Sofitel Dubai Palm Jumeirah

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Our favourite place to stay in Dubai, we can’t wait to return!

This was our third stay at Sofitel The Palm, and it was every bit as magical as our previous visits. We can confidently say it definitely won’t be our last!

From the moment we arrived until the moment we checked out, we were made to feel so welcome and so well looked after. The hotel itself is absolutely stunning, but what really makes Sofitel The Palm special is the incredible staff. Everyone we encountered was friendly, helpful and genuinely went out of their way to make our stay enjoyable.

One of the loveliest parts of returning for our third stay was seeing some familiar faces again. On arrival, we were greeted by Samuel, who was so happy to see us and welcomed us back to Dubai. We saw Samuel most days throughout our stay, and he would always ask what we had planned for the day and take a genuine interest in what we were getting up to. It became something we really looked forward to coming back to the hotel and seeing a familiar friendly face waiting to greet us. His warmth and personality made us feel incredibly welcome.

We were both checked in and checked out by Lorenzo, who was an absolute pleasure to deal with. He was incredibly friendly, accommodating and so easy to talk to. We had a lovely conversation with him about our trip, and he made both the beginning and end of our stay feel personal and special. We genuinely hope we get to see him again on our next visit!

I also really want to highlight just how unbelievably accommodating the kitchen and breakfast team were regarding my egg allergy. Every morning, the kitchen prepared me a custom breakfast specifically for me, so that I didn’t have to rely on the buffet and could enjoy my breakfast knowing everything was safe. They made sure I had plenty of food and were incredibly careful about accommodating my needs.

Nothing ever felt like a hassle, and I never felt like I was being difficult or asking for too much. The team were genuinely happy to help, which made such a huge difference to our mornings and allowed me to enjoy breakfast completely stress-free.

A special thank you to our server Shahzed, who couldn’t have been lovelier. He was always checking that I had enough to eat and drink and made sure I was properly looked after every morning. That level of care and attention really stood out to us, and we are incredibly grateful.

Our room was beautifully maintained throughout our stay, the hotel is absolutely gorgeous, and there is such a wonderful atmosphere throughout the entire resort.

But once again, it was the people who made our stay so memorable. After three visits, Sofitel The Palm genuinely feels like somewhere we know we will be looked after, and seeing familiar staff makes returning feel even more special.

If you are coming to Dubai, we couldn’t recommend Sofitel The Palm highly enough. Whether you’re visiting for your first Dubai holiday or, like us, you find yourself coming back again and again, it is a truly beautiful place to stay.

Thank you to everyone at Sofitel The Palm for another incredible stay, and especially to Samuel, Lorenzo, Shahzed and the wonderful kitchen team for making us feel so welcome and cared for.

Three stays down, and we’re already looking forward to the fourth. Until next time, Sofitel The Palm!

We stayed at Sofitel The Palm last year on half board in a one-bedroom apartment and absolutely loved it. We enjoyed our stay so much that we had originally planned to get married here in June this year. Unfortunately, due to the regional conflict, we had to cancel those plans and instead rebooked the hotel for our holiday in September. We were really looking forward to returning somewhere we had previously loved, but sadly this stay was a huge disappointment.

We stayed in a Palm View room on half board. The views were fantastic and the grounds remain beautiful, which ultimately helped save the holiday. However, the room itself had several issues. The toilet room had a persistent smell of urine throughout our entire stay which we could not get rid of. The rainfall shower head continuously dripped cold water onto you while using the other shower head, which was extremely annoying. The TV repeatedly cut out, the air conditioning kept switching itself back to auto despite changing the settings and also rattled throughout the stay. There was limited wardrobe space and nowhere suitable to store empty suitcases. There was also no adequate space to sit and eat room service. The walls were very thin and, on one occasion, we could hear the housekeeping team loudly bashing and moving things around next door for a considerable amount of time.

Our biggest disappointment, however, was the half-board offering. At check-in we were told that Hong Loong and Moana were closed and that our dinner options were therefore limited to World Eatery, Porterhouse or the buffet. We had found World Eatery very disappointing during our previous stay, while many of the desirable dishes at Porterhouse carried a supplement and, as I was pregnant, were not suitable options for me. This left the buffet as the most practical choice.

Unfortunately, the evening buffet had a very limited selection and became repetitive. The breakfast buffet was also extremely overcrowded at weekends. On some mornings there was not even a table available without waiting, and the restaurant felt cramped. We also waited over 20 minutes for tea and coffee on some occasions, with limited options available.

What was particularly frustrating was discovering on our final day that Moana was actually open. We had not been informed of this and only noticed because we saw the lights on. We specifically enjoyed Moana during our previous stay, so we asked staff whether it was open and decided to dine there. Sadly, the dine-around menu was extremely limited and the quality of the food was poor. The restaurant was virtually empty while we were there, and we could see several tables leaving plates of food behind, which unfortunately reflected our own experience.

The service also felt noticeably different from our previous visit. Staff did not seem as attentive or helpful, and overall the experience simply did not feel like the 5-star service we experienced last year. In Dubai, where there are so many exceptional 5-star hotels, we feel Sofitel The Palm is now in need of a serious reassessment.

The lack of an adult-only pool area was another issue. At weekends, the pools were extremely busy with large families, making it difficult to relax or even properly swim. The poolside drinking water was also often warm rather than properly chilled.

There were further maintenance concerns too. The lift in the main building appeared to be malfunctioning throughout our stay — after tapping the room card and selecting our floor, the doors would close and then immediately reopen. We also noticed what appeared to be damp on the ceiling on the third floor.

It is such a shame to be writing this review because we genuinely loved Sofitel The Palm last year. We returned because of that experience and because this hotel had such sentimental importance to us after originally planning our wedding here. Unfortunately, this time it felt much more like a 3-star experience than the 5-star standard we expected, particularly by Dubai standards.

The beautiful grounds, Palm views and location remain positives, but these alone cannot compensate for the deterioration in service, dining options, room maintenance and overall experience.

We really hope management takes this feedback seriously because the hotel has so much potential, but based on this stay, we would unfortunately be hesitant to return.