Dubai and luxury travel go hand-in-hand. The supersized Middle Eastern oasis has long been recognised as having some of the world’s most ostentatious examples of ultra-luxury, particularly when it comes to the city’s generous spread of hotels such as Rixos The Palm, Mandarin Oriental Jumeira and the emblematic Atlantis The Palm. And that last one, Atlantis The Palm, is finally getting a grand sister property with next year’s opening of Atlantis The Royal, a long-gestating $1.9 billion project that promises to up the ante when it comes to scale, grandeur and ambition.
You’ve got the whole shebang of Emirati extravagance here. Butlers and suites with private infinity pools, a sky-high club hanging with the clouds and an entire precinct with 17 restaurants and bars. Anyone who has been to the UAE before would know that the best resorts in Dubai don’t do anything by half-measure, so it’s no stretch of the imagination that Atlantis The Royal will be fashioned as a veritable playground for luxury travellers.
Images of Atlantis The Royal were only released earlier this week but already echo the kind of lavishness one would have been expecting from this project. The resort brings 795 rooms and 231 apartments to the table, with 44 suites each having its own private infinity pool. You’ve also got a larger 90-metre infinity pool that sits on the 22nd floor, connecting the resort’s six towers and building a massive entertainment space called Cloud 22.
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In total, the Palm Jumeriah resort rises up 43 storeys with expansive views checking the Arabian Sea and Palm Island, asserted as one of the largest resorts in the desert metropolis. Whether or not Atlantis The Royal will be as soulless as some of UAE’s more flashy establishments remains to be seen, but it’s hard to deny how much has been poured into this project over the years.
You’ve got the typical who’s who of celebrity chefs each helming restaurants across the six towers, from Heston Blumenthal and Jose Andres to Gaston Acurio and Costas Spiliadis. Nobu will be opening its first-ever beach club version of the inescapable restaurant brand, and Heston will not only be opening his signature Dinner concept but also spearheading a new bar called Resonance. I’m not sure which one, but at least some of them should be located around the fire-breathing water fountain.
Not bad at all.
Atlantis The Royal
Address: Crescent Rd – Palm Jumeirah – Dubai – United Arab Emirates
Atlantis The Royal has now opened reservations and will start welcoming guests from 2023.
