Crowna Plaza Festival City, Dubai
At the end of January, I headed over to Dubai on a work trip and was lucky enough to stay at the Crowne Plaza Festival City for the second time.
The Festival City complex has shops, restaurants and hotels and is a short taxi ride from Dubai International Airport. The hotel looks over Dubai Creek and has beautiful views of downtown Dubai, including the Burj Khalifa.
We flew in on an overnight flight which meant arriving early on a Sunday morning. Even though check in wasn't due to be for a few hours, the staff were more than happy to see if we could access our rooms early, which luckily, we were able to. If this hadn't been possible, we would have been welcome to use the gym / swimming pool showers to freshen up. It's small things like this which make a big difference, especially if you are travelling for work and need to get to an early meeting.
The rooms are very spacious with good wardrobe space, a must when you are staying away for more than 2 or 3 nights. They also have a desk, which again, is extremely useful if you are travelling on business.
The rooms have a huge bathroom with a wonderful deep bath. There is nothing worse than having a bath when you are staying away and discover it is too short or too shallow.
Rooms either look out of the central courtyard or over Dubai creek. This year, my room looked out over the creek and the hotel pools. This also meant I had a sunset view, a lovely little perk.
On the first night, I decided to order room service as it had been a busy day and I was still tired from the previous nights travel. I decided to order the lasagne followed by a chocolate dessert. The room service was really quick, around 30 minutes which meant I was able to eat and get an early nights sleep. You are also able to order alcohol in the hotel, which is included in the room service menu.
The lasagne was tasty and very much appreciated as 'home comfort'. The chocolate dessert looked beautiful, but it was lacking in flavour a bit. I was expecting something a lot more indulgent and it didn't quite tick the box.
The hotel does also offer a full gym (I've walked past it but not actually used it, however everything looks pretty new and very clean, a pool and there are also steam rooms and saunas.
The breakfast offering is wide in variety and the staff at breakfast are always very helpful. You can opt to sit outside if you wish, however, watch out for the sneaky birds as they like to come and join you for a spot of toast.
For me, one of the things I like the most is that the hotel is connected to the Festival City shopping centre. You have the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Intercontinental Hotel and then the shopping centre lined up which are all accessible via an indoor walkway. When I'm away with work, I don't have much down time, but if you forget anything, it means you can always pop and grab something and it also gives you the option to eat at different restaurants.
I really enjoyed staying at the Crowne Plaza Festival City when away with work. It is outside of the downtown area, which I actually like because after a busy day, sometimes it's nice to come away from the hustle and bustle. It is also really quick and easy to get to the airport.
Taxi's are always on hand and are pretty cheap, so you can easily access the rest of the city.
I honestly don't have a negative thing to say about my visit and would highly recommend the hotel to anyone looking to enjoy a relaxing trip to Dubai.
The Festival City complex has shops, restaurants and hotels and is a short taxi ride from Dubai International Airport. The hotel looks over Dubai Creek and has beautiful views of downtown Dubai, including the Burj Khalifa.
The rooms are very spacious with good wardrobe space, a must when you are staying away for more than 2 or 3 nights. They also have a desk, which again, is extremely useful if you are travelling on business.
The rooms have a huge bathroom with a wonderful deep bath. There is nothing worse than having a bath when you are staying away and discover it is too short or too shallow.
The layout of the room means that the bathroom doesn't have it's own external window, however, they have designed the room so that the wall between the bedroom and bathroom is glass. There is a blind fitted so that you can make the most of the natural light or keep the bathroom private, depending on your requirements.
Rooms either look out of the central courtyard or over Dubai creek. This year, my room looked out over the creek and the hotel pools. This also meant I had a sunset view, a lovely little perk.
On the first night, I decided to order room service as it had been a busy day and I was still tired from the previous nights travel. I decided to order the lasagne followed by a chocolate dessert. The room service was really quick, around 30 minutes which meant I was able to eat and get an early nights sleep. You are also able to order alcohol in the hotel, which is included in the room service menu.
The lasagne was tasty and very much appreciated as 'home comfort'. The chocolate dessert looked beautiful, but it was lacking in flavour a bit. I was expecting something a lot more indulgent and it didn't quite tick the box.
The hotel does also offer a full gym (I've walked past it but not actually used it, however everything looks pretty new and very clean, a pool and there are also steam rooms and saunas.
The breakfast offering is wide in variety and the staff at breakfast are always very helpful. You can opt to sit outside if you wish, however, watch out for the sneaky birds as they like to come and join you for a spot of toast.
For me, one of the things I like the most is that the hotel is connected to the Festival City shopping centre. You have the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Intercontinental Hotel and then the shopping centre lined up which are all accessible via an indoor walkway. When I'm away with work, I don't have much down time, but if you forget anything, it means you can always pop and grab something and it also gives you the option to eat at different restaurants.
I really enjoyed staying at the Crowne Plaza Festival City when away with work. It is outside of the downtown area, which I actually like because after a busy day, sometimes it's nice to come away from the hustle and bustle. It is also really quick and easy to get to the airport.
Taxi's are always on hand and are pretty cheap, so you can easily access the rest of the city.
I honestly don't have a negative thing to say about my visit and would highly recommend the hotel to anyone looking to enjoy a relaxing trip to Dubai.
(All pictures taken & owned by SistersDineOut unless otherwise stated)
