The Best Places in Dubai

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Middle East & Africa

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Middle East & Africa

The Barcelona original put cocktails inside a fridge; this ninth-floor outpost swapped the fridge for a circus. A cocktail bar inside the Five Luxe JBR, Paradiso Dubai goes big on spectacle: candy stripes, circus motifs, and drinks that arrive as set pieces, one served inside a miniature steam engine under sesame foam, another glowing green thanks to riboflavin and something billed as an electric liqueur. A named spot on The 50 Discovery list.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The hotel is a glass-tipped pyramid, which in Dubai reads as almost restrained. Raffles delivers the unashamedly classic luxury it's known for across its properties, with every room and suite opening onto a private terrace and panoramic views of the skyline. Services are comprehensive, the five-star comforts are exactly what they should be, and at the apex, the RED Lounge adds Chinese cuisine and cocktails with a view that the original pyramids never quite managed.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The building announces itself as an obelisk, which makes the interior's commitment to French art de vivre a very deliberate bait-and-switch. This Sofitel hotel in Wafi City wears creamy tones, dark wood, and Art Deco detailing throughout its rooms, with Dubai skyline views doing the heavy lifting from there. Brasserie Boulud anchors the dining mix, and the spa layers L'Occitane treatments and a hammam around an outdoor pool.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Twenty standalone villas, each with a private pool, a cinema, an elevator, and a butler, which puts this Al Barsha property in a category where the word "hotel" barely applies. Dark hardwood floors, floor-to-ceiling glass, and terrace Jacuzzis give the interiors a cool, unhurried weight. Families on extended stays and executives who need a boardroom share the address without ever crossing paths.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Low-rise luxury in a city that treats altitude as a personality trait, Vida Creek Harbour is a hotel that keeps things unfussy while the towers of Dubai Creek Harbour crowd around it. Neutral tones, warm furniture, and arabesque detailing on the exterior and throughout the interiors give it a grounded feel. The Michelin Guide includes it among its selected hotels, and the skyline views do a lot of the heavy lifting.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins

About twenty miles outside Dubai, where construction cranes give way to polo grounds, this resort sits in a pocket of genuine green. Villas come with private pools, the larger residences have nine-foot privacy walls, and the spa runs Kerstin Florian treatments. The polo angle is the real draw: riding lessons, matches, and tennis for when you've had enough of the ponies.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Fifty-one floors above the Palm, this bar pulls from Japan, Brazil, and Peru simultaneously, which sounds like a fever dream until you're holding a passionfruit-spiked cocktail with disco balls spinning overhead. The crowd dresses up and the DJs show up ready; on Thursdays, samba dancers take over entirely. It's a lot, in the way Dubai tends to be a lot, and the view gives everyone permission to lean into it.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The circular bar on the 44th floor of Grosvenor House earns the name, with views over the marina that make it easy to forgive the champagne-bar origins and the flashier crowd that came with them. This is a cocktail bar now, properly, with lounge rooms off to the sides for anyone who wants to sit somewhere quieter and pretend they planned ahead. The jetset still shows up, but so does everyone else.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The bar at this Japanese restaurant-bar in the Monarch Hotel runs impossibly narrow, which somehow makes it feel more like a scene than an inconvenience. Regulars wedged in shoulder-to-shoulder are usually debating which large-format bottle to order next, but the bartenders behind the counter are quietly serious about what they're doing. A high-energy cocktail bar with a mezzanine-level address and prices to match the postcode.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide