Dubai, from the Palm to the Creek
Dubai keeps its grand hotels along the water, and the skyline for the houses that prefer it. Those on the water stand on the trunk and crescent of Palm Jumeirah, on the Jumeirah shore between the Burj Al Arab and the island of Jumeira Bay, and along the beach of JBR, Al Sufouh and the Marina at the western end of the city; those on the skyline, in Downtown and the DIFC, around the Burj Khalifa and the financial district on Sheikh Zayed Road; and the Creek, at Dubai Creek Harbour and Al Jaddaf, is the newest quarter beside the oldest waterway. We looked at every serious address in the city and kept only those whose service holds up to the best of them. Fourteen hold five-star standing; the twenty-five beside them are four-star addresses, listed at exactly the tier they hold. Thirty-nine made the cut.
Luxury hotels in Dubai
39 hotels
Palm Jumeirah
The man-made palm off the Al Sufouh shore, home to Atlantis and eight of the thirty-nine hotels. The trunk carries Nakheel Mall, The Palm Tower and the monorail; the fronds of villas branch off it, and the long crescent beyond holds Atlantis at its center and the open sea on its outer side.
The neighborhoods
Palm Jumeirah
The man-made palm off the Al Sufouh shore, home to Atlantis and eight of the thirty-nine hotels. The trunk carries Nakheel Mall, The Palm Tower and the monorail; the fronds of villas branch off it, and the long crescent beyond holds Atlantis at its center and the open sea on its outer side.
Jumeirah Beach, Madinat & Jumeira Bay
The Jumeirah shore between the Burj Al Arab and the older city, with seven of the thirty-nine hotels. The sail stands on its island, and Madinat Jumeirah, with its souk and canals, lies across the water. The shore also takes in Wild Wadi, the villas and cafés along Jumeirah Beach Road, Kite Beach and the seahorse-shaped island of Jumeira Bay.
Downtown, DIFC & Business Bay
The skyline quarter along Sheikh Zayed Road, with the Burj Khalifa and fourteen of the thirty-nine hotels. Downtown holds the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, the fountain on the lake and Dubai Opera, and the DIFC holds Gate Village and the towers of the financial district. The World Trade Centre and the Museum of the Future stand at the road's northern end, and the Dubai Water Canal runs through Business Bay.
- Armani Hotel Dubai
- Four Seasons Hotel Dubai International Financial Centre
- Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre
- The Lana, Dorchester Collection
- One&Only One Za'abeel
- The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre
- The St. Regis Downtown Dubai
- Taj Dubai
- Conrad Dubai
- Al Habtoor Palace, Dubai
- Address Downtown
- Address Sky View
- Address Dubai Mall
- Palace Downtown
Dubai Marina, JBR & Al Sufouh
The western end of the city's shore, around the Marina and the beach of JBR, with seven of the thirty-nine hotels. The towers stand around the Marina and its walk, and the beach and promenade of JBR have Bluewaters Island and Ain Dubai at the end of them. The Al Sufouh beach runs toward the foot of the Palm, and Mall of the Emirates lies inland at Al Barsha.
Dubai Creek Harbour & Al Jaddaf
The old waterway and its new quarter, Dubai Creek Harbour, with three of the thirty-nine hotels. The harbor's marina and promenade face the Ras Al Khor sanctuary and the Downtown skyline, and Al Jaddaf and its waterfront are a few minutes along the bank. Festival City lies across the water; further down the Creek are the souks and abras of Deira and Bur Dubai.
Good to know
Which are the five-star hotels in Dubai?
Fourteen. The five-star hotels we list in Dubai are Jumeirah Burj Al Arab; Atlantis The Royal; Bvlgari Resort and Residences Dubai; Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach; Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai; Armani Hotel Dubai; Address Beach Resort; Four Seasons Hotel Dubai International Financial Centre; Grosvenor House, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Dubai; Jumeirah Al Naseem; One&Only Royal Mirage – The Residence & Spa; The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai; The St. Regis Dubai, The Palm; and Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre. Alongside them we keep twenty-five four-star addresses, each listed at exactly the tier it holds: The Lana, Dorchester Collection; One&Only One Za'abeel; One&Only The Palm; One&Only Royal Mirage – Arabian Court; Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah; The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre; The St. Regis Downtown Dubai; Jumeirah Al Qasr; Jumeirah Mina A'Salam; Atlantis, The Palm; Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort; Sofitel Dubai The Palm; Fairmont The Palm; Palazzo Versace Dubai; Taj Dubai; Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates; Conrad Dubai; Banyan Tree Dubai; Al Habtoor Palace, Dubai; Address Downtown; Address Sky View; Address Dubai Mall; Palace Downtown; Address Creek Harbour; and Palace Dubai Creek Harbour. Each has its own page, reached from the list above, with a concierge behind every stay.
Which part of Dubai should I stay in?
Eight of the thirty-nine are on Palm Jumeirah – Atlantis The Royal and Atlantis, The Palm side by side at the center of the crescent; Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah, Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort and Sofitel Dubai The Palm along the east crescent; One&Only The Palm at the tip of the west crescent; The St. Regis Dubai, The Palm in the tower at the trunk and Fairmont The Palm on the trunk's western shore. Seven are on the Jumeirah shore – Jumeirah Burj Al Arab on its island, with Jumeirah Al Naseem, Jumeirah Al Qasr and Jumeirah Mina A'Salam in Madinat Jumeirah across the water; Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai on Jumeirah Beach Road; Bvlgari Resort and Residences Dubai on the island of Jumeira Bay. Fourteen are in Downtown, the DIFC and Business Bay – Armani Hotel Dubai inside the Burj Khalifa, with Address Downtown, Address Dubai Mall, Address Sky View and Palace Downtown around Dubai Mall and the lake; Four Seasons Hotel Dubai International Financial Centre, Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre and The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre in the financial district; Conrad Dubai and One&Only One Za'abeel at the World Trade Centre end of Sheikh Zayed Road; The Lana, Dorchester Collection, The St. Regis Downtown Dubai, Al Habtoor Palace, Dubai and Taj Dubai on and around the Dubai Water Canal in Business Bay. Seven are in the Marina, JBR and Al Sufouh – The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai and Address Beach Resort on the JBR beachfront, Banyan Tree Dubai on Bluewaters Island beyond it, Grosvenor House, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Dubai over the Marina, One&Only Royal Mirage – The Residence & Spa and One&Only Royal Mirage – Arabian Court on the Al Sufouh beach, and Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates inland at Al Barsha. Three are on the Creek – Palazzo Versace Dubai at Al Jaddaf, Address Creek Harbour and Palace Dubai Creek Harbour at Dubai Creek Harbour. Choose the Palm for a resort with the sea on both sides and the city at a distance; the Jumeirah shore for the beach with the Burj Al Arab in view and Downtown twenty minutes away; Downtown and the DIFC for the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, the opera and the restaurants of the financial district; the Marina and JBR for a beach with a promenade and the skyline behind it; the Creek for the quiet of the new harbor, the flamingos of Ras Al Khor and old Dubai down the water.
When is the best season for Dubai?
The winter – from late October to April – is the season: days in the mid-twenties, evenings cool enough for a terrace, a sea warm enough to swim in and every beach club and rooftop open. The weeks that fill first run from mid-December through the New Year's Eve fireworks at the Burj Khalifa and on into the Dubai Shopping Festival in January, the tennis championships in February and the Dubai World Cup at Meydan at the end of March; Art Dubai brings the galleries to Madinat Jumeirah in spring. From June to September the heat is the fact of the day – the afternoons pass forty degrees, the sea is as warm as a bath and life moves indoors, to chilled pools, the malls and Ski Dubai – and the resorts are at their quietest; May and October are the shoulders, hot but usable, with the sea at its best. Rain is rare and brief, and falls mostly between December and March. Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year – see the next question.
What changes during Ramadan?
Less than it once did. Ramadan follows the lunar calendar and moves about eleven days earlier each year, so the dates are known well ahead. The hotels' restaurants, bars and pools keep their hours and serve through the day, and most restaurants in the city now do the same, a little more discreetly; live music pauses and the beach clubs turn the volume down. Eating, drinking or smoking in the street in daylight is a courtesy to avoid. In return there is iftar, the meal at sunset, laid out in the hotels' tents and majlis with a generosity the rest of the year does not match, and the malls and souks stay open late into the night. Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of the month, fills the resorts with families from across the Gulf. Beyond Ramadan the customs are simple: modest dress in the malls, the mosques and the old city – shoulders and knees covered – and swimwear kept to the beach and the pool.
Is Dubai a good city for a stay with children?
One of the best, and the resorts are built for it. Aquaventure Waterpark and The Lost Chambers Aquarium sit inside Atlantis, The Palm, next door to Atlantis The Royal; Wild Wadi Waterpark is beside Jumeirah Burj Al Arab and Madinat Jumeirah, where the abras along the canals and the turtle lagoon at Jumeirah Al Naseem are an outing in themselves; Ski Dubai, with real snow and its penguins, is through the door of Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates; the Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo and the Dubai Fountain are at Dubai Mall, at the door of the Downtown hotels. The beach resorts of the Palm, Jumeirah and JBR keep kids' clubs, shallow pools and long, calm beaches, and in winter the desert – dunes, camels, a night under the stars – is an hour away. Distances are short by car and the malls are the answer to the heat in the middle of the day. A babysitter for an evening out is a call to the hotel.
Do I need a car in Dubai?
No, though almost everything is a ride. Dubai is a city of distances – the Palm to Downtown is twenty to thirty minutes by car, the Marina to the Creek about forty – and within each quarter the hotels put what matters at the door: Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa and the fountain from Downtown, the beach and the promenade from JBR and the Palm, the souk and the canals from Madinat Jumeirah. Taxis are everywhere and metered, ride apps work, and the Metro's Red Line runs the length of Sheikh Zayed Road with stations for the World Trade Centre, the DIFC, Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates and the Marina; the Palm Monorail links the trunk to Atlantis on the crescent, and abras still cross the Creek between Deira and Bur Dubai. Dubai International is about fifteen minutes from Downtown and the DIFC, twenty-five from the Jumeirah shore and thirty-five to forty-five from the Palm and the Marina; Al Maktoum International, to the south, is about forty minutes from the Marina. Every hotel here runs its own airport cars. Abu Dhabi and the Louvre are an hour and a quarter down the coast; the desert, Hatta in the mountains and the east coast at Fujairah are day trips.
How do I reserve a stay?
Search your dates on the hotel's page to see reference rates, then send the concierge a request. The concierge confirms exact rates and availability with you before anything is booked, and any payment and its timing are set out before you confirm.
