The best ultra-luxe wellness hotels in Dubai for a top-to-toe reboot
Offering a sun-drenched lifestyle, glitzy hotels and chef-centric restaurants, Dubai is a go-to destination for many UK travellers. Especially as it’s making headlines for its clean streets and low crime rates, which give it added appeal for the surging numbers of female solo travellers.
And this year, more than ever, it is a crowd in search of wellness who are flocking there. It makes sense really; after all isn’t sunshine one of the great motivators for exercise and taking control of your health and fitness? Now with Kerzner having launched its inaugural fitness and recovery hotel, SIRO One Za’abeel, the bar has been seriously raised.
If you want a dose of dopamine; a blast of sunshine; to trim and tone your winter figure; or take years off your face, here’s our pick of the very best places to reset in Dubai.
SIRO One Za’abeel
Booking in here is making a commitment. Not in the same way as at a medical spa, where food is rationed and drink is restricted, but in terms of making the most of the facilities. For facilities there are many. Choose a Fitness Suite complete with boxing bag and gloves, a stationary bike, treadmill, free weights and a suspension training system. Or a standard room with exercise ball, stretch bands, yoga mat, stretch ladder and meditation cushion — and off you go. Finish with a dip into the protein stocked maxi bar.
Outside your room an impressive array of classes in the Fitness Lab awaits from cycling, to Pilates Reform to boxing, to 50-minute HIIT classes in the Experience Box. And then there are are the off-site activities. Desert bike ride anyone?
Book it: Rooms from £231. sirohotels.com
The Lana
The first Dior Spa to open in the UAE is located on the 29th floor of the recently opened Dorchester Collection outpost, The Lana. Flooded with natural light which enhances its tranquil, neutral colour palette, this spa is indulgently private. Your treatment room is your sanctuary, equipped with all the facilities that a changing room would give you, but here, gloriously private. The relaxation room follows suit, created just for you, and fitted with a reclining bed, white orchids, and a dazzling view across Dubai’s skyline; best enjoyed with the sugar-free DIOR branded cookie at your side.
Inbetween sink back and let Dior do its work. Choose from cutting-edge technology options like the Dior Skin Light LED therapy mask or Dior Micro-abrasion to combat anti-aging or a relaxing Golden Aura facial which drains, de-puffs and stimulates circulation, leaving you glowing inside and out.
Book it: Rooms from £402. dorchestercollection.com
Atlantis The Royal
Launching with a gilded splash last year, Atlantis The Royal has not forgotten wellness in amongst the 775 rooms and suites, the 17 world-renowned restaurants and the private pools set amongst the clouds. Its Spa, Awaken, offers an incredible brand curation of products (all 100 per cent vegan) in its 17 treatment rooms including Augustinus Bader, 111 Skin, Dr. Barbara Sturm, Subtle Energies and the UK brand Amra. The latter, fittingly containing the world’s most precious elements from gold to platinum, rubies to sapphires, combined with the latest scientific bio-active natural ingredients.
A truly holistic spa, there is chakra balancing, cryo brightening facials, LED light therapy — and to remind you where you are, a local desert sand and date sugar infusion scrub, followed by oud-infused hot compresses and a pink clay wrap to ensure the smoothest of skin.
Book it: Rooms from £482. atlantis.com
One&Only One Za’abeel
An outpost of the famous Swiss-based Clinique La Prairie opened in spring last year in the vertical urban resort of One&Only Za’abeel. Focusing on longevity, wellbeing and aesthetics, it has the first Longevity Index Lounge in the region, where every visitor gets a complimentary 45-minute assessment. This includes a lifestyle questionnaire, a body analysis and a Visia face scan which ensure that the correct skincare, or body treatments are chosen.
But of benefit for all are the cryotherapy, energising or detoxifying IV drips, far infrared (FiR) and the ultra-soothing neuro-wave stimulation, which uses vibrational and acoustic therapy to seriously calm. Aesthetic treatments like the minimally invasive Indiba, uses monopolar radiofrequency to regenerate skin tissue, as well as detoxing with algae detox baths and phyto-mud mask therapy.
Knowledgeable practitioners and therapists impress here, as does the scope of their offering. And, if you feel you deserve a reward, book a table at La Dame de Pic and try the berlingots, a speciality of Chef Anne-Sophie Pic where pasta parcels are filled with Comté cheese.
Book it: Rooms from £408. oneandonlyresorts.com
Mandarin Oriental Dubai
With results-driven brands like 111Skin and Ling New York used in this elegant spa, after a few hours you will leave looking years younger. But step into the neighbouring Fitness Centre if you want to tone up. There is an impressive, state-of-the-art, Movement Studio, equipped with OUTRACE functional training rig and another results-orientated brand, Technogym Artis to ensure success.
Fresh air junkies can exercise under the blue sky on the Padel Court or take classes on the beach. But most popular is the rejuvenating cold immersion therapy. First relax in the warm sauna to speed up the detoxification process and then plunge into revitalising cold water with a temperature of between 0-8 degrees Celsius to stimulate circulation, reduce muscle inflammation and boost immunity. The after-effect is memorable; a totally rejuvenated you.
Book it: Rooms from £848 per night. mandarinoriental.com
