Have stayed at the Meridien Spa twice now and it has to have been one of the best hotels I have stayed in. If we are flying through Dubai it is the only place the family will stay in for a couple of days stop over.
Upon arrival in Dubai, after negotiating the immigration queues. LeMeridien will meet you (if prearranged) and drive you to the resort. The hotel is situated about 25 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes from the centre of Dubai. Taxis are available but last time I visited it was a nightmare trying to find one at 3 in the morning! You cannot walk from your hotel into town unless you are mad!
Wild Wadi is close by, 10 minutes by taxi.
Upon arrival everything is taken care of, your luggage taken to your room while you register and sign in. Welcome drinks upon arrival and some air conditioning!
Last time we stayed in the Club tower, in a large double room with an extra pull out bed and a cot. All four of us squeezed in no problem. The room had a balcony view over the pool area and views of the ocean. The room is very modern and clean. Serviced daily and extra towels if required are only a call away. The service is excellent and all the staff are very friendly and welcoming. The cost of the room was about £140 per night inclusive of breakfast. No additional charge for the cot.
When we stay at Meridien we tend to stay on site the majority of the time as it offers everything the kids want. Two large pools, one of which is more child friendly. Plenty of shade around the pools by palms or umbrellas. Towels are provided and some body will bring round cold face flannels through out the day. Drinks will be served direct to your lounger! Kids club is available but we did not use, they are a bit small for that!
There is also a pool bar, which serves drinks and a variety of lunchtime snacks. The usual fare of sandwiches burgers, chips and pizzas is all to a high standard.
Be careful around the pool, as most surfaces are concrete block. In the midday sun these get extremely hot and our children burnt their feet a number of times. Take some flip-flops or similair.
The weekends, particularly Fridays, see the pool area very busy with a lot of the local expats using the facilities. A short walk takes you down to the beach. The sea is very warm. We tend to avoid the beach as there is little protection from the sun and it tends to be extremely hot!
Breakfast was included in our package and Meridien provide a large buffet, which is excellent. We tended to eat breakfast a little later in the morning and that sees us through most of the day. Pork products are available! Plenty of fresh fruit, cereals and eggs cooked to order.
The hotel also has a number of resteraunts, have eaten at the following… Fusion: Excellent Thai resteraunt with a contemporary theme. Meal for two came to £40 including drinks. Ossigano: Italian food to a very high standard but quite expensive. Again meal for two including wine came to around £40. The room service is excellent. Tended to feed the kids at night with room service, which was excellent value. A plate of fish and chips fed them both! Cost a fiver. We also ate in one of the bars, cant remember the name but the food was good and reasonably priced. Alcohol tends to be expensive and is limited during Ramadan
Plenty of buses if you want to go into town for shopping or sight seeing. Limousine also available if you don't want to hang around waiting for a bus. A few boutique type shops are on site for expensive gifts, but not a lot of toys available if your kids want pool toys, so bring them with you or head into town and toysrus!
The only downside to Dubai is the building works. So much development going on. While we were there we felt like we were in the middle of a building site! The Palm is being constructed in the Ocean which you can see form your balcony. Next door there was concrete pours ongoing every night! It is not very noisy but if it is your first visit to the world's biggest construction site the views can be a bit off-putting. But once inside the outside world disappears and you can relax and enjoy the heat!
To summarise if you want to stay in a reasonably priced top class hotel, which offers all your amenities for a relaxing sit in the sunshine, you can't go wrong. Very child friendly and the service is second to none! Just be aware how hot it is!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
This is a good review but although you said the hotel was reasonable you didn't give an idea of what it cost either times you were there. Plus you could add more detail about the price of food and drink. Nicola
Bollinger28 29.08.2005 09:35
Dubai is great - I'd love to go back there. It's an informative summary of the hotel, but some idea of the cost of staying there is a crucial element missing from your review. Similarly, a rough guide to the costs of eating in the various onsite restaurants would be helpful too.
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