Best Beach Hotel Award 2026

Atlantis The Royal

Dubai

The epitome of over-the-top extravagance

Why stay here? There's nothing understated about Atlantis The Royal. Hyped up well before it opened, this hotel is big, bold and in your face. Home to 760 rooms and suites, 16 restaurants, bars and lounges, two storeys of boutiques, a sprawling Art Deco wellness space and swimming pools with unbeatable views – take, for example the Cloud 22 pool perched high on top of the sky bridge – this is where to stay if you want an all-out bling Dubai experience.

What's on the menu? From big-name brands including Nobu to offerings led by big-name chefs – including Heston Blumenthal and Ariana Bundy – you can dine around the world, without ever having to leave. A glamorous outpost of New York favourite Carbone also calls this venue home.

What are the rooms like? Surprisingly, the rooms are much more understated compared to the extravagance of the rest of the hotel, the spacious light-filled guestrooms are revealed through slick minimalist furnishings in neutral tones that don't detract from the sea views outside. The hotel's lavishness steps up with the suites and the penthouses, where 44 come with their own glass-sided swimming pools so you can swim in the sky.

Outstanding wellness programme: The spa is a hedonistic pleasure dome with a salt cave, hydrotherapy pool, hammam, chromotherapy and charcoal sauna, alongside an extensive list of treatments including ones that use local ingredients such as oud, dates, desert sand and salt harvested from the Gulf Sea. Meanwhile, the hotel's eco-efforts include marine conservation, education and scientific educational programmes in the surrounding area.