Seventeen years separate the building from the brand — the structure that houses Raffles Al Areen Palace Bahrain first opened on Bahrain's west coast in 2006 as a Banyan Tree desert retreat, and the complete transformation it underwent before reopening in December 2023 is as much an act of architectural reimagining as it is a rebrand. Architecture firm Smallwood and Bahrain-based interior studio IDA stripped the property back and rebuilt its identity around the visual vocabulary of the Gulf: horseshoe arches, mashrabiya latticework pressed into plasterwork screens and suite dividers, and a dusk-lit facade of pale limestone-toned render flanked by date palms that carries the gravity of a Bahraini palace rather than a resort hotel. Inside, IDA's 'Secret Garden' narrative threads through all 78 private pool villas — each stretching across a minimum of 400 square metres — with considerable elegance. The all-villa format, unique in Bahrain, gives each guest their own geometry: arched bedroom niches framing carved arabesque panels above the bed, brass ring chandeliers with a slight Art Deco pull, marble-topped coffee tables on dark bronze bases, and custom geometric rugs that echo the latticework overhead. The all-day dining room raises the register further, with a living olive tree at its centre, a boldly patterned black-and-white marble floor, and clusters of teal Murano-style glass chandeliers that shift the mood from Arabesque formalism toward something closer to Mediterranean warmth.

45min drive from Manama

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