With the world’s highest infinity pool, this hotel is peak stopover luxury

The hotel: Address Beach Resort, Dubai

Check-in

Thanks to Dubai’s notorious traffic (petrol is cheap so everyone drives everywhere), we clock the hotel’s dramatic, 77-storey building well before we pull up at its entrance. The welcome is swift and warm, however, and the lobby lounge expansive, with double-height floor-to-ceiling windows, an extravagant floral display, and a harpist playing. Arabic coffee and chilled water are available, while stepping out to the terrace affords far-reaching views up and down the coast: Jumeirah Beach Residence’s towers one way, and man-made Bluewaters Island with observation wheel Ain Dubai the other.

The look

Given it was developed by Emaar, the local $54-billion property company also responsible for the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Mall and much of the city’s skyline, it’s not surprising this hotel feels like peak luxury Dubai, particularly at the world’s highest infinity pool on level 77 (Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands pool is a mere 57 floors high). Here you can enjoy a floating breakfast – not on my wishlist but, persuaded by my daughter to try it, I’m pleasantly surprised by the quality and freshness of the enormous (albeit expensive) spread, which includes everything from fruit and granola to smoked salmon and waffles (plus a souvenir teddy).

Two floors down, the 805 square metre spa is a more serene sanctuary offering a hammam ritual in addition to the usual facials and massages. Back at ground level, choose between the adults-only resort pools or the family pool with kids’ splash pad, all set in terraced gardens, or walk down to the private beach club with its sun umbrellas and loungers.

The room

The decor is on the bland side but if you’ve got a room facing the Arabian Gulf, you probably don’t need distractions. And what the rooms may lack in personality, they make up for in amenity with everything from iPad controls and Nespresso machines to marble bathrooms with freestanding bath and rain shower. We stay in a very spacious 81sqm one-bedroom sea-view suite with an extra bed set up in the lounge room for my daughter, and a large balcony with outdoor seating and dining table. Even the entry-level deluxe rooms with city views are a generous 45sqm with the same luxurious king-size beds. Sustainable initiatives include an energy-efficient building design, no single-use plastic in guest rooms, motion-sensor LED lights and EV charging stations. Excess food is donated to the UAE Food Bank.

Food + drink

There are several restaurants including the adults-only Zeta Seventy Seven for rooftop cocktails and Asian; Farina for Italian and Mott 32, an outpost of the glamorous Hong Kong original, for modern Cantonese. Once we work out the lifts down to the different levels, we roam the restaurant’s extensive buffet breakfast for everything from ful medames and labneh to baguettes with French butter and housemade jam. We also order room service on the second night; it’s delivered promptly in a heated trolley, the table laid and the excellent chicken biryani accompanied by papadums, raita and pickles. The highlight though is Dream Dubai, a cabaret and (surprisingly good) Mediterranean dinner experience that features jaw-dropping acrobatic performances – one is called the Gravity Waltz. It gets wilder and louder as the cocktail-fuelled evening goes on, eventually turning into a raucous nightclub somewhat at odds with Dubai’s conservative image.

Out and about

The boardwalk along Jumeirah Beach takes you to JBR’s shops, cafes and restaurants; turn right to head down to Dubai Marina and its surrounding skyscrapers (many bearing the Emaar logo). Key sights such as the Burj Khalifa are a shortish taxi drive away, or get the metro. A warning: we were keen to visit old Dubai’s Al Fahidi neighbourhood with its souks, heritage buildings and abra rides across the creek, but due to a misunderstanding with a taxi driver, accidentally ended up at nearby Al Seef, a modern waterside recreation of 19th-century Dubai and not the same thing at all (although perfectly pleasant).

The verdict

Avoid Dubai’s hottest months (July/August) and this is an easy and indulgent way to get over your jet lag en route to Africa or Europe. If you’re planning a longer stay, there’s plenty to see and do beyond JBR, much of it manufactured but not necessarily any less fun, especially if you’re travelling with kids.

Essentials

Address Beach Hotel, JBR, The Walk, Dubai; there are six accessible rooms. addresshotels.com
Luxury Escapes offers three nights in a one-bedroom sea view suite from $2399 with LuxPlus+ membership, including return private airport transfers; daily breakfast; daily lunch or dinner at select restaurants or up to AED75 ($29) dining credit per person, per day; nightly cocktail per adult at ZETA Seventy Seven or The Beach Grill; three-hour access to the infinity pool; 20 per cent discount on spa treatments and 1pm checkout (subject to availability). See luxuryescapes.com

Our score out of five

★★★★

Highlight

The friendly, switched-on service turned a quick two-day stopover into a fun and luxurious mini-break.

Lowlight

The height of the hotel’s twin towers means the ground-level pools and beach club are cast in shadow for much of the time we are staying (November).

The writer was a guest of Address Beach Resort and Luxury Escapes.