Review - Ermias Lifestyle Dubai — The SL Hotel Inspector

(Update - April 5 2021, Now closed)

In earlier reviews I said that some SL Resorts are a little bit like those Chinese theme parks, where bits and pieces of a country or continent are thrown together. Sometimes it works in SL. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Unfortunately Ermia’s Lifestyle Dubai is an example where it doesn’t work.

The problem is that Ermia’s Lifestyle Dubai tries to take elements of the RL equivalent - shopping malls, rooftop bars, fancy cars, swimming, luxury villas and the desert - and cram them all into one relatively small area.

The end result is that it doesn’t do any one element justice. It would have been much better to just take one thing (the desert oasis comes to mind) and do something really amazing around it.

The detail and ratings

The overall look and feel

The resort includes a small desert, a ‘fashion district’ (shops), a car showroom, a museum, a spa and a rooftop bar.

Dotted around you have a few villas, and there is also an underwater experience, with two villas in the sea itself.

Yes the actual Dubai does have these things. The actual Dubai is also a big place if you drive down the coast from the airport. Transplanted into Second Life it felt crowded, almost claustrophobic.

Rating - 2 / 5

The facilities

The desert area is good, and the rooftop bar and pool are nice. I am not so sure about the shops, would you go to a restricted sim (which this is, you can’t just visit without making a booking) to go shopping?

The underwater area is worth a visit. Actually it looked almost a carbon copy of the underwater experience at Mykonos.

Rating - 3/5

The villas

We stayed in one of the two waterfront villas, which was really beautifully designed. The actual villa was probably the best part of the stay. I also had a look inside the underwater and desert villas, which looked great.

What I didn’t like so much was the use of ban lines. I wish restricted sims wouldn’t do this. Surely by making the sim invite only you control who comes in and out anyway?

Also, this resort is quite expensive, the cheapest room is 3000L a night.

Rating - 3.5/5

The anims

Good, everything seemed to work with not a lot of adjustment needed, especially in the jacuzzi, in the bar and desert tents.

Rating - 4/5

Other things to consider

Is the resort adult - Yes

Privacy - This is a restricted sim, so only guests and staff have access (you get a group tag when you check in)

Lag - I had some issues, and the sim was not very busy

Prices - 3000 to 6500L a night, quite expensive compared to other resorts

Conclusion

Should you stay here? I liked the villas, but the prices are high and the resort tries to pack too much into a relatively small space.

It’s worth mentioning that the starting price of 3000L would get you six days in a suite at the Rizzi on the Beach or Lotus Palace, or three nights mid-week at Lush Tulum.

With thanks to

Amanda who modelled and came with me. Amanda has a great Flickr feed, with a very unique (and great) style. Be sure to give her a follow.

Review - Ermias Lifestyle Dubai