I have stayed at this hotel before, and found it to be a fine hotel in the centre of Dubai. Not overly priced for the size and decor of the rooms and services. My visit this time was only for a few days, but I managed to use the swimming pool on the first floor, which is in fact three floors up and has a nice view of some of the nearby shopping centres. The pool area has sun beds and an eating area, and there is a gym overlooking the pool. There is a coffee house on the ground floor, along with three restaurants. One with A-la-cart and buffet, a Japanese restaurant and a Chinese restaurant, I tried the A-la-cart first and had a tasty soup followed by a great t-bone steak with all the trimmings it was cook just right and I really enjoyed it. For desert I had tiramisu, which was really well done with a milk chocolate shell and the cake inside. The other restaurant I tried was the Chinese, I had all the spicy things such as Singapore fried rice and sizzling beef in chilli which was well presented and cooked to perfection. In the room there is a fully stocked mini bar, and a wide screen TV for the moments you want to unwind from seeing the sights of Dubai of which there are many. There is an English style pub in the hotel which I also tried; it has a number of English beers and Lagers plus a selection of worldwide wines. One side of the Pub has a smoking area and the other is smoke free both serve pub grub. Outside the Hotel are a number of small shopping centres and streets of shops that go on and on as there are hundreds of shops as well as the 58 shopping centres around Dubai. The Dubai Metro system is in the same street as the hotel; the trains are driverless and go to or near most of the attractions of Dubai. The attractions include over 500 hotels, 841 restaurants, 183 bars and 57 clubs. There are tour buses that go to all the major spots, one company is the Big Bus Company that you can use all day jumping off and on as you please. From the hotel you are within walking distance of the Dubai museum, the waterway (which has boats to take you to the other side where there is the old Gold Souk), restaurants, cafes and a number of hotel bars plus loads of back street shops where you can barter for hours on end and sometimes pick up a bargain. (It is best to have the shop price in your head before you barter)
The taxis are not over the top with their fares and all work on meters, just moving round the centre cost only three to four English pounds or 20 Dirham, to get further out such as the Atlantis on the Palm it cost me 65 dirham. I used the Atlantis monorail to get back off the palm, but it does not connect to the metro system so a taxi was needed from the end of the line over to the metro. But using that route did cut the price by half for the return journey. When using the taxi service, don’t be surprised if you go past some places twice. It is due to the Dubai one way road system, with its four lane main roads you have to divert up and down the back streets to get the right entry point. The Metro system works on a card scheme, you buy your card and credit from the station. Then you swipe your card over the reader to gain entry, when you are leaving the exit station you swipe your card again which then takes credit off your card. You are charged the price between stations, and should top up your card when it is low. I hope this was of help to you, there are public beaches within a short taxi ride but most of this information is on hand when you switch on your TV as there is an endless commentary plus the reception has lots of free leaflets on offer as well as maps. The Hotel has a mini bus that can take you to the Airport if you wish, and can be used to other places as well.