Review: the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel – a cheap luxury Dubai beach holiday

This is my review of our stay in a suite at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel in Dubai.

Regular readers may remember my review of Jumeirah Zabeel Saray in Dubai, a pleasant but slightly chaotic beach resort on the Palm in Dubai, where we spent some time before Chrismas.

We were back in Dubai over Easter.  This is peak, peak season, and prices are c-r-a-z-y.  The Grand Deluxe Family Room at Zabeel Saray, which we had paid £400 a night for in December, was a truly ludicrous £1,300 per night.  Two connecting rooms or a suite at Madinat Jumeirah would have cost a similar amount.  Thanks, but no thanks!

Luckily, there is a secret trick which allows you to enjoy the luxury of Jumeirah’s beach resort hotels for around 35% of the usual cost!  The ‘trick’ is simple – stay at Jumeirah Emirates Towers instead.

As you can see from the photo above, Emirates Towers is a standard super-luxury business hotel.  One of those towers is the hotel, one is offices, and there is a shopping and restaurant centre linking them.  It is fairly close to the airport and on the main road that runs through Dubai.  A metro station is about 2 minutes walk away.

Whilst it is one of the oldest business hotels in Dubai (ie about 15 years old!) it has just been thoroughly refurbished.  And it has a very snazzy lobby and lift bank which kids love!

The reason to stay here – apart from the fact that it is a very nice hotel – is that you effectively get full access to Jumeirah Beach Hotel and Madinat Jumeirah as well.

The concierge desk gives you day passes for either Jumeirah Beach or Madinat Jumeirah (image below).  Once you are there (a taxi is about £7 or Emirates Towers runs a shuttle bus five times a day) you have full access to the facilities at the beach hotels.  You can use the swimming pools, the kids clubs and the beach.  As with all Jumeirah properties, you can also cross-charge to your Emirates Towers bill, so you don’t even need to carry much money around.

This arrangement works well for Emirates Towers.  Whilst other business hotels were quiet over Easter, Emirates Towers was completely full, with lots of families.  Looking at the concierge’s book, about 40% of rooms were signing out a beach or Wild Wadi Waterpark entry pass each day.

A standard room at Emirates Towers over Easter was about £200, compared to £500 to be on the beach.  Why pay £300 more per day for the sake of a £7 taxi ride each way?  Emirates Towers also has a decent pool, with a separate kids pool.

The suite we had was huge and very well suited for families.  The bedroom is triangular, and at the apex there are mattresses built in.  Your kids can therefore sleep overlooking the city and coast (if high enough).  Here are a few photos of mine to show you:

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Clearly it is not quite as convenient as being on the beach.  However, the saving is definitely worth it at peak times.  Just one quick thing to note – Emirates Towers no longer has a kids club of its own, despite what you may read elsewhere (and, indeed, on the hotel website!).

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