Radisson Blu Deira Creek
A major plus point of this hotel is its superb location, overlooking the creek and within easy walking distance of the busy Deira streets. We were picked up at the airport and driven to the hotel in a Lexus 4x4.Check-in took place on the 10th (top) floor, where the Royal Club reception and lounge are. Our room was on the 9th floor and featured a balcony offering splendid views over the creek.
Breakfast was taken in the Royal Club Lounge, again offering fantastic views out across the creek. You can quite literally sit in little “bay windows” looking straight out over the river. There was an extensive buffet to choose from plus eggs cooked to order (we enjoyed some nice omelettes).
Afternoon tea is also served in the lounge with a small selection of sandwiches and other nibbles to choose from, plus there are complimentary alcoholic beverages served for a period in the evening. Again, the splendour of the view (especially at night) from the lounge cannot be over emphasised.
There are a range of restaurants available should you wish to eat in the hotel. Looking for something simple on the first night we opted for “The Pub” which as its name suggests has the interior of a traditional English pub. The Chicken Fajitas and Stir Fried Vegetables we tried were, despite sounding nothing out of the ordinary, extremely tasty and good value for money.
On another night one of the hotel’s restaurants had a BBQ Buffet promotion for 99Dhs per person. This too was very tasty and you could choose your meat and the chef would then cook it on the BBQ for you.
If you fancy a Dhow Dinner Cruise one evening then the hotel is perfectly located right in front of the Dhow Wharfage.
The central location also means it’s easy to get hold of a cheap snack at lunchtime if you don’t want to pay a lot for a big meal in the hotel. If you turn right out the main entrance and walk along you’ll soon come to a Chinese takeaway (one option). Keep going, take a right, then left onto Al Maktoum Road and you’ll be in a busy shopping area. Keep walking along and there will be a 24 hour supermarket on your left (you actually go up an escalator to go into it). Here you can get a pack of sandwiches for under a pound! Or cans of genuine Coke or 7Up for 20p! You’d probably pay 10 times that buy them in the hotel. Of course there’s plenty of other things available in the supermarket as well. Incidentally, on this route on the street between Baniyas Road and Al Maktoum Road there is a bank where you can change currency.
If you wish to travel on the Metro then the hotel is just a few minutes away from Union Station. Turn left out of the main entrance, then left again and keep walking. We could actually see the station from our balcony. The proximity to the metro station plus the fact that many Deira shops are in walking distance meant that amazingly we didn’t use a taxi at all during our stay.
The swimming pool at this hotel is not particularly big and it doesn’t catch the sun until mid/late morning, but don’t be put off by this. There are sun loungers arranged on a terrace along the front that are in the sun, even when the actual pool isn’t.
