Fairmont the Palm: Must Try Harder

The view is fabulous....

I know I've had a glut of hotel posts recently - but what to do, this is Dubai! A large part of our socialising revolves around hotels as a) they are licensed b) they are often on beaches c) they can be fabulous locations for a catch up, a night out, or a weekend away. All of which we are pretty keen on!

Our latest find was the Fairmont on the Palm. We've seen a plethora of hotels open on the Palm, following in the footsteps ofthe world-famous Atlantis. 

We checked in for the day to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The verdict?

The hotel is....well....underwhelming. It's a pain to get to - you have to go all the way up the trunk and u-turn to get back to it. The design is blah. No-one opened my car door on arrival. I KNOW this sounds princess-like but this is a 5 star hotel, on the Palm Jumeirah, in Dubai. Their service should be off the scale. Beach food service was glacial. Lunch was average.

Don't get me wrong, we did have a lovely time, and were giddy as kippers to spend some time together on such an auspicious day.There is something fabulously decadent about taking the day off work for such an event. After all, we live in a country where people pay vast amounts to come on holiday each year, and this is right on our doorstep! We've vowed to do this every year from now on. 

The real selling point for the Fairmont is the beach, and the view, both of which are lovely. But it's a mission to get to and there's far more beautiful beach hotels in Dubai: the One and Only, JBH, The Four Seasons. Sorry Fairmont, must try harder...