Shangritastic
by TripAdvisor Member BigStu
My girlfriend and I just spent 5 nights at the Shangri La and absolutely loved it. Our king sized delux room on the 33rd floor was huge and very comfortable as well as being tastefully furnished.
The king sized bed was massive and very comfy, with loads of pillows, it was turned down every night and slippers and cold water placed by the bed. Fresh fruit was also left in the room every day and clean towels and robes if required.
A few of the restaurents were closed due to Ramadan, but we ate two nights at the Dunes Cafe and had the Iftar buffet. You could eat as much as you wanted for under £20 a head, the food was amazing. Our deal included breakfast, which was enough to keep you going all day. The special juices served in laboratory test tubes were gorgeous and the egg chef does fantastic omlettes!
Make the most of the free transport and entry to the Jebal Ali beach resort 40 minutes up the coast. The shuttle bus is provided by the hotel and leaves three times a day. Jebal Ali has a lovely beach and pool and is a great place to chill and get a tan away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
If you don't want to travel the 30-40 minutes out to Jebel Ali, the hotel has a nice pool, although it can get quite busy, so get there early and stake your claim on a lounger!
Having only paid £555 each, inclusive of flights with Emirates, this trip was a bargain and I have no problem recommending the Shangri La to anyone, it's a real gem of a place, very friendly service, great food and classy rooms.
Undecided on Shangri-La!!!!!!
by TripAdvisor Member Andrew Alexander
I was very excited to recently book and stay at the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai. My partner and I have stayed at some incredible 5 star hotels around the world but never a Shangri-La. I had high expectations... We stayed for 4 nights in a Horizon Club Room during the dates of 02-06 November 2005. Even though we flew to Dubai First Class with Emirates, I paid the fairly hefty rate of USD$500.00 per night... I think if it is booked in advance rates offered would be less as noted by some other people in their reviews.
We arrived in the early morning with the Emirates Limo and were greeted by a number of people at the entrance of the hotel. No one however escorted us to the reception desk and we had to wonder in and ask someone where do we check in for the Horizon Club, they said take the elevator to the 41st floor, again there was no escort up to the club check in. At 1am and after a long flight a little more guidance would have been good.
Check-in was swift and fast and we were instructed of breakfast the next morning etc.
Our room was on the 41st floor and was impressive. Modern with a lot of storage space, large bathroom with excellent products that are refreshed endlessly during your stay with a deep bath tub and separate shower.
We soon found that internet connection was complimentary and very handy to plug in our laptop with ease.
Bed was very large as I would expect and very comfy. Room had nice touches like you could control curtains and lighting from beside the bed.
Breakfast: Breakfast is taken in the 41st floor lounge for Horizon guests. Breakfast was very nice, fresh and a nice range. However no where near as good as other hotels I have stayed in, however certainly nothing to complain about.
However the second day we had breakfast we walked in to around 9 tables dirty and not cleared. This was out of maybe 15 tables that are in the breakfast room. We took the last clear table and sat down, whilst people coming in after us had to wait and a lot of tables remained stacked up with plates around us. By the third day we were considering eating breakfast down in the main breakfast room with the other hotel guests as we are sure that it had more of a range of food etc. We always had to request eggs or an omlette from the menu and these were never offered to us and often the staff would bring you something and just place it down in front of you and walk off, without a word. This irritated me and is not what I expect in a 5 star executive breakfast room...
Horizon Club Lounge - The lounge is open 24/7, the staffs are very efficient and we asked them to do a number of things from make appointments for us to looking into local information all was handled very efficiently.
Drinks are available all day but only alcoholic beverages and canapés are served from 5-7pm daily. I found this odd as other executive floor lounges I had experienced served canapés and wine all day. The other thing was at 7.10pm I went to get a second glass of wine and some more cheese to find that it had all been cleared away... 7pm sharp and no more!!!!
Gym & Pool - Fantastic Gym facilities on the 4th floor, these are the facilities open to the whole of the hotel. Impressive Gym, new equipment, great separate changing areas for men and women including saunas and steam rooms etc. Very good facilities.
Gym and small pool available on the 42nd floor for Horizon Club guests, nice views but not as equipped and no steam and sauna... so we used level 4 every day.
Main pool is on the fourth floor, very nice that you forget it is on the top of the car park...
Overall - There are a lot of things that I enjoyed at this hotel and a lot of things I was disappointed at. I have been spoiled by staying at such hotels as The Banyan Tree in Bangkok where the service from the entire staff is faultless...
I would not stay in this hotel at the rate of $500 per night, it is not worth it, but I would use the hotel again at a better rate as other reviewers have obtained... I also would forget the Horizon club, the rooms are no better than standard rooms, you get 2 hours a day of canapes which is limited and a small executive breakfast room on the 41st room which in hindsight was not impressive. The gym and pool on the 4th floor is better than the gym for Horizon guests as well....
So quite simply I remain undecided about this hotel...
Very Disappointed - Not a Business Hotel
by TripAdvisor Member MikeyBBQ
I am a frequent guest at Shang properties and this one is not up to scratch. It's been open long enough so teething problems are not an excuse.
I had three key issues:
- even though it recently won a Business Traveller Magazine award as "Best New Business Hotel" the agonizingly slow speed of the in-room "high speed" internet is laughable.
- the acclaimed (and expensive) Hoi An restaurant is a huge disappointment. The signature dish (Vietnamese prawns) were over-cooked and lacking in flavour and so was the starter. Some wine list items were not in stock
- the pool area is bland and when I visited the stech of manure permeated the air
There are many luxury hotel options in Dubai but I'd give this one a pass.
loved the shangri la
by A TripAdvisor Member
My wife and I spent Christmas and New Year here,we had an excellent stay ,the staff couldn't do enough for us,we were on the 41st floor with terrific views,when we come back again we will stay here,but we will not be flying by Emirates airlines,when we arrived at Dubai airport to go home(UK)they informed us that they had sold our ticket to someone else,there slogan is very apt,Fly Emirates,they certainly are "Fly"
Fabulous!
by TripAdvisor Member K Tomo
We stayed in the Shangri-la Hotel in October 2005.
Rooms are beautiful. Very modern with an amazing bathroom. Great views from the bedroom window over Dubai.
The pool area was lovely although it was very busy when we were there and so had to wait for vacant sun loungers.
Breakfast from the buffet restaurant was very good serving everything you can imagine from sausage, eggs bacon etc, to cereal, toast, fruits etc.
Didnt eat at the restaurants in the hotel at night, it was Ramadam and some of the restaurants were closed, however they did look very nice. Nice bar area though.
All together we thought the hotel was the nicest we have ever stayed in ( both in Dubai and also the other cities in the world we have visited) and we thoroughly recommend it to other travellers to Dubai!.
Forum Posts
Where to stay in Dubai?
by plas19
My wife and I will be staying in Dubai in late March for 3 nights. We are considering The Hilton Jumierah, Hyatt Regency Dubai, Atlantis The Palm, Shangri La Dubai or Le Meridean Dubai.
Can anyone offer advice on these hotels in terms of value, location and service?
Also, we are considering a desert 4WD tour. Are they worthwhile?
Any advice woul be of a great help, thanks!
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by plas19
I also should have asked which area is best to stay if only there for 3 days?
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by JessH
Good morning from Dubai :-)
Location-wise, I would stay at the Shangri-La Dubai... all the other hotels aren't really "central" (especially the Atlantis and the Hilton Jumeirah), whereas the Shangri-La is in the centre of town, near the Dubai Metro (there is a station nearby) and you are close to the old part of town (Dubai Creek, Museum, Textile/Spice/Gold Souk = Bazar, etc.) as well as the Jumeirah beach isn't far away.
The Desert "Safaris" (as they are called here) are all pretty much the same: you can choose between a full-day, a half-day or just an afternoon/evening tour with buffet dinner/BBQ in the desert. Most have a camel or two for riding, some sand-boards on the nearby dunes, a lady offering Hennah painting for women, a falcon for photo opportunities and a bellydancer (usually from Eastern Europe).
If you've never been to the desert before it's quite a good experience...
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by JessH
sorry, forgot to add this:
for more info and recommendations for companies copy & paste this link into your browser:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/1300d9/
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by colin_bramso
G'day PJ, welcome to VT.
There are three Le Meridien hotels, two on the beach right out of town and the other at the airport. All the hotels you list are five star and are much the same in terms of service, facilities etc. Value for money depends on what deals you can get.
I agree with Jess that the Shangri La is the best location. Dubai is now really in two parts, the original city and New Dubai (where all the huge new developments are) and the Shangri La is in between the two. The original city is by far the most interesting and it's easy to walk around. You can visit New Dubai to have a look at what's going on, the BigBus hop-on hop-off tour probably being the best way.
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by plas19
Great, thanks Jess.
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by plas19
Hi Colin, thanks for your reply. Looks like the Shangri La is the place for us!
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by plas19
Hi Jess,
The desert safari does look interesting. We will probably go for the afternoon/evening one. Do any of them let the tourist do the driving?
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by colin_bramso
I'm not aware of any that allow customers to do the driving. Desert driving is a specialist thing, and there's the insurance and driving licence issue to consider.
Re: Where to stay in Dubai?
by JessH
No, you cannot drive yourself.
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