Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 83/w20

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 20, Edition 83

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

🥒 Slicing and Dicing Dubai - go with me on this, it’s worth it!

🧑‍✈️ Etihad Airways 101: A roundup

🍽️ Dubai Restaurant Week

🏩 Delano Dubai; Palm Jumeirah hotels

🤩 Bid for Atlantis Upgrades

Thanks for reading 👏 Shaun

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

ONE BIG DUBAI TIP

There’s Always More Than One Way to ‘Slice and Dice’ a Deal in Dubai

Dubai often offers an overwhelm of choice, be it choice of hotels, areas to stay, how to be driven around and so on.

Whilst this can sometimes seen daunting, especially for first-timers, the upside of this is that overwhelm often means there’s a massive amount of competition for your money (and attention) in Dubai. Which means deals, deals, deals, baby.

So for those who take the time to research around, and think somewhat ‘left field’ about their options, it can really, really pay off.

Some friends recently called me to help plan their first trip to Dubai, and one of the first things they said was ‘we’re not that bothered about saving money’. To which I replied, you will be!

When I explained that with a few good tips and some sound planning along with research, they could probably save at least 30-40% and put it towards either another holiday, or doing more with this one, their ears pricked up.

No Money, No Honey

The main thing to take on board I said was, whilst Dubai is not a cheap place to visit, it’s a place that can be made more cheaper, more productive, more efficient and with more benefits.

A good example is the “no money, no honey” adage. Whilst the unit cost of alcohol in Dubai is dramatically expensive to Western pockets, if one was to leverage Happy Hours, brunches, Ladies Nights, buying alcohol locally from retail outlets, delivery services and/or Duty Free, you’d receive far better value and thus more benefit. You could get that 60 or 70 AED beer down to 19 AED with savvy shopping around.

Similarly, purchasing something like Entertainer can seem anathema to those looking to keep costs down, but it’s so easy to redeem the initial purchase price back and then it’s only ‘more value add’ from there.

You could consider ‘hot off the press’ deals such as the current hot promo/upsell at the Mina Seyahi hotels as they push for All Inclusive guests, or the Club at Atlantis The Royal, where drinkers can really ‘drink back their value’.

Why pay for a beach hotel/resort that you may not use every day, when you could effectively get into so many beach clubs and day passes for ‘free’ with redeemable F&B credits set against entry charges?

The ‘Slice and Dice’ Approach

This is is where what I refer to as the ‘Slice and Dice Approach’ comes into the equation. IF you know your needs, and what’s available, you can then shop around and look at different ways (Slice and Dice) to get to the same result in a better way.

Beach resorts are a good example of this. Unless you’re on an out and out ‘drop and flop’ stay where you want to spend almost all the time on property, why pay for the beach access in your hotel/package cost overall? Compared to a ‘city’ or non-beach resort, you could save upwards of 30% for a similar brand (the ‘Slice’) and then put those savings towards let’s say, one or two days at beach clubs or day passes with redeemable F&B (the ‘Dice). Chances are, you’d still come out with money spare too.

Going back to the chat I had with friends, at the end of the talk they had a long list of ways to save money and when we estimated what could be saved it was a few thousand. Dubai really is one of those places where good research and shopping around pays off more than most, and many of the ‘tricks’ one could apply are not always obvious (eg beach passes).

A Few Examples of How Just a Little ‘Optimisation’ May Help You

The old favourite of location is a great example. A common mistake is people new to Dubai may pick a hotel based on a traditional search, and then what seems a great deal is often costlier in the long run because they haven’t planned their trips out, or they lose time and money more than they need to on taxis.

Similarly, booking hotels in and of itself - there are so many ways to get a deal (and I cover a lot of them, so do check previous editions!). Best Rate Guarantees alone bag me over 30% discount typically on matched prices via Marriott Bonvoy, AND I still get my loyalty program benefits.

Another simple example that’s a common ‘rookie mistake’ is not optimising how you may get around Dubai. Yes, taxis are relatively cheap at 2.5 AED per km, but many folk go back and forth on themselves rather than trying to practically plan to ‘block’ trips out into consolidated areas. Every wasted half an hour in a taxi is costing you around 75 AED, or let’s say, three beers at Happy Hour.

Conclusion

Whilst you may not think you need to chase a deal in Dubai, you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t think about if you’ve found the most effective, efficient and valuable deal.

At the very least, even if you bear the ‘Slice and Dice’ approach in mind, you may find you look at your plans with new eyes and with tips, advice, suggestions etc you could very find you save something - even if it’s just time. Which is still money, right?

Is This Kind of Thing a Good Idea?

It’s actually got me thinking, I could do more chats like this and perhaps help even more people. Some sort of ‘consultation’ along the lines of listening to what people like, or want to do, and if they could ‘tweak’ it with my help? Win-win for everyone right?

What do you reckon, would this be something you’d either use or be interested in, or do you think it has ‘legs’?

EAT

Dubai Restaurant Week is now in full swing, having started on 9th May and runs until 25 May. It’s a great opportunity to eat at over 100 restaurants, based around set menus at a fixed price (125 for a two course lunch or 325 AED for a three course dinner).

Take your pick from superb restaurants such as Coya, Toro Toro, Eugene Eugene, Boardwalk, La Cantine du Faubourg, Demon Duck, Girl and the Goose, Three Cuts, BOCA, Ronin etc.

Note - whilst it’s called ‘Dubai Restaurant Week’, it does run for more than one weeks 😊

The fourth Michelin Guide Dubai will be launched on Thu 22 May 2025, with the ceremony being held at Address Sky View.

If you’re into food and/or all things foodie, one of the first places to get your Dubai content should be Foodiva. Whilst there are many great creators and writers around Dubai in the food scene, and I do try to shout them out on here, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned how great Samantha Wood is.

Like me, one of her pet gripes is when media still refer to chefs as ‘Michelin Starred’ even though it’s inaccurate to do so. The devils 👿 

Check out Samantha’s Foodiva site, her Substack, her Instagram or all three!

HOTEL NEWS

Are You as Interested as I Am About Delano Dubai?

I was always keen to see how Delano Dubai did, after taking over part of the previous Caesar’s resort. Considering it’s been open over half a year, this article suggests service still has ‘room for improvement’.

It is a stunning resort to look at, but sometimes the challenge comes from saturation in that there are a lot of hotels and resorts already around Marina, JBR/The Walk though less so on Bluewaters. It’s clearly taken a lot of inspiration from Delano South Beach with the ‘Miami’ styling and theme, although the latter is still closed.

Along with Banyan Tree Dubai, its sister property from Ennismore, they do offer a ‘Dine Around’ Half Board. The challenge may be trying to balance the usual beach club against guest experience and other hotel aspects, given they started doing day passes a while ago, and apparently not all pools are complimentary for guests. I’ve also noticed a massive disparity in pricing, especially for Delano, across some sales channels so it may just be a hotel that could take some time to ‘find its feet’ and its niche.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread from Trip Advisor Forum to see how things pan out.

Palm Jumeirah these days is becoming a viable competitor to Marina, especially if you’re looking for a ‘drop and flop’ resort. Here’s a rundown of some of the best ‘luxury’ hotels around Palm Jumeirah, but bear in mind if you’re on one of the crescents you’re a little more isolated (and a ‘captive market’ in terms of pricing for outlets).

West Palm Beach, at the top of the ‘trunk’ is a decent area to stay because it has a decent concentration of outlets, bars, restaurants, beach clubs etc. along with Nakheel Mall and The View, along with Aura Sky Pool.

Hotels such as Tumbi West Palm Beach Hotel may not have their own direct-access private beaches, but some may offer ‘beach access’ via nearby clubs and restaurants. If you are paying for a day or beach pass, please note different venues may have different rules regarding cost uplifts for things like pool access or sun loungers.

Speaking of Palm Jumeirah ‘trunk’ hotels, Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah has a new Hotel Manager.

Dubai hotels are stepping up their hotel merchandise game these days. I’ve always been a fan of the Heavenly beds at Westin hotels, and considered buying one - until I saw the 3 grand price tag (Euros, not Dirhams!).

I don’t know if it’s a hangover from the recent Arabian Travel Market, or PR pushes as we move into shoulder season (mid-May is generally when Dubai hotels drop prices) but there appear to be a lot more ‘reviews’ knocking around these days such as this one about Waldorf Astoria DIFC.

I counted three different ones this week for the same (major top-end brand) Dubai hotel, and none of them disclosed if they paid for their stays ….

Anyways, if you are considering staying somewhere like DIFC, or chains like Waldorf Astoria, Four Seasons etc. do be sure to check the VIP/preferred partner programs as they will often feature ‘4 for 3’ or ‘3 for 2’ deals via Virtuoso, especially on Hilton For Luxury program (what used to be Hilton Impressario).

HOTEL TIPS

Another Way to Bag Upgrades at Both Atlantis Properties?

As more and more Dubai hotels chase ‘ancillary revenue’, ie additional sales based on uplifts, upsells and promotions such as day/beach passes, both Atlantis Palm Dubai and Atlantis The Royal have launched a service to buy upgrades.

Using a service called Plusgrade, guests will be offered an opportunity to bid for upgrades on top of their existing bookings. This isn’t really anything new, as lots of airlines do this already but for hotels, it’s more usually a fixed price via email or loyalty program.

Upgrades can be hit and miss via ‘normal’ bookings as there are usually several variables (occupancy, booking channel, rate condition etc.) which may bring the dreaded ‘subject to availability’ into play, and even going in via VIP/preferred partner programs isn’t always a guarantee.

So if an upgrade is important to you, it’s worth either trying to play the percentages or 'biting the bullet’ and either negotiating an upsell directly or try these third party solutions.

KNOW MORE ABOUT DUBAI

Did you know Global Village is currently on its 29th season? Check out these pics of how things have changed over the years.

If you’re looking to dine out or have a drink whilst admiring the Burj Khalifa, here are some of the best spots, according to Time Out.

Note some such as Karma Kafe and Thiptara are in Entertainer for two for one (including Friday or Saturday brunch), as well as Prime 68 being on Marriott Bonvoy More Cravings and/or My Emirates Pass.

Big shout out also to Treehouse, an excellent rooftop bar at Taj Dubai, and Time Out Market (if you don’t feel like paying Souk al Bahar prices).

DUBAI NEWS

Traffic to Get Worse Around Dubai Mall?

If you’re heading to Dubai Mall, be aware of potentially increased traffic congestion (i.e. more than usual!) due to renovation works, particularly around Grand Drive.

As a side tip, as the official taxi rank at Dubai tends to get very busy, don’t overlook walking to one of the surrounding hotels (such as Address Downtown or Kempinski The Boulevard Dubai) and getting cabs from their car parks.

DUBAI DEALS

U by Emaar Offer 20% Discounts

U by Emaar, Emaar Hospitality’s loyalty program, has launched discounts across some of its venues such as PlayDXB, KidZania and Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo.

As always, do shop around and compare eg My Emirates Pass, Entertainer and across local/social media to check you’re getting the best deal. Remember, sometimes My Emirates Pass may only be ‘on the gate’ pricing and online or advance purchase price may be lower.

We’re moving into shoulder season now so all the deals and offers are coming thick and fast.

ETIHAD

Just to show it’s not all Dubai and Emirates, here are a few things to know about Etihad Airways that may be worth your attention.

Etihad Airways is often cheaper than Emirates on direct (ex-UK/US) flights, and occasionally offers super-low prices (eg <£100 one way) from countries such as Italy if you’d consider a ‘positioning’ flight.

Whilst Abu Dhabi is often cheaper for hotels than Dubai, if you’re holidaying in Dubai, don’t forget to factor in time and money to transport from Abu Dhabi to Dubai by taxi, Etihad shuttle, bus, etc..

Etihad often has a wider range of ways to book redemptions, and sometimes there are ‘sweet spots’ such as this First Class Apartment between Singapore (SIN) or Paris (CDG) to Abu Dhabi (AUH) for 95,000 Etihad Guest miles.

Speaking of Etihad Guest miles, it appears there’s a vague promotion to earn double miles if you book by 16 May.

Etihad are currently running a Global Sale, at least if you start from the US site.

🔗 Etihad Global Sale (What’s On)

Etihad also has the Abu Dhabi Stopover program, which offers a range of hotel accommodation in Abu Dhabi depending on duration and class of fare. Last year they accommodated over 85,000 stopover guests and this year they’re aiming for more than 130,000.

Sometimes the hotel nights are complimentary, sometimes discounted BUT be sure to check the Terms and Conditions as there are many ‘blackout’ dates. Also, the communications apparently can be a bit ‘hit and miss’, but that’s the price you pay with these promotions - not much is truly ‘free’ in life after all, and you’re generally paying somewhere else in the scheme of things.

🔗 Abu Dhabi Stopover Programme

As with Dubai/Emirates, ‘hub’ connections are a large part of the business as well as getting travellers into the UAE. As such, do check MCT (Minimum Connection Times) and be mindful that sometimes short-durations can sometimes be precarious, as this chap discovered.

Etihad Guest is the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, and they’ve recently announced a partnership with TAP Air Portugal. Talk of Etihad joining one of the ‘big three’ alliances e.g. Star Alliance may be premature, according to their CEO, as their focus appears to be firmly on joint ventures for now.