Hi - I'm steve - I'm new to this site but have contributed articles to Amazon and Epinions in the pa...
Hi - I'm steve - I'm new to this site but have contributed articles to Amazon and Epinions in the past.
Likes: Books, Techie Gadgets, Movies, Food & Drink
Dislikes: Bad Service, Rudeness, Generally people not doing the job they are paid to do!
Member since:06.09.2006
Reviews:6
Although new developments such as Palm Island and The World may in the future boast bigger and better hotels, right now the Jumeirah Beach Hotel holds the title of the best resort hotel in Dubai and arguably the best in the world. We spent 10 days at the hotel in Easter 2005 and will definitely be planning a return trip!
Arrival
Before we even arrived at the hotel the exceptional service started, with a limousine waiting to pick us up from the airport. After the short drive to the hotel we checked in only to be told we would have a wait for our rooms to be available (we had been warned of this in advance by the hotel due to our early arrival time). The hotel are well used to early arrivals however and we were escorted to one of the restaurants for a complementary buffet breakfast. We were also given passes for use of all facitilities including the ubiqitous pool towels.
Rooms
The rooms are massive and very well-appointed with a large King-Sized double bed, a huge marble bathroom (with all manner of toiletries and big fluffy towels!), a large desk, bedside tables etc. All the rooms have large picture windows and our room also had a balcony which looked out at the beach and the Burj Al Arab hotel (yes that one from the tennis advert) which is lit up at night by a laser display.
The only downside to the room was the kids beds - given the ample amount of space the children's beds (which were of the metal-frame fold up variety) were a little on the small size, particularly for older children.
Pool/Beach Areas
There are two large free-form swimming pools at the hotel plus a more formal 25-metre 4-lane swimming pool for the serious swimmer. The free-form pools include a number of features such as "surprise" water jets, a mini-waterfall and mini-slide. There are also seperate jaccuzzi's by the pool area. A supervised children's club is sitiuated next to the right-hand pool and the staff were very helpful and friendly, although my kids only used it a couple of times. There were more than enough loungers to go round, no need to sneak down at 6am to bag a seat! You are also allowed to take as many pool tools as you need. The staff around the pool were very helpful, and there were regular rounds of complementary watermelon, Ice creams and cold face cloths! We didn't really use the beach to be honest, such was the quality of the pool area.
Restaurants & Bars
The range of restaurants and bars in the hotel is just awesome with over 20 places to drink and eat! Firstly you have the ground floor "collonade" which is a buffet-style restaurant which we used on our first night at the hotel and also for a few of the breakfasts. There is sooo much choice that you could eat here every breakfast, lunchtime and evening and never have the same meal!
Next there is the beacombers restaurant, which is a poslynesian-style eatery serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Situated behind the pool area this is one of the more casual restaurants and beachwear is allowed at lunchtimes which is handy if you fancy a bite to eat after a hard morning's lounging by the pool!
The Go West restaurant is a good choice for families with a Tex Mex style menu and live entertainment - the BBQ Pork Ribs were definitely one of my daughter's culinary highlights of the holiday!
More formal dining includes Carnevale a very nice Italian restaurant (ask to sit in the outdoor balcony area for great views along the beach/resort), the MarinaSeafood Restaurant where you can choose the exact fish you want from their seafood "deli counter", La Parilla an Argentinian restaurant with excellent steaks and live Tango Dancing and The Apartment, an adults-only restaurant serving fench-style cuisine.
Once the kids were safely tucked up in bed we often went up to the appropriately named Uptown Bar, which is on the 24th floor and offers excellent views right the way down Jumeirah Beach, from the outdoor terrace. There is also an "English-style" pub, The Dow and Anchor(!?) and a nightclub on the ground/basement floor, but being "old-foggies" we didn't get that far!
PS. With the exception of the buffet restaurant, other eating places require an advance booking, so best to do this on your first day to make sure you get the best choice of dining times and restuarants - you can also book for the restaurants in the Burj Al Arab, but all that seemed available when we tried were lunctime bookings.
Other Facilities
All residents of the hotel have complementary access to the adjoining Wild Wadi water park, which is a must if you have kids! Hotel guests can get access 1 hour before the general public which is just as well as it gets pretty busy by lunctime and the queue wait can be 30 minutes plus per ride. As well as a variety of log flume type rides there is also a large wave pool complete with its own beach area and loungers which is ideal if you just want to relax and let the kids run riot on the slides.
There is a Gymn in the hotel (next to the 25 Metre Pool) which is very well equipped with the usual range of bikes, treadmills, rowing machines etc. I used this on a couple of occasions (feeling guity after a particularly large meal the night before!) and there was always plenty of spare equipment.
There are a wide range of watersports including windsurfing, water skiing, Kayaks etc. available from the Marina area. I took the kids on a Pedalo around the harbour which was quite amusing peddling past a row after row of multi-million pound yachts!
The hotel itself is adjacent to the Madinat Jumeirah complex, all owned by the same group, and which comprises two boutique style hotels, an authentic souk with many shops, a theatre / auditorium (Pavorotti played there on his "farewell" tour), a venice style "lagoon" complete with gondolas and more restaurants than you can shake a stick at (The Wharf restaraunt being a particular favourite of ours). All of these restaurants can be booked via Jumeirah Beach reservations.
We also ventured out of the hotel complex on a couple of nights to eat. The Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht club has an excellent seafood restaurant (Acquarium) with a floor to ceiling exotic fish tank which has to be seen to be belived. There is also a nice boardwalk-style outdoor dining area which is popular at lunctimes. The other restaurant we went out to was "The Alamo" (part of the Marine Beach resort, about 30 minutes in a taxi from the Jumeirah Beach) which does good Mexican-style food (and particularly nice Margaritas!) at reasonable prices (for Dubai) and is popular with families.
In Summary
Dubai is a great place to holiday but it ain't cheap (expect to pay £4 for a beer, £20 for table wine and £40 per adult for an evening meal). The Jumeirah Beach itself worked out at about £350 per night for the accomodation only but it is worth every penny and given the choice of going on no holiday for a couple of years to afford a return trip I'd gladly do it! The weather gets VERY hot in Dubai from about May onwards with temperatures of 40-degrees plus until about October, making Easter the best (and most popular) time to go (particurlarly if you have kids). There is a huge amount of development going on in Dubai and I'm sure that eventually an even better hotel will be opened, but for now the Jumeirah Beach remains the blue-riband resort hotel in the area and easily the best we have ever stayed at!
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I WANNA GOOO!! :'( :'( i would give anything to go there but the flight is so expensive yet alone having to pay for the hotel, but i have family members living there so i will probably stay with them! Zee.
darren1982 20.09.2006 21:18
Very good detailed review, I enjoyed the read... Darren.
The Jumeirah Beach Hotel is a resort hotel offering 5-star luxury at an amazing beach ... more
location. Enjoy the beautiful surroundings and the finest in facilities, food and service.This hotel is located on its own private beach. All the luxurious rooms and...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. The Jumeirah Beach Hotel is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on a ... more
private beach next to Wild Wadi Waterpark. Palm Island, a man made island in the shape of a palm tree, is located five kilometres away and Dubai city centre is 15 kilo...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. The Jumeirah Beach Hotel is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on a ... more
private beach next to Wild Wadi Waterpark. Palm Island, a man made island in the shape of a palm tree, is located five kilometres away and Dubai city centre is 15 kilo...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
very helpful by (100%):
