Jumeirah Dar Al Masyaf
There really is no other choice but to stay in the Jumeirah Madinat when you come to Dubai. It’s essentially a city within a city, and it’s done in a beautiful way that just barely avoids becoming overly cheesy or fake. The Dar al Masyaf within the complex stands out as the best, most intimate and personal experience you can have while in Dubai.
Location: B
While it is rather isolated in the grand scheme of things, this hotel makes up for it with the sole fact that its basically an entire city on its own. There isn't really a public transport system nearby and nothing notable is in walking distance. Honestly though, I couldn't have cared any less. I was perfectly happy in my little bubble when I was in the resort, and had no issue taking a 20-30 minute cab ride into the city. When it comes to getting around within the complex, there are meeting points for the buggies and the abras (Arabian style boats) to take you wherever you want to go. Buggies are faster but the boats are far more beautiful and serene, especially in the morning.
Rooms: A
This is probably the main reason why the Dar Al Masyaf separates itself from the rest of the hotels inside this madinat. The rooms are laid out around the property in small "summer houses" where you find only about 8-10 rooms laid out over two stories, which surround a lovely courtyard. The whole thing-the décor, layout, intimacy-makes you really feel disconnected from the hustle and bustle of Dubai and engage at least slightly on a personal level with the Arabian culture. It is crucial to get a room on the first floor. It makes a huge impact. You can walk directly into your room via the patio, you don't have to worry about not having an elevator, and the courtyard feels like it is actually an extension of your room (also, side note, there is happy hour every day in the summerhouses from 6-8). And when it comes to which villa number is best, it goes in order of number, meaning villa number 1, with its proximity to the beach and Al Qasr hotel, is the best, and villa number 25 is probably the worst being back in the corner of the property. We were villa 17, somewhat in the middle, and we were more than fine though, so don't fret about it.
Now when it comes to the room itself, we stayed in a standard, Arabian Summerhouse Deluxe room. To sum it up, this is a conversation I had with my sister.
Sis: "Wait so is this the shittiest room in the hotel?"
Me: "I guess"
Sis: "Wow"
Me: "Why?"
Sis: "It's f*cking nice."
With a king sized bed and a double sofa bed (which unfortunately was not the most comfortable), the room has plenty of space, not to mention a rare case where a hotel room ACTUALLY provides sufficient amount of storage for clothes, electronics, and whatever else you may have. The shower is great, although not the best I've experienced. Maybe that's because the handheld shower was switched on when I was turning on the shower and it doused me in cold-ass water. But that also brings me to an important point. The bathroom. It's absurd. The thing can be a hotel room in New York and I would be perfectly content. It is humongous.
Amenities: A
Like I said, this place is a city on it's own with everything you could imagine. There are north of 40 restaurants throughout the complex. FORTY. You could stay here for almost two weeks and eat at a different restaurant for every meal. There are 4 tennis courts. There's the beautiful Persian Gulf, which surprised me with its clear water and lovely temperature. Plus swimming in the shadow of the Burj Al Arab is pretty cool too. The hotel has a massive souk with everything you can imagine available to be bought. Every three summerhouses has their own small pool which I don't think I ever saw anyone in, so if you wanted a quiet place to do laps, these pools are ideal. Dar Al Masyaf guests are allowed to use any of the pools throughout the complex (except the Jumeirah Beach Resort which I found odd), and the pool at the Al Qasr is the largest in the region and totally blows you away with its expansiveness. There's an incredible gym (albeit a bit far from our room) and indoor lap pool. And lastly, there's one of the best water parks in the world located on the property grounds, which you can read about in my "Dubai: Sun Sand and Skyscrapers" blog post. But anyways, what I'm saying is, you really can't get bored here.
Dining: A-
Like I said, FORTY! Take your pick for what cuisine you want but here's what we did. We had some of the juiciest, most tender kabobs ever at Anar (which means pomegranate in Farsi-now you know) which was located alongside the canal outside the main souk. We also had dinner at Pierchic, which is a gorgeous restaurant set out on a pier overlooking the Burj Al Arab and the Persian Gulf. This place serves up the freshest, most creative seafood along with literally the most extravagant cocktails. I recommend getting a seafood platter as an appetizer, and the mermaid drink for your cocktail. The snaps will be dope, I promise. We had breakfast either at the Arboretum for Friday Brunch (again, read "Dubai: Sun Sand and Skyscrapers") or simply in the lobby lounge which was actually surprisingly nice thanks to how empty and beautifully decorated it was. We actually ended up there often, having lunch there on our last day (the burgers were simple and well cooked) and enjoying shisha every night (along with some cherry chocolate thing that may be one of the best desserts I've ever had). That brings up a small complaint I had about the dining experience here. You don't feel connected to your resort as much as you should, and that's really just because of the scale of the place. There isn't any intimacy that you get from the summerhouses translates into the restaurants. But nevertheless, the food is fantastic
Service: B+
Everyone greets you with a smile and they actually get to know you which is impressive considering how many people are at this resort. I have two reasons for giving the service here a B+. One is that the concierge at our summerhouse (each villa has its own concierge and butler), was not entirely on top of his game when it came to things like checking out with all our luggage and arranging a car to take us to Abu Dhabi. Not a big deal, but something that was a tad bit annoying given that the bell hop was able to get us a nice Escalade. The other thing which was just almost strange was how fast and wreck less the drivers of the buggies were. They would zoom by you and cut you off and seemed way more focused on getting where they needed to go than the safety and happiness of their guests.
All in all, this is the place to stay in Dubai. No question about it. It has everything you want and much much more, which still achieving intimacy thanks to the design of the Dar Al Masyaf. Prices hover around $1,000 a night, but it really is worth it in my opinion if you have the luxury to splurge.