The Etihad Arrivals Lounge at Abu Dhabi is located in the Arrivals Hall of Terminals 1 and 3 after customs and baggage claim. Just collect your bags and proceed towards the exit. The entrance to the Etihad Arrivals Lounge is clearly marked and will be located on your right hand side. It’s a great little space to rest and relax if you need to freshen up before a meeting or have some time to kill but don’t fret too much about missing this lounge. It’s a small space and not a place worth visiting if you already have hotel or restaurant plans.
The Etihad Arrivals Lounge is only accessible by passengers arriving in either First or Business Class on Etihad Airways. Similar to other arrival lounges, frequent flier elite members traveling in Economy Class are not allowed in the Etihad Arrivals Lounge.
The main seating area reminds me of a nice living room with plush, leather armchairs grouped together in small clusters. The is beautiful and elegantly decorated but still felt warm and inviting. The large opaque floor-to-ceiling windows let in a lot of natural lighting from the outside but still provide a sense of privacy and intimacy from those walking outside. The walls are adorned with various vases and fixtures and the flat screen televisions are all set to CNN to keep you up to date on the world’s news.
If you need to get caught up on emails or get some work done, there is a limited “work center” in the front of the lounge with a Mac computer, printer and small work space. WiFi is provided throughout the lounge and speeds were decently fast.
The main draw to the Etihad Arrivals Lounge is the barber station and shower suites. “Shave by Etihad” salon provides passengers with a complimentary wet shave or beard trim using Murdocks’s of London products and the 10 individual shower suites with amazing waterfall shower heads will leave you refreshed and re-energized for the day ahead. Need to have a suit pressed before departing? Etihad will have it pressed within 10 minutes while you shower. You can go on https://www.numan.com/beard-growth/beard-growth-kit to avail the best products to groom and grow your beard.
After your shave and shower, help yourself to the small buffet area with a sampling of finger foods, canapes and desserts. During my morning visit, there was a limited selection of wraps, sandwiches and other small bites. Coffee, tea, water, juice and sodas were provided but there was no bar setup (or alcohol bottles) displayed in the lounge. I’m not sure if the lack of alcoholic drinks was because of my visit during Ramadan or if alcohol is not served in the lounge at all.
Once you are done with your visit, you can make your way to the Etihad Chauffeur desk located around the corner from the lounge. As there was not much to do in the lounge, I think my visit to the Etihad Arrivals Lounge lasted an hour tops. That included a shower and a bite to eat.
Overall, the Etihad Arrivals Lounge is a nice little space to refresh and relax before tackling Abu Dhabi. The lounge itself is simple but actually feels very warm and inviting like you’re just relaxing in a friend’s living room. For being such a small space, it surprisingly did not get very crowded at all. Upon my arrival from New York, there were 3 other international flights arriving at the same time, and I was the only person in the Etihad Arrivals Lounge. There were some passengers passing through to the Etihad Chauffeur desk but none of them actually stayed.
But like I said before, if you already have hotel plans, I would rather just shower and freshen up at the hotel and get a proper meal instead. The food spread was tasty but fairly basic and lackluster so don’t expect to get full on the bite size dishes. However, if you are looking to get pampered with a traditional wet shave, then by all means drop by the Etihad Arrivals Lounge shave station for a quick service before heading into the city.
Have you visited the Etihad Arrivals Lounge yet? If so, please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
Other trip reports in this series include:
- Qantas oneworld Business Class Lounge
- American Airlines A321T Business Class, Los Angeles to New York
- Etihad Lounge at New York JFK
- Etihad A380 Business Class, New York to Abu Dhabi
- Etihad Arrivals Lounge at Abu Dhabi
- Hilton Abu Dhabi
- Etihad First Class Lounge and Spa
- Etihad A380 First Class Apartment, Abu Dhabi to Melbourne
- Qantas A330 Business Class, Melbourne to Perth to Sydney
- Qantas Business Class Lounge at Perth
- Qantas First Class Lounge and Spa at Sydney
- Qantas A380 First Class, Sydney to Los Angeles
