok without being sensational, there was a bigish cupboard space to hang things and a safe which I use all the time these days, it’s basically a necessity I feel – it comes with peace of mind! Also a mini-fridge to keep drinks cool and laundry service (which is actually pretty standard I guess) were included.

The place has a sort of water feature in the lobby, and it’s an interesting design that seems to hard from a few decades ago now, perhaps the 1980s? This is Saudi Arabia so it’s hard to know if this was a popular sort of style or if it’s an import of some sort (which I suspect it is). Glass lift (elevator) and sort of open design in the lobby going up four or five floors at least.

Breakfast was included in the price, which was… nice? A bit of a buffet with a mixture of curries, sausages, eggs of course, bread, butter and jam. The restaurant also did basic meals such as hamburgers for western visitors which you could also order for room service. I think the hotel sees a lot of visitors from India as there was food catering to Indian visitors.

Back on the room, the bed was comfortable enough, there was a basic TV I could pop my USB stick in if I wanted to watch something as there was only a small selection of local channels. Not a SMART TV, and the WiFi was pedestrian at best, but internet is a bit restricted by the government in Saudi and I rarely had decent speed there – with one exception I spent a night at a hotel near the airport with much faster net than anywhere else I stayed.

It seemed a bit dated and a but dusty and faded, but it did the job and I was happy enough there. Decent air conditioning too I should mention I guess. To the ratings…

Andy’s Ratings:

Location: 3.5/5

Cleanliness: 3/5

Service: 3.5/5

Noise: 3.5/5

Value for Money: 2.5/5

Total: 16/25 (64/100)

Thanks for popping by! May the Journey Never End!