The Lana, Dubai

Marasi Bay, facing the Burj Khalifa

Dorchester Collection waited a long time to come to the Middle East, and chose the quiet side of Downtown to do it. The Lana sits on Marasi Bay, a small marina on the Dubai Canal in Business Bay, with the Burj Khalifa across the water and a 15 minute walk to Dubai Mall. Dubai International Airport is 20 minutes by car, DIFC is ten, and the beach clubs of Jumeirah are a short drive.

The building is by Foster + Partners: a sand-coloured tower with deep horizontal terraces on every floor and a low podium, The Lana Promenade, that holds the restaurants along the waterfront. Inside, Gilles and Boissier have done what they did at Mandarin Oriental Marrakech and the Baccarat in New York, with pale stone, walnut, brass and a great deal of natural light. It feels closer to a European grand hotel than to anything else in Dubai, which is the point.

Rooms and suites

All 225 rooms and suites have floor-to-ceiling windows and a private furnished terrace, which is rare in Dubai and changes how the rooms feel. Interiors are calm and precise: oak floors, marble bathrooms with deep tubs, dressing rooms in the suites, and the Gilles and Boissier habit of lighting every surface from the side.

Rooms run from the entry-level Horizon Room through Sunrise and Marina categories, the difference being which way you face. Marina rooms look over the bay to the Burj Khalifa, Sunrise rooms over the canal towards the desert. The Sky categories on the upper floors give the same views from higher up. Above them sit the Lana Suite and the Panoramic Suite, then five signature suites: the Marina Terrace Suites, the Marina Duplex Suite over two floors, the Marina Royal Suite and the two-bedroom Lana Royal Suite. Our Travel Designers will tell you which floors and which side to ask for.

Rooftop pool and Dior Spa

The infinity pool is on the roof, 30 floors up, with the Burj Khalifa on one side and the desert on the other. It is adults-oriented, quiet and serviced from High Society, the rooftop bar, so a day can be spent there without going down. The pool is one of the reasons to choose The Lana over a beach hotel: the view is better, and the beach is a car away in any case.

One floor below is Dior Spa The Lana, the second Dior Spa in the world after the Plaza Athenee in Paris. Five treatment rooms and a couples’ suite, a hammam, and the Dior signature treatments alongside Icoone, Hydrafacial and LED therapy. It is small and books up, so we reserve treatments before you travel.

Restaurants and bars

The Lana has eight places to eat and drink, and three chefs whose names carry. Jara is Martin Berasategui’s Basque restaurant, his first in the Middle East, with a tasting menu and a la carte, and Txakolina, his cigar lounge, alongside it. Riviera by Jean Imbert is French and Italian Mediterranean cooking on the Promenade, and Imbert also runs High Society on the roof. Bonbon Cafe is Angelo Musa’s patisserie, worth a morning on its own.

The hotel runs the rest itself: The Gallery in the lobby for breakfast and afternoon tea, Veranda for cocktails among the palms on the Promenade, and Bitter Honey, a dark, serious cocktail bar. Between them they cover a week without repeating, and our Travel Designers hold tables at Jara and Riviera before arrival.

Why book The Lana with Berkeley Travel

Diamond Club is Dorchester Collection’s most exclusive partner tier, and Berkeley Travel is a member. Book The Lana through us and your room upgrade is guaranteed and confirmed at the time of booking, not on arrival, alongside full daily breakfast for two and a 100 US dollar hotel credit on every stay, at the hotel’s own published rate.

You also have a Travel Designer who knows the hotel, will position your room on the right side of the building, book the Dior Spa and the restaurants before you land, and arrange private transfers, desert excursions and a day at a Jumeirah beach club. If The Lana is one stop on a longer Middle East or Indian Ocean itinerary, we build the rest around it.