BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Why Dubai’s One&Only Royal Mirage Is Still Its Best Hotel Oasis

Following
This article is more than 2 years old.

Part of my job as a travel writer is taking tours of hotels and resorts. Usually this involves looking in on a couple of rooms, the spa and a restaurant or two—15 or 20 minutes, and then there’s time for some poolside “research.” (I’m kidding, mostly.) At the One&Only Royal Mirage in Dubai, the tour took a solid 90 minutes, and then my phone told me I’d nearly hit all my steps for the day. 

This isn’t because it was boring or inefficient. The property is enormous—with more than a kilometer of private beach framing its 65 acres from end to end—and filled with stunning and sumptuous details, many of them with stories behind them. It was in fact fascinating. 

Among all the gleaming mosaic floors, soaring arches and perfectly framed bay views, one item stood out: a display of side-by-side photos of the resort in its early days—circa 2000—and today. In today’s photo, of course, it’s dwarfed by the towering skyscrapers of the Marina—those ones that have come to define the modern metropolis. In the vintage one, it’s out there all alone, like the oasis in the desert that it was originally conceived to be.

This points out two things: The place was way ahead of the curve. And the place has held up remarkably well. It’s full-on Middle Eastern opulence, to be sure, but none of it looks dated or tired. 

The concept behind it is a fanciful oasis—a mirage—that was a salvation to weary Bedouin travelers crossing the desert. Now the international guests arrive by Dreamliners and A380s, but they’re still cosseted in a fantasyland. The grounds are lush and green, punctuated with pink bougainvillea. Handlers walk around with falcons and eagles, to keep the more irritating little birds away from the alfresco breakfast tables. 

The complex includes three distinct hotels, the 231-room Palace (the most opulent), the 171-room Arabian Court (the most relaxed) and the 49-room Residence & Spa (the most intimate, with its restaurants and lounges open only to resident guests). It’s all a celebration of Arabic design, a mix of the traditional and the contemporary—all arches, domes and towers interspersed with courtyard gardens and water features. 

There are four swimming pools, eight restaurants offering everything from Japanese to Moroccan to Indian fare, a fabulously trendy beach club, a traditional hammam, and plenty of name-brand offerings, including the Bastien Gonzalez pedicure studio and the Zouare hair salon. 

The newest brand name is Mauro Colagreco, the much-lauded Argentine-Italian chef who re-established his collaboration with the resort in November. He was the first non-French chef to be awarded three Michelin stars in France. His restaurant Mirazur, on the French Riviera, placed atop the World’s 50 Best list in 2019. Say what you will about that list, but he’s clearly a big deal, and a talented one. 

In Dubai, he oversees the resort’s “relaxed elegant” French restaurant, Celebrities, and the newly re-imagined Beach Bar & Grill. Here, his Latin American side shows, both in the Argentine-style grilled meats and in the many varieties or ceviches and tiraditos on the menu. 

While Dubai is a city where everything is happening and nothing is surprising, his relaxed but elevated restaurants still stand out—part of a resort that was once an oasis in a wide-open desert and is now a low-slung comfortable oasis in a city that keeps pushing itself higher and higher. 

Getting there: There’s no need to fly direct. Turkish Airlines flies from many North American gateways to more countries and international destinations than any other airline, using a young fleet of aircraft (heavy on the very comfortable Dreamliners) and a business class service that routinely wins awards. (Plus the food in the excellent lounge in Istanbul’s new airport is worth a stopover there.)

Check out my website