With its huge hotels and even huger experiences, Dubai is a world unto itself
A popular stopover en route to Europe – more than 17 million visitors popped in last year – it could easily be a destination in its own right.
Is that stingray smiling? It’s not the most likely question from a journalist, and yet there it is, front row of my supposed-to-be-stilled mind during a meditation morning in the Persian Gulf. It’s 8am on an already roasting day in Dubai, too early for the breakfast buffet rush at the massive Atlantis, The Palm resort, and a couple of hours before its popular aquatic outlets officially open.
Later in the morning the Lost Chambers Aquarium will be buzzing with families mesmerised by the 65,000 marine animals that call its 10m-high glass compound home. But right now, in a cool, partly darkened space deep inside the aquarium, it’s quiet and serene, and the bi-weekly sound healing meditation session has begun.
Facing one of the glass walls of the chamber, which is teeming with life beneath a gleaming sun, the 50-minute vibration-laden experience, according to the in-house blurb, will “help you find deeper levels of wisdom and resilience while in a meditative state” – an ideal antidote for this frenetic city.
Lying fishwards on a yoga mat (and defying the guide’s suggestion to close your eyes), you can, it turns out, reach a pretty fine state of relaxation following the schools of aquatic life serenely swimming metres from your feet.
There are gropers and sharks and several rays, one of which starts to glide vertically mid-meditation session, its underside facing the glass wall. With its gills set in the shape of a happy face, for a moment it looks like the ray is jumping up and down and smiling – perhaps not the outcome the brochure envisaged, but still an amusing moment of serenity in a stay that is anything but demure.
Mostly Dubai feels like it’s on steroids. Think of it as Uberville, a place of bold architecture, high fashion, statement restaurants and mighty statistics. The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, is here, and so is the world’s most visited retail destination, Dubai Mall, which receives more than 100 million visitors a year. From above, the tax-free city looks like a flat monotone of beige. But on the ground it gleams with freeways, skyscrapers, a futuristic museum and every hotel brand imaginable.
A 35-minute drive from Dubai’s airport (the world’s busiest until recently) and sitting in the middle of The Palm (the world’s largest collection of artificial islands), Atlantis Dubai is a 63ha site that houses several enormous hotels.
Family-friendly Atlantis, The Palm was here first, opening in 2008. With 1500 spacious rooms, three seemingly endless pools and 2km of beachfront, the hotel spans the equivalent of 64 soccer pitches. It has 35 restaurants and bars, a kids’ club and a long list of daily activities.
Neighbouring Atlantis The Royal, launched last year in a three-day extravaganza headlined by Beyoncé, is pitched as “the most ultra-luxury experiential resort in the world”. Statistics-wise, it’s also home to more celebrity chef restaurants than anywhere else in the world, with headliners including Heston Blumenthal, José Andrés and Persian chef Ariana Bundy.
A stay here is not cheap, but it is definitely memorable. Rooms, many of which look out to the hotel’s fire-breathing fountain, are cool and spacious, with beautiful bedding and luxury toiletries.
Plenty of options for relaxing are included, from the busy lounge in the lobby to the poolside recliners, coveted no matter how hot it is outside.
Still, your luxury holiday can be further enhanced, depending on the depths of your pockets. On one of the hotel’s higher levels, Cloud 22 feels like a private swimming club, with its long infinity pool overlooking the Dubai skyline.
There are endless spots to relax in and around the water and adjoining bar, where single sun lounges can be rented, for a hefty fee, for four hours. For a more spacious, cooler option, many patrons opt for a private, airconditioned cabana, from where they can also feast from the Dolce & Gabbana-inspired menu and dip into their own small pool.
No matter where you laze up here, expect to see a few patrons strutting around the infinity pool in their blue and white Dolce & Gabbana outfits – in exactly the same pattern as the lush Dolce & Gabbana towels on each lounge chair – without the slightest hint of irony, and somehow resisting any urge to get wet. In sweltering Dubai, water is a recurrent theme, and not just because it can feel like the hottest place on Earth, the temperature rarely dropping below 35 degrees at night during an early summer stay. Atlantis The Royal was inspired by Bedouin tribes whose water wells, which they used to navigate, were the lifeblood of their desert lives. As well as the hotel’s focal-point fountain, there’s an alluring aquarium wall, plus a lift, enclosed in a watery tube, that takes you to one of the hotel’s signature spots, the Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurant. And that’s just the lobby. As the welcome point to the resort, it’s a totem for the city itself: shiny, new and proudly overstated.
In the race between bigger and better, it’s hard to say which one Dubai does best. A touch like Macau, with its enormous resorts, but with so many quintessential date palms that let you know you’re in the heart of the Gulf states, it’s a bit like many places, and also like nowhere else.
A popular stopover en route to Europe – more than 17 million visitors popped in last year – it could easily be a destination in its own right.
Checklist
Getting there: Emirates has direct daily flights to Dubai from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. emirates.com
Stay: Luxurious Atlantis The Royal and its more family-friendly sibling Atlantis, The Palm are both part of the enormous Atlantis Dubai resort. Rates start from $325 for Atlantis, The Palm and from $853 for Atlantis The Royal and are subject to change. At Cloud 22, four hours’ use of a single sunlounge costs AED295 ($122), and all-day cabana use is from AED3000 ($1238). atlantis.com
Eat: If big-name chefs are your thing, you may never eat anywhere else. If you stay long enough, you can feast from a different celebrity menu every day. Standouts include a more-ish crispy shiitake salad, the famous black cod miso, and a sensational grilled wagyu at Nobu at Atlantis, The Palm. And while its eponymous chef may rarely come to town, his perfectionist stamp is all over the beautiful Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at Atlantis The Royal, where meticulously trained staff provide as much information as you desire about an extraordinary menu that features many of Blumenthal’s most famous dishes.
Must do: Given how hot summers can be, and the city’s tendency towards lavishness, it’s not surprising that Dubai also boasts the world’s largest theme park. Aquaventure Waterpark has more than 100 slides, towers and lagoons, which could easily take a day to experience. Or you can just grab an inflatable ring and float around the property. Entry to the water park, and its aquarium, is included for guests at both Atlantis Dubai hotels. aquaventureworld.com
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