I booked a sea view double room in the Jebel Ali Hotel. The hotel itself is part of the Jebel Ali golf resort and spa complex.
The room was a good size with a king size bed, desk, small sofa and a decent bathroom with a shower over the bath. The room was clean and modern with the all important air conditioning working and easy to use. There was also a small balcony, which my first impressions was that it was too small...then I opened the patio door to be hit by a wall of heat, won't be sitting out there then, but was utilised as an excellent towel drying area!
That staff at this hotel/resort were very polite, spoke excellent English and were very helpful. Nothing was too much trouble. I checked in at midnight and the reception seemed to be fully manned, likewise when I checked out at 4am.
The resort has many restaurants and bars. The main on in the Jebel Ali hotel is Ibn Majed. This is where the breakfast was served each morning. I've read varying reports on other reviews on the food served here, for what it's worth I can't really complain. The hotel does carry a five star rating, and I'm not sure that a self service buffet would be what some five star regulars would expect? The food was well set out in hot plates and covered, there was plenty of choice, both hot and cold. The main plus point for me was "eggs corner" where a member of staff would cook you your eggs just how you wanted them, I certainly missed that this morning back home when I had to make my own scrambled eggs!
During my visit I ate a few evening meals at the resort. One night I went to Shooters, a steakhouse situated at the Jebel Ali shooting range. To get to this restaurant you take a complimentary shuttle bus a few miles to the gun club. The restaurant offers a panoramic view of the shooting range and is set out a little like a Berni Inn. The menu was limited, but the portions generous. A far better restaurant was the La Traviata Italian restaurant on the ground floor. Again the menu wasn't massive, but like Shooters the portions were excellent. There was an option to start with a visit to the salad bar, forget your Pizza Hut experiences with salad bars, this one was fantastic. You could help yourself to cured meat, salads, cheese, giant prawns, squid, sun dried tomatoes and olives.
Also at the resort was a Spa. I didn't use this but my girlfriend did. She had a few treatments one afternoon and was very impressed and relaxed afterwards. The price of the treatments wasn't included in our package, but I'm told they were reasonable compared to what they would cost in the UK.
There is also a golf course in the resort; sadly I'm not a golfer so I can't comment on the facilities or the course. After speaking with the golf manager one evening he did say that you have to look out for Peacocks on the course as they roam free in the resort.
The location of the hotel is little out of the hustle and bustle of Dubai, but is linked to the main tourist areas by a large highway. It took about 45 minutes by car to get from the airport, but at the time of night I arrived the legendary Dubai traffic had subsided somewhat. During our stay we took a taxi to the Gold Souq in Deira. This taxi ride took over an hour from the Mall of the Emirates! The resort operates a free shuttle bus to the Ibn Battuta Mall, the Mall of the Emirates, the Gold & Diamond Park and in peak hours the Wild Wadi water park. As July is not the busiest time of the tourist calendar in Dubai there were plenty of seats available on the coach, but in peak times you can pre book your seat. As recommended by a previous reviewer of this hotel I took the coach to the Mall of the Emirates and then got a taxi from there into Bur Dubai or Deira - saved a few AED that way!
One of the main advantages of being out of town is you are away from the main building work that seems to go on around the clock in Dubai. That's not to say that you are totally excused from cranes and diggers. Just off shore from the Hotels private beach construction work has commenced on the Jebel Ali Palm Island. It appears to be in its early stages and there are no buildings being constructed as yet, they are preparing the ground work. This does create a little noise but for the majority of my stay it was the low bass rumble of building machinery. Having said that from Thursday to my departure on Saturday there were a couple of JCB diggers operating on the palm shore nearest the private beach that were moving large boulders that caused quite a bit of noise and carried on well into the night. This was audible through the double glazing of the hotel room.
Talking to various taxi drivers and tour guides it looks like there will be a large development in the near future just inland from the resort, I noticed the area had been advertised from the main highway as being bigger than Hong Kong and would involve creating a water inlet not far from the hotel. How much disruption to guests this would cause is difficult to say at this early stage though.
All in all my stay at the Jebel Ali Hotel was excellent, I hope that as the building work on the Jebel Ali Palm Island doesn't ruin the atmosphere at the resort...only time will tell?


















