Holiday Homes in Downtown Dubai

What Downtown Dubai actually is

Downtown Dubai is an Emaar-built district off Sheikh Zayed Road, arranged around the Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Mall and the fountain lake between them. Business Bay is immediately south across the canal; DIFC and the financial district are to the north.

It is the most concentrated part of the city. The tallest building in the world, one of the largest malls in the world, the fountain, the opera house and a dense run of restaurants are all within the same few streets, and the district was designed so you can move between them on foot.

That concentration is the appeal and the catch. Staying here means the things people fly to Dubai to see are downstairs. It also means crowds, traffic at the approaches, and prices that reflect the postcode.

The residential side is towers — apartment buildings along the Boulevard and around the lake, plus the low-rise Old Town quarter, which is a deliberate contrast to everything around it.

Who it suits

It suits a first visit better than anywhere else in the city. If you have four days and a list of things to see, staying in the middle of the list saves you more time than any other decision you make.

It suits people who want the view. A great many Downtown apartments look directly at the Burj Khalifa or over the fountain, and on a short trip that is worth something real.

It suits business travel to the financial district, which is the neighbouring area, and it is well placed for the airport road.

It suits a family holiday less well than it looks on paper. The district is busy, the mall is enormous, and there is no beach. Families staying a week often do better a district out, coming in for the sights.

Getting around

Downtown has its own metro station on the Red Line, the line that runs the length of the city and out to the airport. It is connected to The Dubai Mall by a long air-conditioned walkway, which is how a lot of people arrive.

Within the district you walk. The Boulevard, the lake, the mall and the fountain are a continuous pedestrian route, and it is one of the few parts of Dubai where that is true.

Driving in and out is the weak point. The approaches congest, particularly in the evening and around the fountain shows, and parking at the mall on a weekend is its own event. Most visitors are better off on the metro or in a taxi than in a hire car.

The airport is a straight run out along Sheikh Zayed Road, or the same Red Line that serves the district.

What the apartments are like

Almost everything you can stay in here is an apartment in a residential tower. They are homes rather than hotel rooms, which shapes the stay: a full kitchen, a washing machine in the apartment, and a living room you can actually sit in.

Most towers have a pool and a gym for residents, usually on a podium floor, and guests in our homes use them as residents do.

Sizes run from studios to three and four bedrooms. Buildings vary in age across the district — some date from the first phase around the tower, some are recent — so the finish varies more here than the address suggests.

Views are the thing people ask about, and they are genuinely variable: a Burj Khalifa view, a fountain view and a view of the next tower are all Downtown addresses. Which homes have which changes with availability, so it is worth checking your dates rather than taking a promise from a page.

When to come

November to March is the comfortable season and the busy one. Downtown is where that shows most — the fountain, the Boulevard and the outdoor restaurants are at their best, and so are the prices and the crowds.

June through September is very hot, and Downtown copes better than most districts because so much of it is indoors and connected. The mall, the metro walkway and the towers are all air-conditioned, and the district is quieter and considerably cheaper.

April, May and October sit between the two and are often the sensible choice, particularly for a longer stay.

What staying with fäm Living is like

Every home is licensed with Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism and registered on the Holiday Homes system. An unlicensed short-term let carries fines here, and the permit is what separates a legitimate stay from a private arrangement.

Check-in is in person, by our team here in Dubai. The same cleaning standard applies between every stay, and if something goes wrong there is somebody local to deal with it.

Booking direct means the nightly rate and the cleaning fee, with nothing added by a platform in between.

The price you are quoted comes from our own system for your actual dates, including the reduction that applies to a longer stay.