One of the newer five star hotels in Dubai, the Four Seasons Dubai Jumeirah is a chic hotel offering beachside luxury to guests in its 237 rooms and suites.
The hotel has an imposing and attractive Mediterranean-style exterior while inside you’ll find marbled corridors with high arches and Arabian design touches. I stayed in a deluxe skyline room with a dreamily comfortable bed, a sofa for lounging on and a well designed desk area. The room also featured an ipad for access to hotel information and services, a flat screen TV with Bluetooth speakers, reliable free wifi, and a large walk-in closet.
The bathroom was extravagant, with a standalone tub from which you could view the TV embedded in the over-sink mirror, a rain drop shower and mosaic tiled wall. The roomy balcony was one of my favourite features of the room. It had a day bed along with two comfortable chairs and a table and a distant view, stunning at night, of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, and downtown Dubai. Other rooms are sea-facing with views over the Arabian Gulf.
Breakfast is an impressive and varied buffet in the Suq restaurant. Alongside the usual Western, Arabic and Indian fare were healthy options like green juice, chia bread, almond milk and homemade granola. Or a crepe and ice cream counter if you want a rather less healthy start to your day.
There are three pools: an indoor pool in the spa, and two large, palm-fringed outdoor pools. One is an active pool; the other a quiet adults-only pool. The 24 hour gym is very well equipped and includes a good selection of free weights, including heavy weights not usually found in hotels.
The hotel is the closest beach hotel to Dubai airport and also to Dubai Mall. It’s the ideal place to stay if you want to include some serious shopping on your luxury beach holiday.
From US$285 including breakfast
– The large and peaceful adults-only pool
– Excellent service and long hours at breakfast, with the buffet available ’til 11:30
– Free non-motorised watersports such kayaks and stand-up paddle boards
– Service around the pool was poor
– Used room service trays were often left in the corridors for many hours
Steve and Candice
Review Team
Conrad Dubai is a stylish property with a great location at the beginning of Dubai’s main thoroughfare, Sheikh Zayed Road, close to the financial district and within easy reach of many of the city’s attractions.
I stayed in a 120-square-meter executive suite on the 46th floor where floor to ceiling windows afforded expansive views over low-rise old Dubai towards the sea. Light flooded the rooms and the beige décor with dark wood furnishing created a calm ambience, ideal for working or simply relaxing. The suite had a large living area with two sofas, an easy chair, and large flat-screen TV, along with a dining area with large table.
Through to the bedroom, where there was a second TV, a double bed and a well positioned desk. There was a walk-in closet and plenty of drawer space. The bathroom was one of the highlights of the suite, with a stand-alone bathtub perfectly set next to a huge window to take in the view while having a soak.
The hotel’s pool area is home to the Purobeach-branded sun lounge, bar and restaurant area, which is very popular and has nightly DJ sessions. Guests are spoiled with complimentary mineral water, fruit and cold towels provided at their sun lounger.
My room allowed access to the executive lounge which served breakfast, light snacks at lunch, along with free pour drinks for two hours in the evening. The lunch offering was minimal but this may have been because I visited during Ramadan.
Conrad Dubai is a good hotel, ideally located for pleasure as well as for business.
Deluxe room from US$225 including breakfast, executive suite from US$575 including executive lounge access
– Excellent location 15 minutes from the airport with a metro station right outside
– Close to Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall and also old Dubai
– Tasteful, stylish rooms with plenty of light and huge windows
– The executive lounge was very cold
– A faulty fridge in my room remained unrepaired for two days
Steve and Candice
Review Team
Dar al Masyaf is beautiful hotel within the extensive Madinat Jumeriah complex. It comprises a series of villas modelled on old Arabian summerhouses, set amidst meandering waterways, peaceful gardens and exclusive pools.
Each summerhouse contains a number of spacious guest rooms with roomy balconies which overlook the canals, gardens or face out to the Arabian Gulf. Sit on the balcony and experience a palpable serenity or relax in your sumptuous room complete with king bed, tiled floors and an extravagant bathroom boasting exquisite Amouage toiletries.
Guest rooms are arranged around a majilis, or traditional seating area, in an open air courtyard with cool tiles and trickling fountain. Complimentary evening sundowners and snacks are served here by the villa butler or, when the summer heat makes sitting outdoors uncomfortable, in the indoor majilis where you can mingle with the small number of other guests in the villa – many of whom will count their visits to this gem of a hotel in double digits.
Travel around the complex is by golf buggy or by abra – a small wooden boat. Just make a call from your room and your transport will be with you almost immediately. Gliding almost silently along the beautiful waterways in an abra is a unique Dubai experience that is not to be missed.
Madinat Jumeirah resort is modelled as a small Arabian city and features 40 restaurants, a souk (market) in traditional style, an award winning spa, a gym as good as any independent health club, and Dubai’s longest private beach. It would be easy to spend your whole holiday here without the need to leave.
One of Dubai’s most loved hotels, Dar al Masyaf, combines tranquillity and exclusivity with the facilities of a resort. In a city blessed with an abundance of luxury hotels, Dar al Masyaf is unquestionably one of the best.
From US$490 with breakfast
– Getting around the resort’s beautiful waterways on an abra
– Stunning views of Burj al Arab from the long private beach and around the resort
– Feeling of exclusivity and tranquillity but with a large resort’s facilities on hand
– Villa butlers were sometimes hard to locate
Steve and Candice
Review Team
From the impressive atrium entrance with glass elevators to the nearly 500 works of art dotted around the hotel, Jumeriah Creekside surprises in the nicest possible way. Thoughtful touches throughout the hotel and within the rooms suggest a lot of consideration has been given to making everything easy and convenient for guests.
We stayed in a one bedroom suite which, like the rest of the hotel, was sleek and contemporary in its design. In addition to a large comfortable bed and chaise lounge, the spacious bedroom had a very well set-up desk with AV/ HDMI/ USB points making it particularly useful for business travellers. Just past the walk-in wardrobe was a bathroom well stocked with towels and toiletries and separate toilet and shower and stand-alone bath tub. The suite also had a separate living area and kitchenette and which would be handy for longer stays.
The adjoining Aviation Club has a fully equipped private members gym as well as a host of other sports facilities including a lap pool which are open to hotel guests.
The hotel is located in Deira, in old Dubai, and the rooftop bar, Cu-Ba, has wonderful views over the Creek, towards Burj Khalifa. It’s very close to a metro station and next door to Dubai’s most famous pub, the Irish Village, and the restaurant complex around it. The hotel’s Blue Flame restaurant was excellent but if you fancy eating elsewhere there are plenty of options just outside the hotel.
From the very friendly staff to the scrupulous attention to detail and wonderful artworks, Jumeirah Creekside exceeded our expectations and is a great base near the airport and the historical and cultural attractions of Dubai.
– From US$720 (one bedroom suite); US$280 (superior king room)
– complimentary access to Wild Wadi water park
– complete 24 hour stays from time of check in
– abundance of restaurants just outside the hotel.
– by Dubai standards, the buffet breakfast is disappointing – poorly arranged and not a great selection
– the main pool gets short of loungers at busy times
Steve & Candice
Review Team