Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 93/w30

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 30, Edition 93

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

🙂‍↕️ Not all travel agents are equal

3️⃣ little-known spots in Dubai to check out

🍸 Hard Rock to open hotel & residences in Ras Al Khaimah

👯‍♂️ Dubai is one of the top ten cities worldwide for nightlife

🏩 Ciel Dubai

🛬 ‘Emirates First’ opens at DXB

💳️ Etihad Guest x Revolut

PS. You can always email me here also.

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DUBAI NEWS

Dubai: A Top-Ten City for Nightlife?

Dubai has apparently been voted one of the world’s best cities for nightlife, according to a Time Out Survey.

Coming in at number 9, 83% of locals rated Dubai’s nightlife “favourably”, and was the safest city on the list, with 75% agreeing.

Time Out’s GCC food and drink editor indicated the ‘underground scene’ gaining traction against the superclubs, with particular mention to Chanca and Honeycomb Hi-Fi along with DIFC cocktail bars, Cloud 22, Sirene Beach and J1 Beach being ‘on trend’.

No mention of Barasti, sadly.

Meet the “Willy Wonka of global aviation”, Paul Griffiths (CEO of Dubai Airports) as he talks about the massive growth he’s seen in Dubai amidst ambitious plans for the future development of Al Maktoum International.

Talking of Dubai and airports, ‘Emirates First’ has officially opened at Terminal 3, Dubai International (DXB) to offer a “unique experience for Emirates’ First Class customers and Skywards Platinum members.

Emirates claim to be the world’s largest operator of International First Class travel, offering 26,800 seats each week.

KNOW MORE ABOUT DUBAI

Three Lesser Known Dubai Spots Worth Checking Out

This week, I thought I’d mention three places that may not be on those listicles you often find about ‘must visit’ spots in Dubai. All are interesting spots for different reasons.

Al Habtoor City

Al Habtoor City (AHC) is a multi-use development where Dubai Canal passes under Sheikh Zayed Road. AHC includes three hotels (Hilton Dubai Habtoor City, V Hotel Dubai and Al Habtoor Palace), a separate English pub (the Rose & Crown Dubai) and the dinner show venue/theatre La Perle.

La Perle offers amazing shows, as well as combination deals such as Dubai Canal, abra rides and dinner deals, whilst Dubai Waterfall is a nice, if somewhat small by Dubai standards, attraction for the tourist snaps.

If you’re one for Entertainer deals, there are venues such as Ribs & Brews, The Rose & Crown Dubai, The 44, Babiole, Sidra and World Cut Steakhouse offering Buy One Get One Free.

Hotel-wise, the three hotels used to be Marriott brands, then changed to Hilton brands, and then what used to be LXR became an independent hotel called Al Habtoor Palace. They tend to be available for decent rates because the cluster is not usually as busy as one may imagine, considering the brands.

There isn’t much immediately around Al Habtoor City, so be aware of transport limitations and perhaps ensure you have the ride-sharing apps to hand.

New Covent Garden Theatre

Did you know Mall of the Emirates has its own 575-seat theatre, performing arts and entertainment hub?

At first glance, Dubai may not be at the level of London or New York for performing arts and theatre, though it does have some more ‘compact and bijou’ options aside from the big concert venues.

Lisa Scott-Lee (yes, who used to be in Steps!) and Johnny Shentall founded New Covent Garden Theatre in 2025, and it offers different experiences including comedy, theatre and dance events. Slava Snowshow, for example, is on there from 14 to 26 October.

I’m glad this venue has reopened with a new direction, as it used to offer something quite unique in Dubai. I saw Trevor Noah there before he went big-time, and it’s good to see comedy and other shows in more intimate venues.

🔗 Covent Garden Theatre

Pier 7

Whilst it’s a popular venue, Pier 7 still is a bit of an ‘insider secret’ because of its location on the other half of the Marina (next to Marina Mall). Whilst all the action around Marina is usually The Walk or Bluewaters, there’s still a lot going at Pier 7.

Imagine seven restaurants, all with stunning views over the Marina? Check.

The topmost venue, Atelier M, is a multi-level restaurant, lounge and rooftop and speciality restaurants include Cargo, Mama Zonia, Elaia, Bedrock and Asia Asia .

All levels have outside balcony seating, and there are always terrific deals to be had including Entertainer, Happy Hours, ladies nights and brunches.

Top Tip - research carefully on the deals, because sometimes you can ‘hop’ between the outlets if times overlap, eg ladies nights or happy hours, making for a very rewarding night!

FOOD AND DRINK

Celebrate International Beer Day With These Offers

Following on from last week’s Happy Hour mentions, and as International Beer Day is on 01 August, here are some bars in Dubai with International Beer Day offers.

Even if you’re not in Dubai that day, you can still snag free drinks at these bars.

If you fancy a bit of activity along with your drink, check out these ‘entertainment bars’ in Dubai .

Similarly, if you have kids in tow and it’s a restaurant you’re after, these family restaurants have play areas.

If you are travelling to Dubai with a family, your first stop for information, advice and tips should be Dubai Family Leisure Guide.

Check out Lil’s Linktree for more info, or her ‘Summer Offers’ on Instagram below.

ONE BIG DUBAI TIP

All Travel Agents Are Not Equal

I will often say to anyone asking for advice or tips on travel, the single most important factor that affects your results is likely to be - how and what you’re looking to book.

This may sound a bit ‘meh’ at first, but the truth is, even if (in theory) you’re looking to book a hotel, the sales channel - especially if you’re considering using a travel agent - can vary your results dramatically.

If you’re looking to book a hotel - rather than a package with a flight - it’s often debatable if a travel agent will offer the best deal (I’ll nearly always say not, at least from the cost/value side of things).

I’ve written previously about understanding why rate conditions matter, why you should ‘slice and dice’ to compare different ways to find value, and ‘how to get a Dubai hotel deal’ - to name but three.

Whilst travel agents can offer a great service for many reasons - e.g. convenience, payment plans, cheaper fare basis for flights that are not publicly available etc., I think the term is too generic, especially if one is looking to compare and shop around.

I’d suggest breaking down the term ‘travel agent’ down into ‘subsets’ to better reflect the granularity of their services.

Online Travel Agents (OTAs)

OTAs are sites like Expedia, HotelsCom, Agoda etc. where one can book travel online without speaking to a human. These will often put more of a burden on the customer knowing what they want, what they are buying, and most of all - the pros and cons of their particular sales channels.

Some of these sales channels and sites are known as ‘aggregators’, as they may connect to other sources to provide pricing, deals, bookings and so on. Trivago is a good example, as it’s a ‘front end’ service that supposedly compares across other sites, similar to a comparison site may do for insurance or similar products.

Two key things to know about aggregators and OTAs are:-

1. they may not offer live pricing with instant confirmation

2. when they compare it’s not always comprehensive nor accurate (Trivago for instance will not show member-only prices such as BookingCom Genius pricing).

Both of these scenarios can lead to disappointment, as often a price may be advertised then change when booking. This is why a lot of those shonky sites around the Internet may offer ‘too good to be true’ pricing.

Package Holiday providers

Perhaps one of the most common sources of bookings is by traditional travel agents, through call centres, ‘bricks and mortar’ shops or online.

To save confusion with OTAs, I’d refer to these as ‘package holiday providers’ as that is their core demographic - people that want to book a holiday quickly and conveniently, rather than each element separately. Emirates Holidays, Kenwood Travel, Trailfinders are examples of these companies, and they can offer different pros and cons for different needs.

Emirates Group for instance has several different companies offering travel arrangements, other than Emirates Holidays or Emirates (the airline). Netflights is part of the group also, and is aimed primarily at booking flights online.

The main advantages for using package holiday providers are :-

• they can offer consumer protection on travel arrangements via Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018 if more than two parts (eg flight, hotel, car hire) are booked via one payment.

• they may offer payment plans, including low deposit bookings

• they can offer reassurance via schemes like ATOL and ABTA

• they may offer dining packages (e.g. Half/Full Board or All Inclusive), which may seem good value or for fixed budgeting

The downsides to using package holiday providers can include :-

• you may not be getting the best ‘pound for pound’ value for your booking

• ‘small print’ may often include admin charges, change fees etc.

• you may feel they offer local knowledge, but often it’s more of a sales pitch

• you may often be at the mercy of third parties, as package travel providers may often rely on local suppliers to book the actual hotel, which may mean an extra level of communication if any issues arise

• Add-on packages (e.g. dining, transfers etc) are not always opaque or easy to compare against competitors. For instance, some Half Boards are ‘agent specific’ and may differ in delivery or implementation.

• There may be an expectation they will be ‘up to speed’ on operations or what’s currently happening at a hotel, though it’s more likely they won’t be. Many bookings are made up to a year in advance, and it’s not the responsibility of the provider to tell you if restaurants are closed, maintenance or refurbishments are ongoing or other service disruptions.

Selling Off Sites

These are sites that ‘sell off’ deals for hotels, often ones that may be struggling for occupancy or other reasons. These are sites such as Luxury Escapes*, Voyage Prive, Secret Escapes etc.

A good way to think of them is they’re like those ‘designer brand outlets’ that often sell off designer clothes at a discount due to overstocks, end of line fashion or other reasons. You can still get what seems to be a decent enough deal, especially for an aspirational property and often with decent add-on benefits, but remember - it’s going cheap for a reason (hotel may be struggling, operations may be reduced, refurbishments could be being undertaken etc.)

You may be able to add flights, but you may not have the same benefits of agent-only pricing on airfares or the consumer protection that package travel providers may offer.

Last but not least, it’s not always the case that the offer may be the best deal in town. It could be they add benefits, making it more difficult to ‘compare like for like’, and there may other deals on other sites or sales channel that work out better value.

Luxury Travel Advisors or ‘Designers’

Of the four subsets of travel agents, this is perhaps the most ‘niche’ or bespoke option, and it’s likely the lowest by market share. That is, the three previous subsets are likely all much more popular in terms of awareness and numbers of customers using them.

The concept of luxury travel agents and advisors is far more exclusive, in that it focusses less on mass market and more on relationship-building with ‘clients’ to offer a more bespoke, unique solution. Some advisors may use the term ‘travel designers’ because it emphasises a more unique approach, which can include building a unique trip or holiday perhaps with extras not normally available (eg private jets, events, tours, experiences, safaris etc).

A good differentiator is timescale; a ‘typical’ travel agent may work on volume and seek to offer more ‘off the peg’ solutions, then move to the next customers, whereas a ‘designer’ or ‘advisor’ values taking the time to treat the customer, often over several touch points and a longer period to ensure everything fits their requirement/s.

In this subset I would also include the VIP/preferred partner programmes I regularly mention such as Virtuoso, including agencies such as Classic Travel* or QX Travel .

Virtuoso for example, is an exclusive programme whereby member agencies and advisors can offer exclusive rate conditions, deals and benefits that will surpass anything else on the market, especially in the luxury hotel market. Unlike the other subsets of travel agents, they will not release rates into the public domain or open-access websites, as it’s entirely relationship-based. That is, you will either have to make a formal enquiry or be an existing member (Classic Travel* for example will allow you to register for free to access their website for pricing and searching).

You will likely pay more, often Best Available Rate, rather than the wholesale rates OTAs or similar may offer, but many of the rate conditions will offer benefits you won’t be able to obtain anywhere else, such as :-

• food and drink credit

• spa credit

• early/late check-in/out

• welcome gifts such as General Manager letter, wine, fruit etc

• free nights (eg 4 for 3, 3 for 2 etc)

• uplifted service levels

• upgrades

• events and experiences

Whilst other travel agents, selling off sites and aggregators may offer what seem like similar benefits, the key difference you have via VIP/preferred partner programs is how the hotel perceives your booking.

Because you’ve booked on an elevated rate condition, they will likely treat you that bit better than say, if you booked by Expedia, and this matters when it comes to things like room allocations, service requests, upgrades, late checkouts etc.

If you value service, benefits and upscale treatment, VIP/preferred partner programmes are far more rewarding than selling-off sites, package travel providers or OTAs/aggregators, but they are often more expensive.

Conclusion

Going back to the top of the article, the main takeway is - how and what you’re looking to book is the biggest differentiator in your results (i.e. cost, value, benefits, savings, best deal, service levels etc.)

The worst mistake one can make when booking travel is to assume every sales channel, site, travel agent is effectively the same because they are offering the same product (e.g. a hotel room).

They’re not. And ‘your mileage may vary’ accordingly.

Look at this thread on Trip Advisor Dubai Forum from this week, which breaks down the differences between a package travel provider/agents and advisors/luxury travel agencies like Virtuoso.

It may sound obvious, but even booking the same hotel via different sales channels may give vastly different results in terms of cost, value, service, benefits etc. It may also be that some sales channels such as VIP/preferred partner programmes may take longer and be more in-depth eg on comparison and research, but the results can pay off in terms of elevated experiences and benefits.

It really does depend on what you’re looking to achieve, so hopefully this article has helped a little.

If you have any questions about this article, such as VIP/preferred partner programmes, advice about finding hotel deals or Dubai hotels in general, I’d love to hear from you - just email me and I’ll get back to you.

HOTEL NEWS

Ras Al Khaimah to Open Hard Rock Hotel & Residences

Hard Rock have a bit of an up and down history with Dubai it seems.

The ‘old’ Hard Rock Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road opened in 1997, closed in 2009 and was demolished in 2013. There’s an excellent Hard Rock Cafe at Festival City these days - well worth a visit, especially for their bands and quiz nights.

There were plans to open a Hard Rock Hotel in Dubai Marina, but as happens sometimes, plans change.

Now it’s the turn of Ras Al Khaimah, as a joint venture has been announced which will see the 300-room Hard Rock Hotel & Residences open in 2028, RAK’s Beach District, near to Al Marjan Island.

One hotel I’ve had my eye on for a while, mainly because of the architecture and the fact it will be another ‘tallest hotel in the world’ record, is the upcoming Ciel Tower at the entrance to Dubai Harbour. It will also probably claim the title of ‘best looking tower in the Marina’ from Cayan Tower (the ‘Twisty Tower’)!

It’s apparently close to completion, and will be operated as an IHG Vignette Collection property. Tattu have already signed up to open a rooftop restaurant around September.

🔗 Ciel Dubai

ETIHAD

Earn Etihad Guest Miles with Revolut

Etihad Guest have announced a partnership with Revolut*. By earning RevPoints on spend via Revolut, these can then be transferred into various other programmes although Airline Miles are by far the most popular, according to Christopher Guttridge, Revolut General Manager (Loyalty).

Note - earning rates in Revolut* depend on your plan, for instance I earn 1 point for every£2 spent on Metal

Airline Miles transfer from Revolut at 1:1, and Etihad Guest Miles can be used for flights, upgrades, hotel stays, holidays and products from the Etihad Guest Reward Shop.

🔗 Etihad Guest

🔗 Open a Revolut Account for Free*

Etihad Airways are aiming to carry 21.5 million passengers in 2025, according to Antonoaldo Neves, their CEO. They are also expecting 18 new aircraft to be delivered by year end, and have taken delivery of their first Airbus A321LR.

The narrowbody A321LR will enter service on 01 August, and will feature three cabins including First Class Suites.