Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
EMERGING
A new Dubai property looks at its past.
DUBAI IS A PLACE of superlatives: the world’s tallest building, biggest shopping mall, largest tin of caviar. It’s easy to see why Dubai Creek, a waterway running through the oldest part of town, gets lost amid all the shinier attractions. The historic neighbourhoods along the saltwater channel, especially on the southern side, are so linked to the roots of Dubai that the city has frequently considered submitting them for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Yet until recently, this mostly residential area has been overlooked by tourists.
They’re missing one of the most spectacular spots in the United Arab Emirates. Only at the creek will you find traditional wooden abras sailing between the districts of Deira and Bur Dubai, something they’ve been doing since the 19th century, when the first pearl divers and spice traders headed for India and Iran docked their dhows here. For one dirham, or about ` 19, you can hop aboard. Your captain won’t tell you about the story of the creek—how it declined as a business centre with the advent of cultured pearls and the discovery of oil, or how it has been dredged and expanded countless times over the years—but that doesn’t matter. The joy of the ride is in the panoramic views of Dubai’s history: textile and spice souks, an 18th-century fort (the oldest structure in the city), and a warren of coral-and-adobe desert dwellings.
Now, the creek is getting a second wind, thanks largely to the Al Seef neighbourhood project: a kilomtetre and half long development starting at the edge of the Al Fahidi historic district and
unfurling southeast along the waterfront.
It’s a mix of retail and cultural spaces, from a purpose-built souk at one end to an ultramodern cluster of shipping containers at the other.
As part of the revitalisation project, the Jumeirah Group (the Emirates' famous luxury hotel chain) brought three buzzy hotels to this area last year. In September, the traditionally designed Al Seef Hotel (doubles from ` 8,896; jumeirah.com) joined the more contemporary Zabeel House Al Seef and its hostel-like cousin, Zabeel House Mini—both just a 15-minute creekside walk away.
At Al Seef, everything suggests a warm nostalgia. Staff offer cardamom-flavoured Arabic coffee and Emirati dates in a lobby decorated in “mid-century Dubai” style, complete with vintage TVs and brass bells at the front desk. The 190 rooms and suites are split among 10 buildings modelled after classic Arabian homes, or bayts. Mod cons like Smeg mini-fridges are hidden behind wooden panels to play up the vintage details, like gaslight-style lanterns and photographs from Dubai’s maritime past. The hotel’s Emirati restaurant, Saba’a (prix fixe from
` 2,633), serves classic regional dishes like stickysweet luqaimat fritters; salona, a stew of spiced chicken, vegetables, and dried lime; and the moist, rose-scented bread pudding called umm Ali.
“I love that it really takes you back in time,” says Dina M. Bin Masoud, director of operations at the Jumeirah Group. “You feel anchored. It quiets the bustle.”
Surrounding Al Seef Hotel is the new souk, which has been designed to look like those of Dubai in the 1950s. The crowds come at night to enjoy the breeze off the water, perusing the tchotchke-filled market stalls and snapping waterfront selfies beside traditional fishing boats. It’s not Jumeirah’s first foray into building a souk; like the market at Madinat Jumeirah, one of the brand’s other Dubai properties, there’s something almost movie-set perfect about this nod to the past.
With Al Seef, Jumeirah is trying to appeal to a new type of traveller to Dubai—one who is younger, more budget-conscious, interested in history and authenticity, and who seeks to connect with the city in different ways. In one of the most foundational parts of Dubai, the hotel provides a view past the glitz and glamour to the city’s origins, as well as where it could be going next.
Bin Masoud reflects on this sentiment: “Dubai has become the fastest-growing city in all aspects.
But at the same time, it’s going back to remembering its roots and its history, its culture.” For a place so long known only in terms of its extremes, perhaps reflecting on the past—distant and not-so-distant—is the most daring innovation of all.