Le Meridien Hotel Dubai

I'm the first to admit that in city of Five Star Hotels, this one may be pushing it a little to claim that's what it is...certainly it's a four. However, having stayed at the Palace at the One&Only Royal Mirage in June 2004 and July 2005, then staying here in August 2004, I'd definitely say the service is just as good - it's only the fabric of the hotel that lets it down a bit.

Stayed here on a stopover on the way back to Scotland from China for four nights to meet up with my Mum. I chose Le Meridien because at first I was meant to be staying on my own, and its location - near the airport, near the city centre, near the Deira Centre mall - was idea for what I wanted to do - chill out and do a bit of shopping. Granted, when Mum decided to join me she was unsure about the extremely short distance between the hotel and the airport, but we saw two planes a day and heard none of them...we actually saw more when we were staying at the Palace earlier that year. So that's certainly not anything to worry about...consider it handy because it's only a five minute transfer.

The choice of restaurants at Le Meridien is exceptional, and the food phenomenal. I loved the breakfasts and the different themed restaurants offered something for everyone. It was also great being in Dubai when it's slightly cooler and you could enjoy sitting outside, something that is easily done at many of the restaurants at the Meridien.

The hotel has two pools - one lap, one free form. We chose to sit at the lap pool as there weren't so many children, but I think they were still both pretty quiet. The pool menu was excellent and the little touches, like an orchid on each tray, made sharing a club sandwich mid afternoon that bit more glamorous!

As I said, vicinity to shops is great - it's easy to get a taxi outside the hotel, or use the hotel's limo service - we use it once to get to Wild Wadi, which cost around £15. It's not actually much for the distance traveled, especially compared to taxis in the UK, but in terms of the cost of a normal cab, it's pretty much treble the cost.

There was some building work going on at the hotel in August last year - the lobby patisserie was being renovated, but the broad choice of places to eat meant we didn't miss it. It was only to be close for two weeks though. The food was fantastic - we ate in M's Beef Bistro and the Italian, which was amazing.

The rooms were really nice, although the bathroom needed a bit of tidying up. The hotel did get our reservation for a twin room wrong, assigning us a double for the first night (Mum arrived on the Emirates flight from Glasgow three hours before I arrived on the Emirates flight from Shanghai) - they offered us the chance to change that night, but we were both too tired, so just waited 'til next day and changed rooms after breakfast.

In conclusion, we were very impressed, especially as it only cost about £35 per person per night for B&B, and the food wasn't extortionate in the restaurants either. The staff was very friendly and showed their worth on our last night, when my Mum left her wallet in a taxi...they got onto the taxi company and got them to find the cab and bring it back.


So impressed were we that we went back in October 2005! The hotel was excellent then too - I took ill during our stay and collapsed in the hotel corridor...the staff called an ambulance, couldn't have been more helpful, and checked on me every day of our stay.

The other notable mention for this hotel is that they strive to make life easy for non-Muslim guest and Muslims alike during Ramadan, which is when we visited in October. The open fronted lobby patisserie is screened off with folding partition screens during daylight, and other screens were in place at the front of the main breakfast restaurant, so you can't see into the area. You can still eat at the pool during the day without restriction, as it's not considered to be a public area. A word of warning...you can't get food (at all easily, at any rate) in the malls during Ramadan - we sunk as low as sneaking a Mars bar into the loos at a mall for a sugar boost!

Anyway...a great hotel, helpful staff, wonderful location and excellent value.

I think since I was last there it's been renovated and prices have gone up, but it's a hotel I'll always consider for Dubai.