One&Only The Palm

One&Only The Palm is nothing like the brash, glassy towers scraping Dubai’s skyline. It’s calm, low-rise, civilised. Rooms are grouped in sumptuous villas dotted along the beach, with café-latte colours and carpets so plush you’ll never want to put your shoes on. Public spaces are vast, sprinkled with Moorish arches, ornate latticework and burnished bronze lanterns. At the heart of it all: a magnificent pool with shallows just made for tiddlers’ splashing, flanked by date palms and air-conditioned cabanas, and just behind it, within a cloud of frangipani, a glossy Guerlain spa, pretty as a pearl. Wonder-chef Yannick Alléno flies in three times a year to tweak menus and throw a VIP dinner in the restaurants, but essentially all the food is first-rate. As is everything here. What a glorious rebel.