Burj Al Arab
 

Hi,

my trip report about the not so pleasant KLM flight from AMS to DXB http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003924.html caused some requests about a burj al arab report. for those who have never heard about it, burj al arab is that super beautiful seven star hotel on an artifical island in dubai.

i will give you some more information about this trip and the hotel itself. in the end i will also give you some recommendations for your bookings at the end of the report.
i will divide it into some parts so can just skip the parts that are not interesting for you.

we booked via amex centurion and paid something about 450 euro per night for the room. we booked for 8 nights, and after the third night we were upgrade from the standard deluxe suite (smallest in the house, 170 sqm) to a panoramic suite (280 sqm).

i also ask if i can visit the club suites and a royal suite and so i can also tell you how those look.



[This message has been edited by Uli (edited 08-15-2003).]

Airport arrival service and arrival in the suite

Before passport control, somebody from the hotel waited for us. He helped us trough security (one minute), and waited with us at the luggage belt. He phoned the driver that we were ready, and advised me where to exchange some money.

The hotel driver arrived right in front of the exit, a nice white rolls-royce. the lady was immediately greeted with a red rose. in the car, we received wet towels as well as mineral water.

when nearing the hotel at the end of the 20 minute drive we could get the first views of the building. it is nicer than you can imagine on TV. at night, it is most beautiful. 420 iridium lights illuminate the building in different colours. we fell in love with the hotel at that point ... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

in the hotel, the porter took the luggage and we entered the lower part of the lobby. no reception desk there, just a sitting area. beautiful aquariums, nice water installations, lots of gold. a butler arrived to take us to the individual front desk in our floor. each floor has a maximum of 12 suites. each floor has its own reception desk, staffed 24 hours, plus one butler. all arriving formalities are done on the desk in your suite.

when you enter such a suite for the first time, you just cannot believe how good it looks.




[This message has been edited by Uli (edited 08-15-2003).]

Great start, Uli. Keep it coming! This should be an interesting report. One day, I hope to visit Dubai and stay at the Burj.

the rooms

of course i can only report about the rooms i have seen. there are also two bedroom suite in the hotel that i did not see.

due to the shape of the building the suite sizes do vary.

deluxe suite
170 sqm standard suite. this is the smallest you can get here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
it is like a two-storey house. lots of gold, lots of marble, lots of fine wood. everything that looks golden is real 22K gold or at least gold plated.

huge door to enter the room. door operation with a contactless RFID card. of course the card is in a fine leather holder. marble entrance hall, featuring the royal-like stairs to the upper floor. below the stairs is a room for your empty luggage. the desk is there, having a fax machine, phone (a total of six phonese in the suite, one is portable), compaq laptop (wireless internet). the bar divides desk area and living room. there is frigde and some drawers with full bottles of wodka, gin, etc (not the small minibar bottles).

the living room has some sofas, huge floor-to-ceiling-windows with a beautiful seaview, and lots of pillows. huge 42 inch plasma TV screen. this one also has an IR keyboard for internet use if you do not want to use the laptop. lots of light and aircondition controls. you have on remote control that controls the curtains, TV, music, the door, and the electronic do-not-disturb-sign. same remote control is upstairs again. there is also a round dining table with four chairs and a sofa table.
the living rooms looks super cozy and comfortable. in the moment you see it the first time you decide that you will only move out there when your money is used up.

a guest bathroom is present as well.

upstairs, after climing the stair that makes you feel you are a big movie star, you find a dressing room. lots of hangers, a table, hair dryer, mirror.

to the right side is the bedroom. nice double bed, nice decorated, lots of pillows. again florr-to-ceiling windows. perfect view. everything electronically controlled. big GRUNDIG TV (this time no plasma). two sofas in the bedroom as well. phone on each side of the bed so no fight who sleeps where http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
a square mirror over the bed give you nice or bad views depending who is with you http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

bathroom is huge. lots of gold again, mosaic pictures at the wall. glass shower cabin. round jacuzzi. two washing tables. beautiful rack for amenities (more on that later) and towels. you really have more towels than you can eat. huge mirror.

the TVs show about 60 cable channels, including four German channels (VOX, RTL, ZDF, RTL2). Movies-on-demand are available (for free) and 100s of DVDs can be brought to the room, a very extensive list. also this service is free.

panoramic suite
they say they usually upgrade you there when you are booking via the leader´s club (leading hotels of the world). sizes between 260 and 330 sqm depending on the building shape. there are 12 suites of that type, all in building corners. windows are five metres high so this is how the suites got their name. living room and bedroom even bigger, working desk a little more seperated from the living room. bar is a little bigger and you also have a bigger room for luggage storage.

upstair area is open (no wall to destory the panoramic view), but everything else (bed, electronics, bathrooms, dressing room) similiar to the deluxe suite.

disadvantage: there is no bedroom door that you can close. this means if the lady is still napping and you want to check your mails or flyertalk for one hour and do some phone calls, you will disturb her.

club suite
in my opinion this is the suite to stay in if you can pay for it .... over 330 sqm. 5m panoramic windows as well, upstairs with an open working area (with sofas again) and a closed bedroom. bathrooms is huger and even nicer design than in the smaller suites. one extra room with a snooker table. the living room is divided into a sitting TV room (like home cinema with the huge plasma screen) and a bar that dominates the other part of the room. you can play barkeeper there as there are lots of bottles. a kitchen is there as well, which is very nice feature! it has a microwave, big fridge etc.
this suite is also perfect if you do business in dubai and want to throw some parties in your suite. a small conference room is there as well. beautiful.

royal or presidential suite
there are two of them. 770 sqm, also two storey. this time you have an elecator between the two floors, additional two the stairs. entrance feels like you enter a palace. lots of sitting rooms, home cinema, big kitchen, super huge working room, and a conference rooms sitting about 20 people. it has two master bedrooms (one for the queen, one for the king) with two huge bathrooms. obviously queen and king do not share the same bad in arabia. the bed of the king is on a round platform that does rotate on request. for me, i do not see the sense: the bed faces the windows front, but if you turn it, you just look at a wall. mmmh. do not know what this feature is for. maybe it is just there because it is expensive (you can say this about many things in this hotel).
for me, the royal suite was disappointing. of course, sheer size is impressive. of course, the really invested a ton of gold in it. but it is really not a western style presidential suite. if you are not a king but just a travelling couple there is no use for the suite, as it does not offer any extra features. other presidential suites that i have visited do feature a sauna, or even an own pool, a huge terrace etc but this suite just has lots of space ...

to sum it up, no matter which room type you get, you will not be disappointed about the space. you will also find a cleanliness that i have never seen before. great and truly 7-star.

the amenities

in flyertalk style, i will of course talk about the room amenities.

this should be heaving for amenity hunters. but please note, people who can effort staying there, normally do not steal bathrobes. also they have a price list for those items.

you receive a huge fruit plate. if will be refilled or exchanged daily. imported bottled water from paris is there as well. bottles are replace daily.

bathrooms have a bathrobe and a kimono for everyone.

the lady got positively shocked when she saw the bathroom amenities: HERMES, HERMES, HERMES. of course no small botles like in ****y 5-star-hotels, they give you the real stuff. huge shampoo, conditioner, powder, deodorant, all for her and for him. bathing salt for the jacuzzi, huge soaps etc. just let me repait it: all this is by HERMES. in the panoramic suite we also received 100 ml bottles of eau de toilette ... and i saw that the club and royal suite also had 100 ml bottles of after shave. crazy. of course if you start using those you are welcome to take them home. when you enter the room, you receive cosmetics woth 350 euro in retail right away ... this is the craziest value in bathrooms amenities i have seen.

fresh flowers are everywhere.

butler comes in the evening and prepares an aroma therapy bath in the jacuzzi including a red rose for the lady.

if the laundy service return something, things are nicer packed than as new.

beautiful chocolates on the bed each time with night service.

in all public areas, you immediately receive free water (evian), outside evian spray water, and also cold wet towels (very welcome at 45 degrees C).

outside the rooms

spa
hugest spa ever seen. two full floors. divided in to men´s and women´s section. indoor pool, all kinds of body and facial treatments. super modern gym. perfect service, they make sure you get enough evian while doing your excercise, fresh towels every five minutes and freshly cleaned headphones only (you can have up to three TVs switched to your choice of channels while on the treadmill ...)

outside pool area
see and be seen. nice beautiful pool but not too big. the best thing is that it is cooled! in-water-bar. if you approach the pool, somebody prepares the beds for you, towels are brought, water, evian spray, wet face towels ... and of course you can order your favourite champaign at and in the pool. definitely not a place for kids, but the wild wadi waterpark is right next door (and has free entrance for burj guests)

beach
the burj island is linked with the landside with a 200m bridge. nice as it only seems to be frequented by rolls-royces and ferraris and that kind of cars. left side is a beach that can also be accessed by guests of the jumeirah beach hotel (same group). right side is a beach exclusively for the burj al arab. fine send, lots of sea shells, crystal-clear water.
if you go to the beach, you do not walk, as 200m walk is totally unacceptable to burj guests. a golf cart will bring you there. the beach has a small air-conditioned reception area. then you step into the outside restaurant and bar area that also has an own kitchen. beds will be prepared for you, same service like at the pool. total silence, full relaxation.

transportation
if you leave the house, you can choose between a rolls royce or BMW 7-series transportation service. it is about 40 to 50 euro an hour. taxis are available as well.

lobby shops
the lobby feature shops for the rich and famous, i counted around four jewellery stores, some high price clothing store etc. only shop of use was a small hidden shop selling newspapers, films, etc ...

helicopter
if you want to arrive by helicopter, the 28th floor has a heli platform. i just asked for fun how much the transfer to/from the airport is but the figure was so high and unreasonable so it seemed to me nobody had ever used this service and it is not really available. in eight days i also never saw a chopper.

service

this is what really makes the burj.
i have experienced the peninsula, the raffles etc but the burj really impressed me. it is hard to decscribe. you dont get what you expect, you always get more.

no matter if on the beach, from the butler service (of course also unpacking and packing your luggage), in the restaurants etc ... you will always be impressed.

i can only give you some examples. there is really no standard service, everything is individual:

-- the lady started to collect shells at the beach. within one minute some waiter came and offered a bag to her

-- i went to the bathroom at the beach. i put my sunglasses on the washing table and went to the urinal. when i returned, somebody had already cleaned my sunglasses. (BTW of course even the beach bathrooms are full of HERMES stuff ...)

-- when the room service sees that you are ordering a lot of diet coke then on the next days they make sure you have lots of it in your mini bar

etc ....

tips for your stay

1. do not go your your one night. at least you should have one full day

2. request a room in the 19st floor. if you cannot get one, request one higher (there is a break in the architecture and the 19th floor is wider than the other floors and more beautiful)

3. do not bring your own laptop. the internet on the compaq laptops if free and you can carry them around everywhere in your room (besides in the corner suites, the wireless reception is too low, it only works at/near the desk)

4. do not make any plans for sight seeing if you are there for only one or two days. there is really enough to see in the hotel.

5. if you are a beach person, do not go from june to september as it is to hot. you can stay on the beach for three hours, but no longer. water is also "hot".

6. expect everything, and you will still get more :=)


as you can see, i am really a big fan of the hotel and will return soon!


i have to leave home now but will write something about dining in the hotel later and happily answer your questions.

Great Report Uli !!!

I am drooling all over the keyboard in anticipation ....

Where can one get the best rates for the Burj ? LHW website gives 650 Euro per night ... The Amex Centurion gave you 450 - any other ideas ?

Thanks in advance ...

Regards,

John P.

I'm enjoying your description of this fantastic hotel - makes one want to visit!

Is Dubai a tourist destination, say for families, or is more business oriented?

Thanks for the great report Uli. It indeed does make one want to visit this wonderful place.

Happy Travels

Hi John

This was a summer rate, per room, 2 people.
Rate came from Amex Centurion service, so basically everyone at Amex should be able to offer that rate. In September there is the IMF meeting in Dubai, so this will bring rates up, and after Oct it is a little colder so the high peak seasons starts.

In August they were booked 50%, I am sure after October this picture changes.

frankly speaking, we have not seen much of dubai.
basically the burj al arab area has lot of 5 star hotel and resorts. just go to the jumerah beach hotel opposite the burj, or, stay at the burj and use some of their facilities.

the jumeirah beach hotel pool is huge, full of kids, and there are lots of restaurants that kids will love. also the wild wadi water park is right there and a paradise for kids. for ladies, dubai is great for shopping.

maybe Meilensammlercan say something about this, he stayed at the burj twice with kids and said they loved it.

Thanks! The report certainly gives much more info than the pictures that I've seen of the hotel. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif $450 isn't bad for that kind of hotel! Someone e-mailed me a PowerPoint presentation to me on this hotel. According to that the rooms ranged from $800-$8000/night!

Wonder if I can use Priceline. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

- Pat

[This message has been edited by Wiirachay (edited 08-15-2003).]

Its both. There is a lot of business there, but Dubai has been pushing itself as a sunny vacation spots for Europeans and a relaxing spot for other Arabs.