Family holidays: where to stay

A destination page answers where to stay in a city with children, before you choose a hotel. It opens on the city’s family list, then goes through the neighbourhoods: which hotels stand in each, how far the sand is, which metro or tram station is close, and how long the drive to the main sights takes. The hotel reviews and practical guides for the city follow, so the trip can be planned from one page.

For Dubai, that means 12 Accor hotels across seven neighbourhoods. Five are on Palm Jumeirah, two at Jumeirah Beach Residence, and one each on Bluewaters Island and in Downtown Dubai, Wafi City, Barsha Heights and Jumeirah Village Triangle. The city page then answers the questions parents raise about Dubai: which area suits young children, which kids’ clubs open when and for which ages, and how to get about from each hotel without a car.

In our view, a beach resort suits young children who will spend most days in the water, because the club, the pools and the sand are on the same site. In Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah resorts publish their own beaches: 800 m at Fairmont The Palm, 500 m at Sofitel Dubai The Palm and about 500 m at Raffles The Palm Dubai. The trade-off is distance: Sofitel Dubai The Palm counts about 30 minutes by car to Downtown Dubai, and none of the Accor resorts on the island names a metro station.

A city hotel suits older children and a trip built around the sights. Sofitel Dubai Downtown is 100 m from Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall metro station, with an air-conditioned skywalk into The Dubai Mall, and Sofitel Dubai The Obelisk is 500 m from Dubai Healthcare City station. Neither has a beach.

Jumeirah Beach Residence sits between the two, with the public JBR beach, The Walk and a tram stop, though neither of its two hotels in our list publishes a kids’ club with ages and hours.

Between about 10 and 30 minutes by car from Dubai International Airport, for the hotels that publish a time. The airport is in Al Garhoud, 4.7 km east of the city centre, so the city hotels come first: Sofitel Dubai The Obelisk, in Wafi City, gives about 10 minutes for 7 to 8 km, and Sofitel Dubai Downtown about 15 minutes. On the coast, Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach gives under half an hour for about 38 km. On Palm Jumeirah, Fairmont The Palm and Raffles The Palm Dubai both publish about 30 minutes, and Forbes Travel Guide gives the same for Sofitel Dubai The Palm.

Those minutes count at the end of a night flight with tired children. The four Sofitels publish check-in from 15:00, so a family landing in the morning should ask about an early room when booking. Dubai has a second airport, Al Maktoum International at Jebel Ali, 37 km southwest of the city, so check which one your flight uses before comparing transfers.