Best for: Lego fans, obviously, and the quirky rooms
It may not win any awards for grown-up style, but there isn’t another Dubai hotel designed so squarely with its young guests as top priority. Ask child Lego fans what they thought of Legoland Dubai following a stay and the resounding answers tend to be very high-pitched and excitable. Perhaps that’s because all the 250 rooms (and the corridors and stairwells and everywhere else in-between) are Lego-themed, ranging from the entry-level ‘themed’ to the ‘fully-themed’ Pirate, Kingdom, Friends, Adventure and Ninjago, with family suites’ that sleep up to eight and interconnecting rooms that can accommodate up to a mighty 26 – a relative Lego frenzy. The hotel houses 2,146 Lego models made from 4.5 million bricks (the highlight is a cityscape made from nearly 60,000 alone), with opportunities for kids to get involved and creative springing up right from the huge castle play area in the lobby, to the in-room treasure hunt, to watching Lego building masters at work – to the actual Legoland Dubai theme park or Water Park that a stay at the hotel gets you a ticket to (the indoor, air-conditioned options at both are better for hotter days). While parents have mentioned that the parks can seem surprisingly quiet, it seems the 2- to 12-year-old Lego fans they are aimed at mainly remember getting to take multiple turns on the 60 interactive rides. That, or the kid-height check-in, buffet and peephole, or the disco-themed elevator, all back at the hotel.
Price: Rooms from about £253
Centara Mirage Dubai
Best for: the little details – and competitive price
This huge 607-room, relatively new Thai-Arabian hotel has gone the extra mile to attract families from the outset. As well as cute touches such as face-painting at check-in, there are three age-specific kids’ clubs with busy rosters of activities, a candy-themed spa for children and a family lounge with both brightly coloured soft furnishings for the smaller people and afternoon tea and cocktails on hand for the bigger ones. Outside you’re on the waterfront with access to two beachside pools, waterslides, a lazy river, an inflatables zone and splash play area and cliff jumping points. In the evenings, watch out for crowd-hushing theatrical displays such as Dueling Fire shows. Room decor is simple and fresh with either sea and beach or city views – and the prices tend to be stand-out reasonable.
Price: Rooms from about £149
The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina
Best for: the insider’s water park
Its name may be outrageously long but that’s nothing compared to its private beach – at 500 metres, it’s one of the longest anywhere in the city. While the rooms, bars, restaurants (especially good for those with gluten allergies) and spa are all appealingly pampering for parents, it’s the attached Jungle Bay Waterpark, inspired by the Cyclades and open since early 2021, that families come for. With its numerous slides, including a Lighthouse mat racer ride, Whizzard and Body Slides, Aqua Play, a splash park with no age restriction, more gentle kids’ slides, 6-metre pneumatic ’Family Waves’ pool and pretty, big cabanas, it may be less wild than some of the city’s bigger waterparks, but it’s also typically less busy and ideal for keeping children of different ages entertained for several days. Also open to guests at Le Méridien Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina (which means if you book tickets to the waterpark alone, you get access to both hotels).
Price: Rooms from about £250