Our week in Dubai was amazing! Here is my review of the resort, so prepare your popcorn, sit down and please allow me to take you on a little virtual journey!
With help from our travel agency ROCS Travel in Malta, we opted to stay for a week at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray , a beachside resort located on the world-famous Palm Jumeirah, an archipelago accessible by bridge from Dubai. This hotel is one property from the hotel chain Jumeirah who has several other magnificent-looking properties around the city, including the Burj al Arab, the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, and the Madinat Jumeirah.
Just to give you an idea of where this hotel is actually located, here’s an aerial shot of The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai!
After flying with Emirates for approximately 7 hours and being chauffeured with a limousine to our destination, we walked to the grandiose reception for our check in. We arrived very late on a Thursday night, the beginning of the Dubai weekend, and immediately we were in awe – the hotel is stunning. It looks like an elegant palace, adorned with gold touches everywhere, opulent marble flooring throughout and beautiful fresh flowers and scents strategically placed on the lobby tables to welcome you with aromas to get your senses all excited. Every crevice and corner is decorated in an opulent Arabian style, and the level of detail is amazing! For those of you who followed my journey on Instagram Story you must have seen a lot of what we saw every day!
We checked in and were accompanied to a Deluxe King Palm view room. It offered 46 square metres of Ottoman-inspired luxury with a private balcony with views of the Palm Jumeirah. It had a beautiful bathroom with an enormous bath tub and a balcony overlooking the beach side in view of The Atlantis in the distance. Excellent in-room facilities. Complimentary Nespresso machine, amazing tea selection, chic toiletries , good beds, fresh fruit bowls, chocolates and water bottles included. There is free wi-fi for everyone, and at a decent speed! Yes!
We were booked on bed and breakfast which meant we could choose to dine anywhere we wished outside the resort. However, being foodies and wanted to experience the hotel in its entirety, we found ourselves trying out quite a few restaurants and amenities available on site!
Let’s start with Breakfast
Breakfast here is a huge celebration of food, abundant and wonderful as is everything else. Available at two locations in the resort, the hotel offers sections for fresh fruit, juices and yoghurts, bread section, sweet pastries, Indian breakfast options, pork products, pancakes, cereal, cheeses, and a hundred other things to enjoy including a personal chef who cooks any type of omelette you wish in less than a minute. In case this was not enough to make you happy, every single day they had a few different foods on the menu to try out!
Time to Swim and Chill in the Sun
For sun and beach worshippers like me and my husband, the hotel has its own pristine sandy beach with attendants coming around with cold bottled water, refreshing popsicles, and other free amenities to keep you in full holiday mode. The Jumeirah Zabeel Sarey has two main pool areas, one for the adults with an infinity pool and one more targeted for families with children with slides and more safety features. Fabulous! We did enjoy a couple of days here in the sun while our friends and families in Malta were suffering from cold winds and stormy days. I loved the idea of being in the sun before summer.
Talise Spa
For relaxation, we made a dash to the Talise Ottoman Spa for my husband’s birthday. One of the largest and most luxurious spas in the Middle East, this tranquil hideaway may have more gloss than the traditional spit and sawdust hammams of Istanbul, but the therapists are every bit as diligent. It is a secluded space divided into separate women and men only areas, with all the usuals – sauna, steam room, adventure showers, Jacuzzis – plus snow rooms and hot stone beds. Here, you can enjoy an abrasive body scrub and cleanse or simply relax here, drifting off to the sound of water splashing onto the mosaic floors.
Winner of multiple awards including The World Travel Awards ‘UAE’s Leading Spa Resort’ in 2014 three years running, the Talise Ottoman Spa is unlike any other spa I’ve ever set foot in. With its 42 treatments rooms and signature services like hot stone message, Turkish bath, sauna, steam room, hydrotherapy pools, and high-end beauty treatments.
This exquisitely designed spa is the largest in the Middle East and Africa, spanning more than 8,000 square metres in area spread across two floors offering authentic Turkish hammam and several treatments. Marco and I enjoyed half a day here on his birthday, where we relaxed entirely during a side-by-side massage which included use of the beautiful couples pool beforehand as well as warm refreshments before and after the treatment. What a treat this was! Certainly a Spa we will remember for a long time – The Talise Spa.
Restaurants on Site
There is an impressive range of restaurants, covering various cuisines. Our favourites were Al Nafoorah, the Lebanese restaurant, The Rib Room and Plaj the beachside restaurant where we often snacked and sipped cocktails. Staff were welcoming and so professional in every venue.
For meat lovers, The Rib Room restaurant serves you prime selected beef cuts, seasoned with the finest salt and pepper blend and grilled to perfection; heaven on a plate! – the most succulent, well cooked wagyu rib eye steaks ever. Highly recommended.
Plaj is a very relaxed family-friendly restaurant with panoramic views of the Arabian Gulf. We had many coffees and salads here listening to the trendy music and the sound of the gentle waves.
Al Nafoorah is reputed as one of the best Lebanese restaurants in Dubai so we just had to check it out. The high ceilings and dark wood carvings create a wonderful feeling as you enter, and the atmosphere created by the staff topped up by the divine food dishes makes it one experience that should not be missed when staying at this resort!
Please have a look at my separate blogs or Instagram posts about these experiences too here in Dubai.
Shopping at the Hotel
There are several high-end shops in the hotel in case you forget to bring your bathing costume or wish to surprise your loved ones with something special like a scarf or a pretty hat. We didn’t shop here because we wanted to experience the large Dubai malls but the option was there if we needed it.
Other Amenities
Being persons who practise fitness every day, we also went for jogs outside the resort every day and made use of the gym facilities. They had some 10 treadmills, free weights and a few other machines just to keep you in shape on holiday. I also used the hairdresser situated alongside the Talise Spa mid-week to ensure I looked OK for all the selfies!
Parking for visitors and guests is also not a problem as the holiday offers valet parking. It was a treat for me as a car enthusiast to see all these fancy Ferraris and Bugattis and convertible Rolls Royces drive up and leave their keys with the valet. We loved that touch. So luxurious and well organised!
The Jumeirah Zabeel Saray is the sort of hotel where you can loiter for a whole holiday without leaving the grounds. Considering its incredible location on the sandy shores of the man-made Palm Island and the array of world-class dining options, this five-star complex offers excellent value for money compared to other nearby Dubai hotels, and it will be sure to provide a memorable stay for couples and families alike. We are very happy to have stayed here and we recommend this hotel. Thank you Jumeirah Zabeel Saray and all the team for this memorable holiday experience. We felt relaxed and well treated at all times and we really enjoyed our stay here!
For further information about the resort visit www.jumeirah.com and if you would like to contact our travel agency in Malta visit www.rocsholidays.com with your travel enquiries for Dubai or other beautiful destinations worldwide.
Xxx
Grazielle
Blogger at www.graziellecamilleri.com
