Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 113/w50

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 50, Edition 113

Here’s your latest edition of Dubai news, deals & tips, every Friday, in 10 mins or less.

🏩 Is The Creekside Hotel open?

🎄 A Christmas Wish

💡 The One Thing to know about Hotel prices

🦃 Emirates to serve festive menus on-board

✨ Dubai Spas Shoutout

🎈 That ‘Dubai Swing’ stunt

🥟 Chinese restaurants + Secret Parties

⛵ Emirates offer two free experiences with bookings

PS. You can always email me here also.

Please note: some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links, and will be denoted with an asterisk (*). This is a link to a partner site that may pay me a commission - at no further cost to you - and if so, helps to support me & this newsletter. For more info, please see Disclosure and Policies

DUBAI NEWS

Did You See the ‘Dubai SkySwing’?

To celebrate the start of Dubai Shopping Festival, Magali Folkner Braff sat on a swing underneath an airship whilst it moved around the Dubai skyline.

Check out the full video of this amazing stunt ⤵️

10 ways to make the most of Dubai Shopping Festival, according to Time Out.

Dubai Police have added another stunner to their fleet, this time a rare Ferrari Purosangue Mansory.

One of only seven reworked by German tuner Mansory, it’s rated at 755 horsepower with a top speed of 320 km/h and accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds!

Dubai’s overhaul of its bus shelters, aiming to bring 762 ‘state of the art’ bus shelters including air-conditioned interiors and shaded outdoor seats, has now completed 595.

Did you know the RTA bus network served over 192 million passengers annually?

Apparently, Dubai is the third most Googled travel destination in the world, and the only Middle East contender in the top 10.

Dubai Fountain could be in line for more ‘improvements’ in 2026, although it isn’t anticipated this will lead to any closures (at this stage).

Do keep an eye on Emaar’s socials for any updates.

HOTEL NEWS

The Creekside Hotel Dubai - Open for Bookings?

I mentioned back in October that Jumeirah Creekside had mysteriously closed, and there was very little news at that time. Then came the news it would reopen as Accor under the Mgallery brand.

There now seems some confusion about whether it has reopened, so I did a little research, and here’s what I’ve discovered.

When it closed down, it showed as closed on Google Maps - and now it’s not showing as closed, and reviews are coming in. Okay, by Dubai standards reviews don’t mean anything - as a lot are ‘gamed’ by PR, collabs etc. - but it suggest people are staying there, and especially, that management are responding.

So I looked on All Accor to see if it was bookable, and it was - see screenshot below.

Here’s My Take on the Situation

When Accor announced the signing they said ⤵️

In some of the press since, there have been mockups of the rooms which show brilliant white and light decor, whereas looking on All Accor at present, they clearly show the old ‘boudoir’ style decor.

My guess is that they are trying to ‘twin track’ the hotel operating as normal, whilst doing renovation in the near future. In other words, they will operate without the MGallery branding until such time as renovation/reflagging is complete.

One aspect of its previous incarnation that was very popular was the 24 hour booking cycle, whereby you could book a specific rate that was a flexible check-in time (as opposed to the standard 3pm) and you would have 24 hours in the room.

At this stage, I don’t see anything that suggests that will is available, perhaps because they’re taking standard bookings across the usual sales channels. I guess you could always contact them directly and enquire if you could negotiate one, ideally by calling +971 4 230 8555 or (if you really must!) by email at [email protected].

🔗 The Creekside Hotel Dubai, an Accor Hotel

Dubai Launches Contactless Check-In for Hotels

Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) have announced another revolutionary initative - contactless check-in for hotels and holiday homes.

Whilst it’s only at the ‘press release stage’ and more details will surely follow such as integration, it’s still an ambitious idea . It doesn’t appear to be restricted to certain chains or providers, though it’s unclear if it will rollout to tourists, as may be aligned to Emirates ID (EID) so citizens or residents only.

A FESTIVE PLEA

Please Consider Supporting This Newsletter

In this festive season of peace, goodwill, and gratitude, I'm taking a moment to ask: if you enjoy and read this newsletter each week, would you consider making a donation?

Each edition takes considerable time to research, write, and craft - often many hours to bring you the insights and stories you've come to expect. Beyond the creative work, there are practical costs too: hosting fees, the email platform, and other expenses that keep this newsletter running smoothly and reaching your inbox reliably.

Your donation - whether it's the price of a coffee or something more - can really make a difference. It helps cover these costs and, more importantly, shows me that this work matters to you. That support means everything.

How to Support

Tip Jar (Preferred) – Send a tip of any amount directly. This is my preferred method, and every contribution helps sustain the newsletter you read each week.

Buy Me a Coffee – Prefer to buy me a drink instead? That works too, and I'm grateful for it.

Thank you for being here, for reading, and for considering supporting this work. Your presence in this community means the world to me.

[Tip Jar Link] | [Buy Me a Coffee Link]

PS. Can’t miss out the chance to say an extra-special thanks to all those who have tipped previously, and continue to do so. You’re ace!

KNOW MORE ABOUT DUBAI

Shoutout to the Spas

I don’t mention spas much on here, so let’s correct that now.

Here are the “best spas in Dubai”, according to Modern Luxury, Time Out and CN Traveller ME.

If you’re looking for spa deals, Entertainer (at least for 2025) has some 112 offerings with Buy One Get One Free, including :-

• Armani/SPA - Armani Hotel Dubai (Burj Khalifa)

• Elixir Spa - Habtoor Grand Resort

• Sofitel SPA Dubai Downtown

• The Spa - Hilton Dubai Jumeirah

• The Spa - Address Beach Resort

• Heavenly Spa by Westin - The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi

• Conrad Spa - Conrad Dubai

Note - at time of writing, 2026 merchants and offers haven’t been loaded into the Entertainer app, but I’m reliably informed they will be soon. If you’re not in a rush to purchase Entertainer 2026, if you hold off until end of January or so, promo/discount codes should (hopefully!) be out by then.

My Emirates Pass also has discounts at spas such as :-

• Experience Oriental Hammam - One&Only Royal Mirage

• Away Spa - W The Palm Dubai

• Ahasees Spa & Club - Grand Hyatt Dubai

• Wellbeings SPA - The Dubai EDITION

• Talise Spa - Madinat Jumeirah

Lastly, a shout out to 1847 for Men - not just to give some balance to the fellas too, but they’re usually in great locations such as Emirates Towers, The Walk and Grosvenor House so you can get away with a cheeky drink or meal on your ‘spa day’!

ONE BIG DUBAI TIP

Hotel Prices Move Constantly - and You're Probably Missing Out

Check a hotel rate today, come back in a week, and you'll see a different number. What you won't see is everything that happened in between.

I've been testing this with a booking at Grosvenor House (22nd-27th December). One one day alone, I received five price drop notifications. First down a few pounds. Then over ten. Finally, over £40 per night off, or £200 for the entire stay.

This is why I usually recommend Pruvo* - it tracks prices across multiple sites and catches the drops you'd never spot yourself. The tool I'm testing now only monitors one channel, so it's slower and less comprehensive. But even this limited view proves the point.

What You Need to Know

Popular hotels at busy times? Prices swing wildly. Whilst this is true worldwide, it’s particularly relevant in Dubai as it’s a very volatile market for hotels, with heaps of supply vs demand resulting in wild price variance.

Hotels that price each night differently (versus agents selling at flat daily rates) give you more potential to find deals.

That rate you're looking at right now won't stay put. It could drop. It could spike. Probably both.

The real opportunity: find even a small price difference on a matchable site, and you can unlock 15-25% discounts through price matching.

Note - chains may use different terminology for price matching, for example Marriott Bonvoy offer what they call a Best Rate Guarantee, which will match a price then discount it by 25%.

Learn more about Marriott’s “Best Rate Guarantee” from these previous editions.

Whilst searching for hotel deals can depend on many variables, such as your strategy and tactics, Pruvo is a good all-round tip for many, because it will find the best price online, thus showing you the ‘gettable price’.

Note - Pruvo works best on the most ‘comparable’ rate, so aim to price up the room rather than add-ons such as dining packages, breakfast, transfers etc.

The Biggest Mistake People Make?

Assuming the price on Booking.com or any OTA is "the price." It's not. It's just today's price on that one site, at that given moment in time.

This is why almost all those ‘hotel and travel hacks’ you see on social media are wrong - there never is one rule that is consistently true for every case in how to find the best deal.

Many people will see an advertised price, or a supposed discount, and take that as read that it’s correct - when it’s likely not. This is why it’s always important to “validate the deal”.

The smart approach: pick your hotel first, then work the system. Use price tracking. Research properly. Know what the actual “gettable price” is - not just what pops up in a search.

That's when you can negotiate directly or leverage price matching. That's when you actually save money.

And that’s why many people go about hotel searches the wrong way - they put their details into a search, and take the results as a baseline to book from. Instead of getting the hotel they want, they try to shoehorn that hotel to fit a price point that may actually be spurious in the first place. As in reality, that price may be the ‘advertised’ price rather than the ‘gettable’ one. Also, you may overlook the fact that the hotel you like and excluded due to being ‘out of budget’ may be ‘in budget’ elsewhere.

In Dubai especially, it’s far more productive, simpler and effective to avoid single-site or sales channels (e.g. an agent or OTA) but rather, select a hotel based on your priority by researching the ‘hard facts’ (the things that you will value, the facilities, the reviews etc.) rather than the price, and only then, find the deal from there by shopping around, trying different tactics or whatever.

For instance, if it’s a Marriott property that’s on your hit-list, from a simple ‘lowest price’ priority, a well-researched and executed Best Rate Guarantee will likely beat any price. I’ve had success matching a price that gave over 35% discount comparatively.

Consider this - the reason many agents offer dining packages such as Half Board is because they can fudge the price and you can’t compare. Don’t fall into this trap; take out the dining package, compare prices ‘like for like’ i.e. Room Only or Bed and Breakfast, as then the offering is the same across all sales channels. You can always negotiate directly with the hotel for an ‘upsell’ for dining packing add-ons, and may even get a better price.

FOOD AND DRINK

A cuisine that isn’t as numerous as other in Dubai is Chinese, so Time Out have helped out with this list of the best Chinese restaurants in Dubai.

Whilst many would plump for names like Hutong and Demon Duck, I’d tip to try Royal China in DIFC, especially if you fancy more ‘old school’ and Dim Sum.

🔗 Royal China Dubai

Adding this brunch review for O Beach Dubai, not just because it’s a fun venue but because it mentions Secret Parties, who always put great events (brunches and ladies nights in particular) on.

In this list of the ten best new restaurants in Dubai, the Kraken concept restaurant in Al Wasl caught my eye, not least with ex-Ossiano chef Gregoire Berger involved and the focus on local produce.

EMIRATES

Emirates Announces Expanded Festive Menus

Emirates will be expanding their festive offerings in-flight and in lounges to reflect the festive season, including on-board hot chocolate between 17 and 26 December.

Read more to discover what will be on the Christmas menus.

Emirates aim to increase their destinations to over 200 before they move to Al Maktoum Airport (DWC).

If you’re looking to book flights to Dubai with Emirates, if you book by 21 December they are currently offering two complimentary experiences.

1. Arte Museum Dubai

2. 90 minute Sunset Cruise with Xclusive Yachts

Valid on travel between 07 January and 18 March 2026.

This is a really good introductory two-part guide to Emirates Skywards, that will help you learn and understand how to earn, redeem and qualify for status in the loyalty programme.