Friday on the beach at the Jebel Ali Hotel

Dubai hotels are working hard to provide even better value-for-money this season to keep the tourism dollars flowing. Typical is the excellent beach, brunch and spa package at the Jebel Ali Hotel just outside the city.

This is where Tiger Woods always stays. It might not be the most luxurious of Dubai’s hotels but it does have an unbeatable combination of a nice strip of private beach and a championship standard golf course.

Great facilities

Celebrities can also slip in around the back entrance next to the hotel’s more modern annex that has the best facilities and rooms. Indeed, with the access to the independent buildings housing these rooms via the extensive gardens nobody need notice a celebrity in residence.

But then you do not need to be Tiger Woods to enjoy this resort hotel. The beachfront is perfect and the swimming safe as the waters are shallow and the waves low – partly because the abandoned second palm island in front creates a wave barrier.

The gardens between the hotel buildings and the beach are another very nice feature, meaning that you can sunbathe on grass instead of sand. You can also enjoy the water stream running through part of the gardens which are home to a colony of brightly coloured peacocks.

Both of the buffet style restaurants offer nice Dubai Friday buffets. The Italian has a new chef and a particularly tasty range of antipasta, the other restaurant is more on an Arabic theme.

Pool areas

There is both a deep sea water swimming pool and a shallower one with a large bar and seating. There are two substantial bars on the beach which also serve snacks.

These facilities also serve the adjacent yacht marina and there is a Padi diving school and horse riding school. And within the old hotel main building you have yet more bars and restaurants. Then there is a great spa with views out over the beach and seafront, and a full range of treatments.

The massage treatment alone might cost you AED450 on a Friday in some Dubai five-star hotels but at the Jebel Ali Hotel you also get your brunch and beach access for this price.