Expensive hotel or cheap apartment

I've been looking at hotels and apartments in Dubai and there seem to be two major differences... there are expensive, amazing looking, very impressive giant resorts, then there are giant apartment buildings that look a bit more 3 star, clean but nothing too exciting.

So my problem is i cant decide which to stay in. In Singapore for example we'd happily stay in a 2 bedroom apartment as there is so much to do and see we wouldnt even get the chance to find out if the hotel has a swimming pool. But we have been visiting thailand and bali a lot lately so have gotten into the spirity of all things resorty and teh luxary of nice swimming pools etc. There appears to be a HUGE amount of things for us to do so we could easily be out of a hotel/apartment nearly every day. And even if we did want a break for a day the apartments mostly do have swimming pools on the roof or something similar. If we stay in a hotel we will most likely have to rent 2 interconnecting rooms so that will add to the price big time. But to come all the way to dubai and stay in a awful apartment wouldnt be in the swing of all things big and amazing like dubai.

So i am very confused. I have narrowed down my search to the Le Royal Meredian as it appears to be a luxary resort and also within very close proximity of a couple of the local attractions and restaraunts and shopping. Or the other extreme is the Golden Sands Apartment complex which is down the beach a bit but right in teh city and close to heaps of restarants and other stuff to do.

Does anyone have any experience or opinions that might help? I sort of sway towards the nicer hotel but the cost is nearly 4 times the amount which makes it very difficult to justify. Help! Reply to this

Thanks Shane...That is a very good idea! If we do something like 4 nights in an apartment and do everything we can then 2 nights in the superresort just to relax before heading home that would be great. Now i just have to stalk a couple of airlines to wait for a deal! and read through 100 blogs from people to see what they know 😊) Reply to this

Dubai is all about location, location, location...

Distance are not short, but neither that far...they now have the skytrain, and you've got a lot of taxis are reasonable prices.

Le Royal Meridien is nice, but not that top-of-the class too. I've stay there.

Expensive...everything that is on the Jumeirah beach...you basically pay for the beach location...even if there are better beaches in the world.

Cheap...everything which is downtown, Bur Dubai, etc. You will have a clean accomodation, but not style, nothing really impressive to walk around too....but prices are way cheaper.

Moderate, have a look at hotels on Dubai Creek and Sheik Zayed Road. You can find some seriously stylish hotels there, nice names, easy to reach anywhere by taxi too, and some of them have great signature lounge/bar/restaurants.

So now the only question is where do you want to spend your time and money. A lot of the fun in Dubai has nothing to do with the beach. I name in no special preferential order:
-the two water parks, Wadi Wadi and Atlantis
-ski Dubai
-desert ride and sunset in the desert
-shopping...yes...few malls around...
-few aquariums around too...

I'm reapating myself, for me the beach is pretty average in Dubai, so you may want to spoil your money somewhere else than an average room on Jumeirah, no view and a 400usd++ ticker for not much...hope this help.


I've got two entries on the fun we had in Dubai few years ago.
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We enjoyed our time in Dubai. We have not been there since 2008 so I'm sure things have changed.
Dubai... we have the biggest and the best!

We had fun at the Safari Desert BBQ and enjoyed the museum.
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