Guess where we went this weekend...

May 29

The Burj Al Arab

That right boys and girls! We had Ultimate Afternoon Tea in the Burj Al Arab!

Ultimate Afternoon Tea
The newly introduced Ultimate Afternoon Tea is the quintessential of afternoon teas. With its 7-course menu, you are sure to experience a culinary journey of pure delight.

The journey begins with a glass of champagne or a non-alcoholic alternative accompanied by a selection of delicate finger sandwiches. A selection of succulent cuts of meat or fish served by our Chef from the carving station follows. Fresh sorbet presented on dry ice is served as the next course, providing a palate cleanser before the much anticipated sweet pleasures. Then, expect a variety of warm scones, accompanied by homemade jams and endless lashings of clotted cream. A sweet interlude comprising a colourful mixed berry basket lightly dusted with icing sugar and served with fresh cream is followed by an exquisite selection of French pastries. A variety of hand-crafted petit fours is presented as the finale to this gastronomic journey.

A selection of 50 loose teas to choose from and coffees from different parts of the world form an integral part of the Ultimate Afternoon Tea experience and will be refilled at any stage during the afternoon tea, according to your taste.

It was cool!!
The Burj is on its own island and you have to pass thru a security point in order to state your business at the Burj. Once they check your reservations you are allowed to drive to the front where you valet of course.

The entry lobby is quite small actually but brightly decorated. You are greeted by a colorful fountain with an on going display of jumping water flanked by two huge aquariums filled with brightly colored fish and an escalator on either side to take you up to the main floor.It was really hard to take full pictures of anything because of the sheer size and hight and closeness of everything. I did my best and stitched a few together so you could get the full feeling.
This is taken from the main floor (near where we ate) looking up.

Entry fountain
One of the aquariams
Looking up from the base of the escalatorView of the lobby from the top of the jumping water fountain

Again, it was hard to take pictures, the lighting wasn't always working in my favor so some of these have been lightened so you can see some of the detail.

This is taken from standing at the back of the main floor near the shopping ally (you'll see) facing the canvas front of the hotel.
The white canvas does indeed let in a lot of light. I've have an arrow pointing to where we ate. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures in the area where we ate so we don't have any picture of the food or our view, etc. :( We were seated by the window so we had a great view of part of the city and of the entire inside of the hotel.

Same shot as above but with views all the way to the top of the hotel. In the center of this area is another jumping water fountain that was really nice.View of some of the restaurants on this main floor (and looking up of course)

Full view of the 'sail' all the way to the ceiling . Oh, and yes, those little colored cubbies all the way up the inside are the entries to the rooms.

It's a shame they don't offer tours of at least one of the rooms, I would think they could make good money doing it. I would pay to see one...
Standing at the top of the 'jumping water' looking towards the ally of shopping (and up).

As you would expect the shopping was all high dollar jewlery and art, etc. They did have a small bank back there as well.
At the base is a jewelry storeMe at the center fountain (looking up of course)

Behind Mark is the entrance to the shopping ally. This is a pic of the tile work at the entrance of the area as seen below

At the back of the main floor is a bank of elevators that take you to up the glass spine of the hotel to the restaurants at the top. We tried to go up but of course were not allowed entry to them without a reservation. On my photo link I have included a couple pictures of the view from inside the lift.

While we wait I'm kicking back on a sweet lounger

Outside is the Burj's own painted camel. These things are all over town (usually in odd places) and I try to photograph them when I can.

Behind the camel and myself, waaay off in the distance, is the Marina where we live.

We arrived at 2:30p for Tea and roamed around until around 6pm or later. As we left the sun was setting and the skies were clear enough to actually see the sun dip beneath the horizon!

We took a quick trip to Jumeriah Beach Hotel which is the land wave that was made to complement the Burj. We were lucky enough to weasel our way onto the property and explore their grounds (I'll post on that later). From their beach is a great view of the 7 star land mark resting upon it's very own island...


The night turned balmy quickly once the sun went down. We continued to explore the Jumeirah property and later grabbed a quick bite at one of our favorite dining places, Madinat Jumeirah, which is only a stones throw from the hotels.

All and all we are both glad we spent the money to experience the Burj.
The small courses of finger sandwiches, fruits, and desserts were quite good. The service was great of course. It is really cool to be able to now say we've been inside but really we both agreed that most of the Vegas hotels are actually better in overall wow factor on the inside. That being said, you still have to give credit where credit is due... The design of this hotel is beautiful and unusual and it was erected on it's very own, man made island, in the Middle East...
In my opinion the place deserves the attention it receives and is worth a visit for tea, lunch, dinner or even just drinks if you don't want to fork out the cash for an overnight. It is going on my personal list of must dos. Maybe one day we will look into paying for one of those pricey overnights.... :)
If you would like to see all of the pictures I took while we were there check out the "Photo Link" at the top right of the blog or just click here.

xoxoxxo