Highest Climber Award 2024

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 795 rooms and suites, 17 restaurants and bars, 17 boutiques, a sprawling 32,300 square foot wellness space, and no fewer than 90 swimming pools – including Cloud 22 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 from big-name chefs – including Heston Blumenthal, José Andrés, Ariana Bundy and Gastón Acurio – you can dine around the world, without ever having to leave. 

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 complete 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, Dubai desert sand and Gulf Sea salt. Meanwhile, the hotel’s eco efforts include marine conservation, education and scientific educational programmes on the surrounding area.

The Highest Climber Award is given to the hotel that has risen most places within The World’s 50 Best Hotels from year to year.

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