This was my first time in the UAE so I’d decided to stop a couple of days in Dubai on my way to Abu Dhabi.
We’d arrived around midnight after a long flight from Melbourne. UAE customs and immigration were no problems and around 20 minutes after walking off our Qantas A380 flight we were on our way to our hotel.
We’d decided to camp at the InterContinental Residence Suites in Festival City close to the airport and Dubai Creek.
InterContinental Residence Suites, Dubai, UAE
A word of warning though – don’t turn up at an InterContinental Hotel with my colleague Lynn after a 14 hour flight and tell her that
- There’s no free mini-bar at this InterContinental for Royal Ambassador members
- There’s no upgrades for Royal Ambassador members at this InterContinental
- You booked at NON-smoking room but you’ve been given a smoking room
She was grumpy, and she let the poor night checkin staff know, but we both ended up getting our non-smoking rooms 🙂
The InterContinental Residence Suites are around 500 meters from the “proper” Dubai InterContinental hotel (also at Festival City) and the all important shopping center, and there’s a shuttle bus that regularly travels between the 2 venues.
Onto the rooms. Being designed for medium to long term occupancy the InterContinental Residence Suites offers more convenience than a traditional hotel room. My room had a galley kitchen with the all important (and well used) Nespresso coffee machine.
The bed was pretty comfy as was the bathroom though the shower was extremely inconvenient to use due to the size of the surrounds around the bath… I felt like I had to do the splits (on one occasion involuntary) to get out!
I did have breakfast at the hotel one morning and it was pretty good choice of a buffet or a cooked breakfast. I chose both for a reasonable cost.
The only real minor hassle I had was that I’d thought that I’d booked a hotel car to drive me to Abu Dhabi but my request seemed to have been lost in translation as there was a local taxi ordered. However, after the hotel recognised their mistake we were soon motoring our way (at >140 km/h) towards Abu Dhabi.
Was the place nice? Yes
Would I stay there again? If I can’t get into the real InterContinental then yes, otherwise I’d stay at the “real” InterContinental.