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Dubai Marina is the world's largest building site but Grosvenor House, the first Marina hotel, is already filled with business travellers and tourists happy to forego beach frontage (although there is an outdoor pool). The
45-storey hotel, with 217 sea-facing, butler-serviced rooms, gleams with polished stone and bespoke lighting. The foyer sets the
exaggerated Art Deco tone with vast stone columns and cream-leather club chairs. Bulbous mirror-glass vases reflect dark-wood partitions and staff in tailored trouser suits add a crisp, professional tone. Bedrooms, while as sleek and thoughtfully furnished as the rest of the hotel, are not the real draw. This is a drinks and dinner destination, from the plushly decadent Buddha Bar, which follows the successful Parisian format, to Bar 44, which encircles the 44th floor and
is packed nightly with media types lounging in pony-skin chairs. The hotel's signature restaurant, Mezzanine, is all white-leather padded walls punctuated with acid green Perspex screens and burnt-orange velvet chairs, a self-conscious but successful backdrop to the inspired British menu of chef Gary Robinson (lately Prince Charles's private chef). Jet-lagged executives should head for the spa floor and either the Retreat Spa or, for men, 1847, a clubby grooming lounge,
and women, Jet Set, a kitsch, airline-themed salon offering Short Haul and Long Haul wash and blow-dries.
WHEN TO GO
It's 'summer' every day from November to March.
ROOM TO BOOK
The Grosvenor Suite for the panoramic terrace and temple-like bathroom.
CONTACT
Grosvenor House, Dubai Marina, Dubai, UAE (00 971 4 399 8888; www.lemeridien.com).
COST
Doubles from Dh1,740 (about £275); Grosvenor Suite about £1,575
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