We have had friends and family stay at The Palm in the Caribbean and they all come back with the same feedback; crazy expensive but really cool. The Palm in Dubai is no different – crazy expensive but really cool. Although, when you live in England where everything seems like it is 2X the price of Canada – it is all relative. The entrance says it all ….

The hotel is impressive – two thousand rooms, billions to build and some of the coolest features I have ever seen in a hotel including a 65M litre aquarium with a 2 story glass viewing area, underwater hotel rooms, celebrity chef restaurant names like Nobu (which was out of this world), a water park with rapids – a lazy river with a wave machine – amazing slides and a 30M straight down (at least it feels that way) slide that rockets through a shark tank. I went on it once – that was enough. The picture on the right is the tube through the tank.

It is tough to call out what was the highlight, the aquarium or the water park. We spent hours, standing in front of the fish tank which is 2 stories high and contains thousands and thousands of fish, including a huge whale shark. It was mesmerizing. Our room had the additional benefit of a balcony overlooking the tank.

The water park is just as amazing. There is a huge wave machine (which shoots you down a river on an inner tube), there is a river full of man made rapids and the center pyramid is filled with slides. The wave machine is below … as the waves start crashing toward my tube. I have some amazing video from my camera (the $200 waterproof case has paid for itself many times over). This picture is right before the wave hit us – over the week I got really good and flinging the boys right to the bottom of the wave machine so they could maximize impact (smile).

What is ingenious about the slides is how you get up. You can walk up (groan), or you can jump on the conveyor belt which leisurely takes you up to the top in your tube.

Or you can take the express route. This route was quite surprising. It starts with a cool little jaunt up the conveyor belt. You are thinking, you know what – this isn’t bad. Then you crest a hill and .. well … you look down at these huge jets that basically shoot you up the hill (in stages). Think of having a fire hose pointed at your back .. that pretty much describes it.

A view of the slides. Yes, it is very high.

I would definitely go back to this hotel. No doubt. In the end, the hotel became our destination. We only took one excursion. That is next.