3 Best Hotels in World Trade Centre Area and Burj Dubai, Dubai

Bab al Shams, translating as "doorway to the sun," is a five-star adobe brick oasis, a vision you'd expect to find on the edges of the Sahara desert, or perhaps as a set for a movie. The hotel is low-rise and melds with the dunes, scattering rooms and suites around courtyards with a continuous falaj system, ponds, desert gardens, and the spectacular pool area. Rooms are large, decorated in sandy tones with deep red Persian carpets, dark-wood furniture, and cool stone floors. The connecting bathrooms are cavernlike, with these sandy stone tones continued, and a bath large enough for three. On-site dining is very good, in particular, the all-out Middle-Eastern feasting venue at Al Hadheera, or the rooftop terrace and pizzeria (La Dune).

With 51 floors and more than 550 rooms, the Conrad is the largest hotel in the business district, but the grandiose size does not stop there, rooms are very spacious, with standard rooms looking more like family suites, and the deluxe suites topping more than 1,000 square feet. The lobby has titanic proportions, complete with back-lit marble walls, columns, and a Gatsby-esque sweeping staircase. Meeting and conference facilities are a winner for the business market, with mammoth rooms that can divided in multitudinous ways, and easy access to the DIFC and the World Trade Center. It is, however, the pool area that tends to blow guests away—you'll forget you are in the middle of the central business district within the 2,000-square-foot rooftop refuge complete with lawns and gardens and a summery lounge with a DJ, all run by slick Purobeach beach club.