The Best Luxury Hotels in Dubai (Six Stays, and Where We'd Actually Send You)
The Best Luxury Hotels in Dubai (Six Stays, and Where We'd Actually Send You)
The thing nobody tells you about Dubai is that the hotel decision is really a neighborhood decision. Downtown, Jumeirah Beach and Palm Jumeirah are all “Dubai,” but the city is enormous, it’s too hot to walk anywhere for most of the year, and it wasn’t built with pedestrians in mind. Wherever you sleep is roughly where your trip happens — everything else is a taxi ride you’ll take more often than you’d like.
We’ve stayed at six hotels in Dubai — some as a couple, some with our son Axel when he was still a baby. Here’s how we’d split them up, by the part of the city you actually want to wake up in.
If you want to be in the middle of everything: Downtown Dubai
Downtown is where the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Fountain and the Dubai Mall all sit within a few minutes of each other. Stay here and you can see most of the city’s headline attractions without getting into a car.
The Armani Hotel is the one we’d pick for the address alone: it’s inside the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, with the Dubai Mall next door and the fountain show right outside. They collected us from the airport in the hotel’s Bentley — which was Axel’s first flight ever, and quite a way to start. Inside, the lighting stays dim even in the middle of the afternoon and there’s a scent in the lobby I still can’t describe. Our room had curved windows that wrapped around the side of the building, and the best part was the bathroom: dark wood panelling everywhere, a full-sized tub, and Armani body wash I very nearly stole.
Eat at Amal, their Indian restaurant — take an outdoor table on the terrace, order a set menu, and let the chef pick the wine to go with it. You’re looking straight down at the fountains while you eat. Fair warning: if you like a bright, airy hotel, this is the opposite of that on purpose.
“They collected us from the airport in the hotel’s Bentley — which was Axel’s first flight ever, and quite a way to start.
The Palace Downtown is the alternative if all that glass and dark chrome isn’t your thing. It’s built to look like a traditional Arabian palace — you arrive through an archway gate in a battlemented wall, up a palm-lined drive, into a lobby of arches, hanging lanterns and a fountain scattered with red flower petals and candles. That entrance was my favorite part of the whole hotel. It’s also physically connected to the Dubai Mall, so the Burj Khalifa and the fountains are a walk, not a drive.
Book dinner at Asado, their Argentine restaurant, and ask for a table out on the patio at the edge of the lake — you get a nearly unobstructed view of the nightly fountain show. Order something off the parilla section and don’t skip the provoleta, the baked provolone dish; it’s one of the best versions we’ve had. One caveat: our room was one of the smaller ones they offer, so if space matters, book up a category.
The Palace is also the hotel that gave us the single kindest thing that happened on that trip. A staff member overheard us mention it was Axel’s four-month birthday during our stay, and a cake for him and sparkling cider for us turned up in our room.
“A staff member overheard us mention it was Axel’s four-month birthday during our stay, and a cake for him and sparkling cider for us turned up in our room.
The Shangri-La is the one to book if you want the view rather than the walk. It stands almost directly in front of the Burj Khalifa, and the balconies on the 41st floor give you the best downtown photos in the city — that’s the whole reason to stay here. The chandelier in the lobby drops several floors with the staircase wrapped around it, so you’re forced to admire it on your way up. They also do the arrival gesture better than almost anyone: we were met with a bag of treats and a cake decorated to look like a bed with a little bathrobe draped over it.
Eat at Hoi An, their Vietnamese restaurant, and get the spring rolls, which are rolled at your table. Two honest notes: our Horizon Club deluxe room was fine for two and tight for three, and the rooftop pool is indoors — lovely through the floor-to-ceiling windows, but not an outdoor pool. The hotel runs a free hourly shuttle to the Dubai Mall, which spares you the heat.
“The balconies on the 41st floor give you the best downtown photos in the city — that’s the whole reason to stay here.
If you want the beach and the marina: Jumeirah Beach
Jumeirah Beach is the coastal, going-out side of the city, with the marina’s shops and restaurants right there. You trade the walk-to-the-Burj convenience for actual sand.
The Four Seasons is the one we’d recommend first in Dubai, full stop. It’s over 200 rooms and still feels like a beach hotel rather than a tower. Apart from the penthouse, the rooms are all about the same size and layout, so the only real decision is whether you want to wake up to the sea or fall asleep to the city — ours was a deluxe sea-view where the balcony ran on as an extension of the bedroom, and the bathroom and closet together were double the size of our house back home.
There are ten restaurants and bars. Sea Fu is the one to book: right on the beach, sushi and sashimi to start, then grilled seabass and wok-fried chicken, with the waves going the whole time. Mercury Lounge, the rooftop bar, has the best views of the city with the Burj Khalifa in the background, and hotel guests get preferential seating — go around sunset, before the crowd. The cocktails up there are basic, though, so order a Negroni or sparkling wine and spend your attention on the snacks instead.
I spent my 32nd birthday at this hotel, and Chris arranged the entire day with their team: breakfast by the pool where a birthday crepe with candles appeared, then a private cabana for the rest of the day. Because our flight out was at 2:00 AM, they let us keep using everything right up until we left. That’s the part I’d actually pay for — the service, not the marble.
“That’s the part I’d actually pay for — the service, not the marble.
Rixos Premium is the same stretch of beach with a completely different personality. Two glass towers that look like cut crystal, an enormous mirrored lobby with three-storey windows, a nightclub downstairs, and a pool scene that runs like a Las Vegas pool party — cabanas, a DJ, champagne. If that’s not your trip, that’s a real reason to stay somewhere else; if it is, nowhere in Vegas has a beach like this. One door puts you on the sand, the other into the marina’s shopping center.
We booked a premium two-bedroom suite with a nearly 360-degree view — the Gulf, the beach, the skyline, the Dubai Eye ferris wheel, and the sail-shaped Burj al Arab in the distance on a clear day — and we spent hours just looking out of it. Eat at Turquoise, the Turkish restaurant, and try to time your stay around one of their themed dinners: their Istanbul night comes with baklava, cilbir and raki alongside live music and belly dancers, and the Na Zdorovie Russian brunch runs to caviar, borscht and blinis with champagne. They’re popular enough that even hotel guests need a reservation, so book on arrival, not the night of. And for all the party framing, it worked completely fine with a baby in tow.
“If you have ever been to a Las Vegas pool party you will have an idea of the atmosphere — except nowhere in Vegas has a beach like this.
If you want to be out on the Palm
The Waldorf Astoria sits on Palm Jumeirah, the man-made island built in the shape of a palm tree. Getting there is part of it: you drive up the trunk past the entrances to each frond, through a tunnel that runs under the sea, and back up onto the outer circle that wraps around the island. It’s a resort rather than a city hotel, so expect water activities and kids around the pool.
Our King Premier room was done in teal and sandstone with a big bathroom, twin vanities and a screen looking through to the bedroom — ask for a high floor and you get either the palm on one side or the Burj al Arab and the downtown skyline on the other. For dinner there’s Social by Heinz Beck for modern Italian and Lao for Southeast Asian, mostly Vietnamese. If you can, pay up for club lounge access: the lounge is on the top floor overlooking the pool and the water, with the marina skyline behind it, and cocktails and canapés between 5 and 7.
The catch is distance, and it’s a real one. You’re about ten minutes from the nearest hotel and twenty from the nearest mall or restaurant, so a rental car or a lot of taxis is part of the deal. Come here to stay put, not to sightsee.
“Come here to stay put, not to sightsee.
If you’re traveling with a baby
Four of these six stays were with Axel, and every hotel we stayed at was able to provide a crib — at the Armani there was already a cot waiting in the room when we walked in. Dubai in general turned out to be much easier with a baby than we expected: the airport staff walk you through the lines, and there are services that will rent you anything you didn’t want to fly with. We wrote the whole thing up separately in traveling in Dubai with a baby, including the nanny service we used so we could get an evening out.
Two things to book that aren’t a hotel
Have cocktails at At.mosphere on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa — the world’s highest bar, and the rare view venue where the drinks are as good as the view. Reserve a window seat rather than the bar; the price difference is small and the view is the entire point. Reservations are genuinely required, there’s a dress code, and you enter through the Armani Hotel at the base of the building.
Then take the seaplane tour with Seawings. It’s forty minutes in the air over the Burj al Arab, the Burj Khalifa, the World islands and Palm Jumeirah, and it is by far the best way to understand how this city is laid out. Every seat has its own window and the pilot loops around so everyone gets the same views. Bring your passport — you won’t board without it — and leave the tripod and selfie stick at the hotel.
How we’d actually plan a first trip to Dubai
Start Downtown for two or three nights so you can do the Burj Khalifa, the fountains and the mall on foot, then move to Jumeirah Beach for the back half of the trip and stop moving. Downtown for the sightseeing, the beach for the rest. Save the Palm for a trip where you want a resort and nothing else, and book the seaplane early — seeing the city from above first makes everything you visit afterwards make more sense.
