Dubai

I have been lucky enough to visit Dubai twice. The first time was on a works educational so I saw lots of different hotels and actually stayed in four different hotels during my trip. My second visit was on the way back from a holiday in the Maldives. Dubai is perfect to combine with further afield destination like the Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Thailand etc. Or you can also do Dubai as a single holiday in its own right. It has so much to offer with fantastic beaches, gorgeous hotels, stunning marinas, brilliant service and also the largest shopping mall in the world! What more could you need?

I stayed in three hotels on my first visit which was an educational hosted by the Jumeirah group. The first was the Jumeirah Emirates Towers which is located in the city. It is a lovely hotel for a short stay or for those travelling on business as although it is a city hotel it is about 20 minutes from the beach (by taxi) and it has a really nice pool area with a view of the Burj Khalifa.

Secondly I stayed in the Jumeirah Beach Hotel which was really lovely. My room overlooked the famous Burj Al Arab hotel and was decorated to a very high standard. The hotel is positioned directly on the beach and it is also next door to the wild wadi waterpark which guests of the hotel have free access to. This is a great hotel for families and young couples looking for a livelier hotel.

My third hotel was the Jumeirah Madinat resort which is made up of 3 luxurious hotels (Mina A'salam, Al Qasr & Dar Al Masyaf). The resort is also on the beach front, is a very big complex and is one of my favourites in Dubai. It is centred round a large lagoon and they use gondolas to transport guests between the various facilities of the resort including, 44 restaurants, cafes and bars, leisure facilities, spas, water sports and also its own souk. My room was in the Mina A'salam hotel and my room was extremely comfortable and of a high standard.

The fourth and final hotel during this trip was the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray which is located on the palm. The standards of this hotel are extremely high and I would recommend to people looking for the ultimate in luxury. My room was amazing (I had never seen anything like it). All areas of this hotel are very luxurious and it has the most amazing infinity pool area that looks over the rest of the palm.

During my second visit to Dubai (which was on the way back from the Maldives) I stayed at The Address Downtown Dubai. I choose to stay here as I had already had a beach holiday in the Maldives and felt that this would be a more suitable location. The hotel is next to the Dubai Mall and overlooks the Dubai fountains and the Burj Khalifa. I would highly recommend this hotel as the rooms, service and everything about it was perfect. The Dubai mall has many lovely restaurants that overlook the fountains and I particularly enjoyed eating in these at night.

I have also done several excursion in Dubai including the tour of the Burk Khalifa (Don't do this if you are scared of heights) and I also did a desert safari including 4x4 dune bashing which was lots of fun but certainly not for the faint hearted.

As I mentioned before, Dubai is a great destination weather you are looking to visit on its own or twinning it with another place to break up the journey. Dubai really does have something to offer everyone.