Dubai - Building works and Hotels

Hi folks,

Me and the other half are looking to go to Dubai mid May and so far have clocked various hotels for potential bookings.

The problem is I have looked at the hotels on tripadvisor.com and a lot of them (especially the bottom end of the beach, Hilton etc) seem to have a HUGE amount of building works going on. Now i dont mind a bit of building noise but it more the view you get, in most of the pics i have seen it pretty much beautiful sea in front then you turn around and see a mass of concrete half finished!

Now I have noticed that a lot of V-flyers seem to be heading off to Dubai in the coming months and I have picked through the forums and there seem to be no specific posts relating to the best hotels to stay in if you are wanting minimal construction in the surrounding area.

One thought I had was to stay more in the city, the Shangri-la seem good and they also seem to have a deal with one of the beach hotels for guests to use the private beach areas.

So basically, Nice hotel, minimal construction any ideas greatfully recieved!
[y]

[HighFlyer]

Hiya

Yes, you are right in that there are a group pf V-Flyers off to DXB in March/April - i am one of them! We will of course be more than happy to fill you in on the situation on our return.

There is another thread here asking the same question, so its obviously on a few peoples minds.

As the inaugral isnt until the end of next month i doubt there will be too many of us off to DXB beforehand to advise you of the current situation, maybe posting your query on another forum such as FlyerTalk may gain some useful responses until we all get back - with the V-Flyer dossier on DXB

Thanks,
Sarah

Ah apologies managed to miss that thread![:I]

[HighFlyer]

No worries, as i say, im sure a lot of people are worried about the building work so it will crop up now and again.

Sorry i cnat give you better advice on where to stay - although hopefully there will be a haven of information on our return.

Thanks,
Sarah

Out of interest, seen as you seem to be as busy as me at work, where did you pick in the end?

[HighFlyer]

Im staying at the Burj Al Arab for the first night and the Regent Beach Resort for the next two. I had to stay at the Burj, its not cheap but i couldnt go all that way without experiencing it, so im staying there with another V-Flyer - we'll gladly get lots of pictures and make the most of our Butler for the one day we are there!

Moving to the Regent after that as its inexpensive (will need it after the Burj!) and close to the beach and shopping. Im intending on doing not a lot other than sightseeing, flexing the credit card in the mall, and working on my tan for those two days so it suits me fine!

To be honest, im there such a short time that i didnt really give the building work much thought, hopefully all will be ok with what i hae chosen.

Must dispell this myth that i dont do much work ... [:w] I do work, i swear, today im BETA Testing, i just have to have my V-Flyer catch up and my cup of tea before i get started ...

I'm in the Regents Beach for the whole 11 nights so will be happy to let you know of how things are. Again chosen for the economic price and location to beach and shops.

Iain

Highflyer - excellent - glad you're staying at least one night at the Burj. Don't forget to stuff your cases full of those Hermes toiletries!!

[HighFlyer]

Highflyer - excellent - glad you're staying at least one night at the Burj. Don't forget to stuff your cases full of those Hermes toiletries!!

Im glad too!! Oh dont worry, the Hermes will be coming with me!!!

Huum thats one place i had overlooked, looks nice!

Thanks for all comments and suggestions guys, just look at stuff and it seems to be a minefield of nice places.

HighFlyer you seem to have formulated the same plan as me, tanning and shopping seem to go down well with the other half!

If you dont mind me asking who did everyone book with in the end?? Not booked online for a while as I used to have a good friend who worked at Travelbag and we got some cracking deals but sadly that option is no longer available to us!
[n]

[honey lamb]

I'm booked to stay at the Hilton Dubai Creek. I'm not a beach person and the hotel will be handy for the souks and also my son who [understatement] plays golf [/understatement]

Hi,

I am staying at the Jumeirah Madinat Dar Al Masyaf and it has been confirmed by the hotel that all building work around this area has been completed.

Hope this helps,

Tom

We were there in October and all the building work is further south of the Burj and Madinat complex on the way to the Jebel Ali area.

Some of the hotels (off the top of my head) that are affected are Hiltin Jum Beach, One and Only resort, Habtoor, Grosvenor House, Royal Meridien. There are a few more but I can't remember their names.

HighFlyer - watch the drinks prices at the Burj and DO NOT touch their mini bar. It's approx £7-8 a drink. Go the spa swimming pool if you have time - it's nice swimming to the edge and looking out from a high floor. If you email the hotel and request a high floor they'll usually oblige. I hope you get an invite to the Manager's cocktail party, it's a good way to people watch and get free champers! NB. The female Hermes is a little strong but the male Rocabar smells much nicer.

Honeylamb - It's lovely staying on the Creek, it's really nice at night - we stayed at the Intercontental and found it was great being so close to the shopping and gold souk.

Don't forget the fake handbags/watches at Karama market - just a square of dodgy shops that you go to and get shown into a back room where they have masses of fake items - haggle too, it usually works.

Enjoy - I'm waiting to get something booked again this year - either May or October - just waiting for the credit card bill to clear a little following Vegas!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, time to make a choice!!

I was out there last week and stayed in the Hilton Dubai Creek and it was very nice. They have a shuttle bus to the Hilton Jumeirah Beach hotel and back. The beach hotel does have a lot (and I mean a lot) of building work going on around it. We only used the beach and you could hear the work but it was not that bad. Could not say what it was like in the rooms. The bus is OK other than it does not go that often and the 5pm one takes anything from 60 - 90 mins back because of the trafic (taxi is only 50Dhs though).
The rooms in the Hilton Dubai Creek are great.

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by jt
I was out there last week and stayed in the Hilton Dubai Creek and it was very nice.

The rooms in the Hilton Dubai Creek are great.

Oooh, good! That's where I'm staying [y]

Do you know how near is the golf course for his nibs?

Well not being a golf man (more of a beach man) can not say the exact distance but the golf course by the creek is not far away. It is just past the city centre shopping mall and by the tennis courts I think. We walked to the shopping mall and it took 15 mins so it will only be a very short taxi ride to the course I would have thought.

[honey lamb]

I'm bringing this back up to the top again having just returned from Dubai. We stayed at the Hilton Dubai Creek but one day I took the shuttle bus to the Hilton Jumeira Beach. For the sake of those wondering about the amount of construction here are a couple of photos

The hotel is in the forefront and as you can see is completely dwarfed by the building

To the side of the hotel there is even more construction

and somewhere in the middle of those building is a Sheraton hotel [:0]

{mcuth: edited {img} tags to {photo} to make the pics fit the page better}

The photo's honeylamb is referring to are here and here.

As she says, a few cranes in view!

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by sailor99
The photo's honeylamb is referring to are here and here.

As she says, a few cranes in view!

Thanks, sailor. I thought I could get them to post but I can't [:#]

[mitchja]

I've sorted your pics HL, but I dont know how to reduce their size in order to stop the posts been too wide [:?]

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja
I've sorted your pics HL, but I dont know how to reduce their size in order to stop the posts been too wide [:?]

I did that - use the {photo} tags to produce a re-sized version of a pic hosted here. See pii of Q: How do I add images to my posts? in the FAQ post

Cheers

Michael

I didn't know about that one Mcuth. Thanks for the tip. I should say it was me that guided Honeylamb down the {img} route. So blame me rather than her for the oversized snaps.

[HighFlyer]

Thanks for the pics HL

Mitchja - Is it me? Or did it not look like that in the Jumeriah beach area? I didnt hear a single bit of construction noise, and while we saw absolutely loads of cranes on the way to the hotel while driving through the main town, where we wer staying i really couldnt say that construction was a problem. So, was it me?

Thanks,
Sarah

[mitchja]

No it wasn't you Sarah - there was no visible building construction or any signs of a crane in the Jumeriah Beach area around where the Burj or the Jumeriah Beach hotels are [y] [y]

The only thing I remember was the road works just in front of the main entrance to the hotel but that was quite a way from the actual hotels or beach area.

Regards