The rooftop pool at Address Beach Resort Dubai holds a Guinness World Record and fills every feed in the city, but the hotel’s real pleasures are quieter, a little lower down and far easier to love.
Seventy-seven floors above the Arabian Gulf, there is a strip of water that ends in nothing at all. Swimmers drift to its glass lip, lean on their forearms and look down at a city in miniature: jet skis stitching white threads across the sea, yachts parked like toys off Bluewaters Island, the great white hoop of Ain Dubai turning so slowly you have to check twice that it moves. On a clear evening the light goes from gold to apricot to violet in under half an hour, and every phone on the deck rises at once, as though someone has conducted it.
This is the pool that put Address Beach Resort on the map, the highest outdoor infinity pool in the world, certified by Guinness and photographed, by our estimate, roughly every eleven seconds. It is wonderful. It is also, we would argue, the least interesting reason to book. The smart money at this two-towered resort at the southern end of JBR is spent two floors further down, in a spa with nine treatment rooms that look straight out across the Gulf, and back on the ground, in a set of garden pools where nobody is trying to film anything at all.
A keyhole in the skyline, and a lobby that smells of cedar
You will have seen the building even if you have never heard its name. Two mirrored towers rise side by side above The Walk and meet near the top in a sky bridge, leaving a tall void between them that reads, from the beach or the Marina, like a giant keyhole cut into the skyline. It is one of the more confident pieces of architecture on a coastline that is hardly short of confidence, and it anchors the long run of towers that starts at Dubai Marina and finishes at Ain Dubai.
When it opened in December 2020, this was the first beach resort for Address, the Emaar-founded group that had made its name with polished city hotels around Downtown: Address Downtown, Address Sky View, Address Dubai Mall. The brief, more or less, was to bring a little Downtown gloss to a part of town better known for sunburn and shawarma queues. Six years on, with a Forbes Travel Guide five-star rating and a MICHELIN Key to its name, it is fair to say the brief has been met.
The lobby is the first proof. It is a tall, glass-walled room flooded with daylight and flowers, guarded by two enormous olive trees, and it smells unmistakably of Address: the group’s signature blend of vetiver and cedar, warm and woody and faintly smoky, the kind of scent regulars can recognise with their eyes closed. Check-in comes with dates and a small cup of Arabic coffee scented with cardamom, a ritual that never feels perfunctory here, and through the far windows the Gulf glitters like someone has spilled sequins on it. It is a very good first five minutes.
Blonde wood, sea-blue carpet and Ain Dubai in the window
There are 217 rooms and suites spread across the towers, in six room categories that turn on two questions: Marina view or sea view, balcony or no balcony. Above them sit four suite types with one, two or three bedrooms, the largest of which are essentially apartments in the sky, built for families who would rather not negotiate over a single bathroom.
The look is the clean, calm Address house style, and it suits a beach hotel better than you might expect. Crisp white linen, pale blonde woods, glossy cream wardrobes and a deep carpet in a shade of sea blue that seems to pull the water outside into the room. Nothing shouts. The furniture keeps low, because the window does the work: in a sea-view room, Ain Dubai sits framed in the glass like a piece of commissioned art, and after dark it glows in slowly shifting colours that are oddly hypnotic from bed.
Bathrooms are marble-heavy and generous, with freestanding tubs positioned for the view and rainfall showers big enough for two. Technology is present without being fussy: smart TVs, touchpad controls, a proper coffee machine. Pay the extra for the sea, and take the balcony if offered. This is a hotel whose whole proposition is the view.
Nine treatment rooms, 75 floors up, and nowhere to look but the sea
Here is the part of the hotel we would build a trip around. The Spa at Address sits on the 75th floor, which makes it the highest spa in Dubai, and unlike most sky-high spas it does not hide its treatment rooms in a windowless core. All nine look out across the Gulf, towards Palm Jumeirah and Ain Dubai, so that the moment you turn face up for a facial you find yourself staring at a horizon with absolutely nothing on it but light.
The rooms are done in soft neutrals, with Gharieni treatment beds, and the facilities go further than the usual massage-and-facial set-up. There is a rhassoul room for the clay ritual, a Vichy shower, a couples’ suite, and separate men’s and women’s relaxation areas, each with its own sauna and steam room. Arrive early and use them; the steam room here is a better warm-up than any lounger. Product brands have included Natura Bissé, HydroPeptide and marocMaroc, and the menu runs to more than twenty treatments, from reflexology to body lifts.
The signatures have included a Moroccan Bliss Journey built around the rhassoul room, a Signature Citrus Indulgence and a Triple Oxygen Glow Facial, which is the one to book before a big dinner. Afterwards, the relaxation cabanas make for a slow return to earth, which here is a long way down. Next door, the gym has all the usual cardio machines and weights, and what may be the most distracting treadmill view in the city.
Read more: if you like your workouts with a view, our edit of eight luxury hotels that double as five-star gyms is for you.
The record-breaker, and the garden pools nobody photographs
Back to that pool. The rooftop deck on the 77th floor is reserved for adults, and it is managed as part of ZETA Seventy Seven, the Asian-fusion restaurant that shares the space. At sunset it feels more like a scene than a swim. Go in the late morning, when the light is sharp and the crowd thin, and enjoy it for what it is: a genuinely thrilling place to be in the water.
Then spend the rest of your days below. The split-level garden pools stretch down towards the sea in terraces, with an adults-only pool, a family pool and a splash pad for younger children, all ringed by loungers and planting that has filled out nicely since opening. The atmosphere is completely different from the rooftop: quieter, sunnier, more like a resort and less like a launch party. For most guests, this is where the holiday actually happens.
The beach is the one place where the name oversells a little. It is a modest, man-made stretch of sand, divided by a public path, and you would not book here for the beach alone. But it is well kept, loungers are plentiful and it is far calmer than the busy public sand of JBR a few minutes’ walk north. Families also get a kids’ club for children aged four to eleven.
Dim sum on the 73rd floor and grilled fish with sand underfoot
Address Beach Resort is a vertical resort, and its restaurants are stacked accordingly, so that dinner becomes a matter of choosing your altitude. At the very top, ZETA Seventy Seven serves Asian-fusion plates beside the pool, best eaten at sunset with Palm Jumeirah spread out below. It is lively rather than hushed, and that is part of the appeal.
Our pick, though, is two floors down. Mott 32, the Hong Kong-born Chinese restaurant, occupies the 73rd floor in a dark, sultry dining room of lacquer, low light and city glitter. This is where Dubai’s glamorous crowd comes to dress up. The applewood-roasted Peking duck, carved at the table, is the house signature and the reason to book, with the dim sum a close second. Ask for a window table.
Down at ground level the mood relaxes. The Beach Grill is the lunch spot, with fresh fish, grilled prawns and international plates served a few steps from the sand. Osh Del Mar keeps things light with seafood and small plates, and Pepe Cucina is the easy Italian choice for families. DREAM, the Mediterranean dinner-show venue at the foot of the hotel, is a night out in itself, theatrical and late, with its Garden of Dreams terrace alongside.
Breakfast happens at The Restaurant, the all-day dining room that is a fixture at every Address property, and it is excellent: a sprawling, multinational spread that sums up the hotel’s personality. Generous, polished and very easy to linger over.
Read more: if Dubai dining is on your list, our review of lunch at La Maison Ani is worth a look before you book your tables.
Dates at check-in, and a hello from everyone
Service at Address Beach Resort is warm in a very Emirati way, which is to say generous rather than stiff. A resort orientation is standard on arrival, so you are not left wandering between towers and floors trying to find the right lift, and it is hard to cross the lobby without a friendly greeting from someone. For a hotel of this scale, it rarely feels like a machine.
Between JBR and Bluewaters, and walkable, which is rare
The location is one of the hotel’s quiet strengths. It sits at the point where Jumeirah Beach Residence meets Bluewaters Island, tucked into a corner that feels calm while staying close to both. In a city built for cars, it is unusually walkable: JBR’s beach and shops, Bluewaters and its restaurants, and the eight-kilometre loop around Dubai Marina are all reachable on foot, ideally in the cooler hours of early morning or after sunset. Traffic at this end of the Marina can be slow, so walking is often quicker anyway.
It also makes a useful base for exploring further. Abu Dhabi is around an hour’s drive away, which puts a day of museums within easy reach. Our guide to the Saadiyat art weekend covers the Louvre, the Zayed National Museum and the new Guggenheim, and it pairs very well with a few lazy days by the sea here.
Swim at the top once, then come back down
This is not a barefoot escape, and its beach will never trouble the Maldives. What it offers is a polished, very well-run city resort, with rooms that frame the sea, a strong restaurant line-up and a spa with one of the best views in Dubai. The pool earns the headlines. The lasting memory is quieter: a facial on the 75th floor, a slow breakfast, a late afternoon in the garden pools while the sun drops behind the Palm.
Need to know
Rates: Double rooms from approx. £400 per night, room only, before local taxes and the Dubai tourism fee. Prices rise sharply between November and March.
How to book: Check availability and rates at Address Beach Resort. Mott 32 and ZETA Seventy Seven are best booked before you arrive, particularly at weekends.
Getting there: Address Beach Resort is at The Walk, Jumeirah Beach Residence, around 35 to 45 minutes by car from Dubai International Airport depending on traffic. Direct flights from London take around seven hours.
When to go: November to April, when temperatures are comfortable for the beach and the rooftop pool. Summer brings lower rates but intense heat.
Read more: for a sense of where Dubai sits at the very top of the market, see the 15 most expensive hotels in the world in 2026.
