One&Only The Palm: A City’s Subtle Power Move

You arrive via a long driveway or a quiet boat ride and are deposited into something that looks like it belongs to another century – or at least to someone with a lot more time than you. Moorish arches. White stone. Geometry too clean to interrupt. There’s no lobby chaos, no tray of welcome drinks, no one saying ‘welcome home.’ It takes a moment to realise nothing is asking for your attention.

There are 90 rooms and suites, and four villas that are technically beachfront but emotionally detached from everything. Rooms are large, pale, and heavier on fabric than furniture. There’s gold, carved wood, and in some cases, a private pool you won’t really need but will absolutely use. The villas are the real power move: discreet entrances, full kitchens, rooftop terraces, and the kind of distance from other people that only the very rich or the very tired tend to appreciate.

If you’re here with children, they disappear – not literally, but into a kids’ club that involves henna, Arabic lessons, and possibly secret passports. It’s tucked into the Manor House, but you wouldn’t know it. The walls don’t carry sound. Or stress.

Adults, meanwhile, are steered toward the Guerlain Spa – through a courtyard lined with archways, past a fountain that appears to be murmuring. It’s the only Guerlain Spa in the UAE, and it behaves like it knows that. Treatments come with names like Désert d’Orient and include a hammam suite so private it practically vanishes. There’s also a salon that refers to its founder as a ‘foot virtuoso,’ which sounds like a joke until you meet him.

Then there’s the food. STAY by Yannick Alléno is dark, dramatic, and very aware of its Michelin stars. Everything arrives in layers – of sauce, of story, of intent – and yet you’re not made to feel like a spectator. The service is quiet, precise, and entirely uninterested in performing. 

ZEST, just across the way, takes a brighter approach, with airy interiors, lush greenery, and a breakfast spread that might actually justify waking up before nine. The Lounge, nestled in the Manor House, moves effortlessly through the day – from refined morning coffees to candlelit cocktails accompanied by live piano and delicate canapés. And when evening calls for something extraordinary, 101 Dining, Lounge & Bar offers waterfront glamour, bespoke drinks, and a sunset so perfect it feels like it was curated just for you.

In a city built to be seen, One&Only The Palm does something else: it disappears just enough. It trades noise for stillness, spectacle for space. And when you leave, there’s no memory it tries to press into your hands – just the quiet sense that something rare happened, and no one needed to notice.