Yas Hotel

While I did the Yas Triathlon on Friday, my wife and kids checked us into the hotel and were cheering me on from the hotel balcony. Because they checked into the hotel while I was warming up for the race, I had no idea where the room was. A couple of times I thought I heard them cheering but was unsure of where it was coming from.
The hotel itself is beautiful and has great aesthetics to it. We were able to get a pretty good deal of 553 dirhams (US$150) for a night before tax and service charges. The only drawback was that with the triathlon starting midday, it was difficult to arrange check-in with warming up for the race, but having my wife there made things easy. It was nice being able to take a five minute walk to the hotel, drop my bike off, have a shower, and come back for the awards and post-race food.
The room was stylishly decorated, but all the walls within the room were made of frosted glass, including the shower and toilet. In the shower, there were two knobs to turn on the water. One of them turned on the water on the adjustable shower head. The other turned on the rain shower that came out of the ceiling. When my wife went into the shower to wash my daughter's feet, guess which one she turned on. I'll give a hint: it was the one that surprised her with a deluge of water from the ceiling.

Because the track goes in and around the hotel, there were a number of great vantage points from our room and the various bars, restaurants and common areas. I went for a walk around the hotel and saw the rooftop pool with bar and various other outdoor restaurants and cafes. We'd had some food provided by the triathlon organizers and weren't that hungry so we chose to eat in the room where the kids were comfortably watching television. There was one bar overhanging the track, that would be really cool to watch races from. I was planning on going there for a drink with my wife, but by the time the kids were asleep I was pretty tired from the day I'd had and just wanted to go to bed.I was glad that we stayed, though I don't think that we got everything out of staying in the hotel that we could've. Having the room right there during the race, was a huge plus but I wish I'd had more energy to do a little more exploring or enjoy a drink in the bar.