Atlantis, The Royal is a luxury hotel in Dubai that was crafted by leading architects, designers, and artists.

An iconic landmark property in Dubai, Atlantis, The Royal was crafted by leading designers, architects, and artists of the world. Standing at 43 storeys high with incredible views of the Arabian Sea and Palm Island, the experiential hotel features stylish interiors, outdoor lounging areas, and elegant rooms, suites, and signature penthouses with private balconies, terraces, and infinity-edge swimming pools.

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The resort is located within close proximity to its sister hotel, Atlantis, The Palm, and guests at both properties enjoy access to their facilities and amenities, including a private beach. Atlantis, The Royal is also home to AWAKEN Spa, a stunning wellness sanctuary that focuses on holistic techniques and self-discovery accelerated by high-tech therapies.

The spa offers a wide range of amenities that include 15 therapy and VIP suites, two specialty suites (including a hynotherapy suite and fitness recovery suite), a hammam sensorium, as well as a selection of curated massages and energy therapies including unique services like the Royal Gold Facial and the Desert Sand & Date Sugar Infusion.

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We chatted with Lyndell Nelis, Wellness Director at Atlantis Resorts, Dubai, to learn more about treatments to try, insider tips, and more.

AWAKEN Spa at Atlantis, The Royal is a stunning sanctuary of wellness.

Why You’ll Love It: The luxury, the glamour, but mostly our incredible service providers or as we call them, our Energy Masters. It’s our therapists and fitness team that keep guests coming back for more. Sometimes guests have a different treatment every day because their therapist is so good, and they want to try some of our more unique treatments with someone they already feel a connection with.

We are fortunate to attract talented therapists from every corner of the globe, so guests really appreciate the authenticity of our “Massages of the World” menu offering where each massage is showcased by someone from that nation—the team love to share their countries healing modality.

The facility itself is breathtakingly luxurious and spacious, but I would say it’s because all our service providers are Reiki trained. They understand not only the physical realm, but the energy field they affect and work within...guests may not be able to see this, but they sure do feel it.

Key Features: It’s over half a hectare of beautiful spaces to meditate, unwind, and find some quiet to contemplate the present moment and has a very exclusive Elements Retreat where guests can relax their mind, body, emotions, and spirit. The facility famously features a Halotherapy Salt Cave, Snow Shower, Vitality Pool, Charcoal Sauna, and Alchemy experience shower.

Snacks Served: Our spa’s philosophy is 100% vegan, so all refreshments are guaranteed to be full of vitality, fresh, naturally delicious, and all sourced locally. We have coconut and pea protein balls in a variety of flavours, a huge selection of semi-dried fruit and raw nuts, as well as fresh fruit and keep coconut water in the gym for our guests to replenish lost electrolytes.

For a local flavor, we serve our “Arabian Delight”—think Turkish Delight but sugar-free, made from organic pomegranates, and wrapped in pistachios. But our guests’ all-time favorite is our freshly ground, hand made fresh ginger tea—you can literally taste the love that has gone into it!

AWAKEN Spa has a wide array of indoor and outdoor amenities for guests to enjoy.

Bonus: We always surprise guests celebrating special occasions or even if they say it’s a treat they are giving themselves—from a bouquet of fresh flowers which never fails to surprise and delight, to our delectable vegan/gluten-free chocolate or berry mini cake complete with candle and a glass of bubbly (sparkling date juice for the alcohol-free version).

We even learned Towel Art from our talented housekeeping team to fold beautiful swans for anniversaries, and we use our incredible Lemi treatment bed’s built-in colour wheel of LED lights to create a soft, glowing ambience of colour. If we know the guest’s favorite or if we know “It’s a boy!” then it’s blue for a surprise. We notice everything. Our gestures are always heartfelt, and this is something our guests truly feel.

The spa also has a hammam sensorium made up of six different rooms.

Splurge Treatment: Our incredible hotel Concierge team are armed with a “little black book” of truly splurge-worthy experiences. The wow of the wow…and AWAKEN Wellness has a special place in it with our Rarity Gold experience: four hours of decadence.

It all starts with the Golden God/Goddess Hammam, a precious drops of gold bubble bath, our Golden Hour 24kt Massage featuring 24kt gold dipped hot volcanic stones—this is followed by the Royal Gold Facial with 24kt golden gua sha and face rollers (that retail each for almost $3,000), decadent spa refreshments including gold leaf champagne and gold-dusted dates, plus a pack of Nano Gold Repair Masks to take home.

Another one of the spa’s relaxation areas.

Unique treatment: All treatments from The Local List are unique to AWAKEN Wellness at Atlantis Dubai. We have developed the AWAKEN product range right here in the UAE using clean, vegan, and local ingredients such as Dubai desert sand, all parts of the revered date—the crushed seeds for the body scrub, date sugar and syrup in the body butter—and a hint of Oud for the traditional Arabic medicinal value.

We also use Gulf salt from the Persian Gulf blended with locally grown Moringa and use the flowers and the leaves for its heady scent and silken texture. Either the Desert Sand & Date Infusion or the Gulf Salt & Moringa Leaf infusion are definitely must try’s while here.

Insider’s Favorite: Without a doubt I like to explore our original core treatments from the AWAKEN A-List using our holistic wellness range of high vibrational aromatherapy oils combined with specially curated music at specific sound frequencies. Because they were 100% developed in house by our talented spa trainer, myself, and the entire management team at both Atlantis The Royal and Atlantis, The Palm—a truly collaborative blend of all of our combined learnings of being spa therapists ourselves for many years—it’s completely intentional. We want each guest to feel healing and peace, then go out into the world and spread more of that.

For me, our signature AWAKEN Massage from The A-List is the absolute perfect massage. Combining Swedish and aromatherapy massage styles with Reiki energy healing, all major muscle groups are worked while channeling positive energy flow to restore balance.

It’s paired with one of four AWAKEN high frequency oils: Earth which represents the physical body and its healing ability, Fire representing the mind and our ability to transform thought into action, Water which is all about our emotions’ flow and release, and finally there’s Air which represents our spirit and connection to all things. There’s nothing like it anywhere else.

One of the luxurious treatment suites where guests can enjoy services side by side.

Featured Products: While our locally created and produced house-branded products AWAKEN headline and are used resort-wide; the Sun Line (tanning oil, after sun mist and both Summer Scent SPF or the Fragrance-Free version) can be found at the Royal Pool, Nobu Beach Club, and at Cloud 22, whereas our Sun Kits are given to all guests booking suites.

Our Meditation Mist is used in our sound healing sessions. Our sacred brand partnerships are with Augustinus Bader and Dr. Barbara Sturm from Germany, Subtle Energies of Australia, both 111Skin and Amra from the UK, La Sultan De Saba from France, and Epicutis and KNESKO from the U.S. AWAKEN Fitness partners with Puma and Rumi Earth and also home-grown brand Maison Etherique for our spiritual and emotional fitness supporting needs.