The Royal Suite's private pool at the St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort. Courtesy St Regis
The Royal Suite's private pool at the St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort. Courtesy St Regis

Suite dreams come alive at St Regis on Saadiyat Island



At Dh130,000 per night it costs almost as much as a brand new Ford Explorer.

But then again a 4x4 does not come with four bedrooms, a team of personal staff, a swimming pool, cinema, billiards room and a private spa.

The 2,100 square metre St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort royal suite starts taking bookings from next week - and it has already received numerous enquiries.

"We have had a lot without even publishing it," said Marwan Fadel, the St Regis area director of sales and marketing for Abu Dhabi and Dubai new developments.

"We started having inquiries about clients coming over for Formula One. They heard that we had a royal suite. They asked is it available? We want to book it. That's why we are confident."

So what will guests get for their money?

They do not have to use the same hotel entrance as the rest of us, for a start. Separate doors take guests to a lift with direct access to the duplex.

Once inside, guests are met with a grand staircase and a living room with sea views and seating for up to 12 people in addition to a crystal chess set and Steinway and Sons piano.

Off to the side is a dining area and a pantry behind closed doors. On the same floor there is an office, powder room, swimming pool, terrace, a cinema with eight seats, a billiards room, a suite and a twin bedroom for staff.

The master suite is downstairs along with a private spa and a super large shower.

But if you only bring your husband or wife and therefore require just one bedroom you will get a discount, making the price Dh90,000 a night, said Mr Fadel.

"It's not going to be treated as a normal room in that the occupancy is [not] going to be 100 per cent," he added.

"It will be more quality rather than quantity. [But] coming into the high season, coming into the Russian vacation and coming into Eid we do expect a lot of requests"

Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

How to get exposure to gold

Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.

A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.

Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.

Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.

London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long

However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.

Wonka

Director: Paul King

Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant

Rating: 2/5