Review: The St. Regis Dubai, The Palm [UAE]

I spent the last days in Dubai at The St. Regis The Palm to take it easy in the city before heading home with the Emirates A380 First Class. I was curious about The Palm location ever since seeing it on satellite images which leaned me into trying out the St. Regis.

It turns out to be a very solid stay, but just very solid.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Booking

I booked a 2-night stay through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts for around $500 total before the $200 discount from the Amex Platinum Card. This allowed for possible early check-in and $100 property credit that can be used towards dining and spa.

For dining, the credits only apply to the restaurants Ruya, Cordelia, St. Regis Bar, and Dip Pool Bar. Unfortunately, the restaurants on The St. Regis Gardens are not included as they’re not part of the hotel despite the naming. It would’ve been too cool to be able to use the credit at Tresind Studio, a 3-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant at The St. Regis Gardens!

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Location

The hotel is located on the iconic man-made palm-shaped island called The Palm. It’s attached to Palm Jumeirah Mall or Nakheel Mall so you can access the hotel directly from the mall as well.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Check-in

We arrived with our private transport from Al Maha Desert Resort and arrived at around 3pm.

The lobby definitely feels like a St. Regis with gold and neutral colors dominating the room.

Check-in was done in sit-down fashion. The process itself was smooth, but unfortunately we did not get a suite upgrade for this stay which was surprising considering that it was a weekday stay. But, we did get upgraded to the Grand Deluxe King on the highest floor.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Grand Deluxe King Room

The highest floor for guestrooms in The St. Regis Dubai The Palm is on the 18th floor. The Grand Deluxe Room is located in the corner of the floor and I believe the only difference between the Grand Deluxe and the Deluxe Room (standard) are that the Grand Deluxe are in higher floor and offer partial sea view. The size are the same.

After entering, we’re greeted by the dressing mirror to the left and the bathroom to the right, with the bedroom area straight down the hall.

The bed was very comfortable on the firmer side. There’s universal electrical sockets alongside the bed.

The bedroom area feels compact with sofas and small round table set closely next to the bed. There’s ample space by the window where you can sit and enjoy the view that way.

The Grand Deluxe Room offers partial sea view and towards the city of Dubai, though it got smoggy during my stay there. Apparently drone shows may play at nighttime and you could see it clearly from this room. I ended up not seeing it because I completely forgot about it at the time.

Across the bed is the TV with the minibar underneath. All of the items are chargeable which is the opposite from my recent stay at The St. Regis Belgrade.

The bathroom is full marble with the sinks being double vanity complete with amenities like dental kits, mouthwash, and even facial cleanser.

To the right of the sink is a set of separate toilet room and shower room. In-between is the remote for the smart glass control that’s next to the bathtub.

Then, there’s a bathtub by the glass to the left of the sinks.

The glass on the bathroom is equipped with smart glass technology to provide privacy; hence the lack of walls or curtains. It’s still an uncommon sight, and I’ve only experienced it in InterContinental Yokohama Pier 8 and Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho.

Overall, a very decently luxurious room. Shame that I didn’t get a suite this time around since I feel that the base room size feels a bit compact, and I felt it in the bedroom area, compared to other luxury hotels in Dubai.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Breakfast

Breakfast is served at the Cordelia Restaurant on the third floor with full buffet style with egg dishes you can order on top.

Breakfast goes full-on international and include Chinese, Indian, Turkish, and Western dishes.

The pastries were all great and beautiful to look at.

With the egg dish, you can choose between scrambled, fried, boiled, and omelet. The omelet is more customizable, but they felt lacking overall and nothing too noteworthy.

The buffet overall was great and I enjoyed the varieties. The eggs were just okay and I ended up sticking with the buffet options mostly.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Ruya Restaurant

To use the $100 hotel credit from Fine Hotels & Resorts, we checked out Ruya Restaurant, a Michelin-listed restaurant mainly serving Turkish cuisine.

The restaurant was empty when we were there, even though we visited during happy hours promotion that came with 15% discount on the bar menu.

It turns out, that certain food menu of the restaurant share the food items of the bar menu which made them applicable for the happy hour discount. So, we ordered ourselves some simit-coated calamari, Adana kebab, pistachio rice, chicken shish tawook, kunefe, and the blue “Nazar” cocktails.

The pistachio rice was an interesting combination. The nuttiness of the pistachio goes well with the soft rice.

The kunefe was sliced into four smaller pieces and is topped with pistachio ice cream. There’s always room for kunefe for me as I view it as the best dessert in the world!

The food was very enjoyable, and they’re all in high quality. I’m glad the happy hour discount and the $100 credit stacked which allowed us to order a bunch of stuff.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Pool

The hotel’s infinity pool is behind the Cordelia Restaurant where breakfast takes place.

The pool is not too crowded most days even during midday. I bet that most are flocking to the Aura Skypool instead since that’s understadably more impressive than the hotel’s pool, even though people would have to pay for it.

Aura Skypool

Aura Skypool is the highest 360 degree infinity pool in the world attached to the same tower as the St. Regis that you can access from an elevator behind the lobby’s grand staircase. Though you’ll have to exit the hotel and enter through the door next to the hotel’s front door to get to the elevator.

Aura Skypool is not part of the hotel, guests can get a 10% discount for the entry tickets with the concierge of the St. Regis Dubai, The Palm.

Kyma Beach Club

Guests of St. Regis Dubai The Palm can get complimentary access to Kyma Beach Club. Unfortunately, I was not able to check it out, but it is an adult-only beach club with scheduled shuttle service provided from and to the hotel.

St. Regis Dubai The Palm- Gym

I briefly checked out the gym on the third floor. It’s equipped with varieties of cardio and strength training machines. Though I notice that there are a lot of empty spaces in-between the machines.

Conclusion

The St. Regis Dubai The Palm is a very solid hotel. It’s a very convenient hotel to get to the Aura Sky Pool which I think is a very cool place to visit in Dubai, and some of the notable fine dining restaurants at The St. Regis Gardens. Other than that, it was an okay location to get to other places. Regardless, you’ll need a car to get to anywhere no matter where you stay in Dubai.

Breakfast variety was also nice with multiple international dishes served, but the egg options were underwhelming.

While it is a very solid hotel and meets my expectations of a St. Regis, there wasn’t much of a wow factor that makes this stay stand out.