If I were to sum up our staycation at Banyan Tree Dubai in three words, it would be : boutique, luxury and waves. If I had it my way I would just say waves, waves and waves…….. hahaha. If you’re considering this beautiful resort for a getaway with the kids, here’s our review on what to expect. Hope it will give you a good idea if it fits your needs, and your family’s needs.

What is Banyan Tree Dubai like, as a staycation with the family?

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Let’s start with the logistics.

Where is Banyan Tree Dubai?

Banyan Tree is located in Bluewaters Island, alongside its sister hotel Delano. If you have gone wary of travelling to the Dubai Marina end of town because of its traffic – guess what? There is none – getting too Bluewaters. Well, minimal, at least ( so don’t give me a hard time if the traffic light turns red ). It’s so easy to get there and out of Bluewaters onto the motorway.

What Room Type would fit a Family of 5 in Banyan Tree Dubai?

We were booked into a Family Suite – which is a combination of the Harmony Oceanfront Master Suite & Serenity Oceanview Guestroom. At 164 square metres – it was humongous, and so much space for all of us. A family of 5 can also fit in a ‘Family Room.’

Harmony Oceanfront Master Suite

There’s a living room area with a dining table and mini kitchenette for tea and coffee. The walk-in closet and bathroom for the master bedroom was just a silent reminder to us to upgrade our current living conditions, haha. There is a bathtub as well as an open rain shower (which does get the entire bathroom wet so shower….carefully).

Little things that we noticed and liked – dark hand towels for make up (hooray!), chinese bamboo plants in all bathrooms – for good feng shui, incense in the living room alongside essential oil burners, and my absolute favourite – a solid chinese tea set with tea leaves. My parents would love this place.

Serenity Oceanview Guestroom

In the adjoining twin room – you’ll find two twin beds and a chaise lounge turned into the third.

The bathroom design was unique – with a bathtub situated right next to the floor to ceiling windows for a beautiful view of the pool and beach, and right next to it – an open shower.

Little note of advice : Be careful with the ceramic bathroom utilities especially when you have little ones with itchy hands!

A fabulous thing to highlight here is if you have chosen the Family Suites – you have the option of getting breakfast served in-room. We did just that on Sunday morning after many hours spent at the pool and beach.

Things to note :

• Banyan Tree’s standard rooms – ie Bliss Guestroom, Bliss Resort View Guestroom & Serenity Oceanview Guestroom officially sleeps 3 ie 2 adults and 1 child. If you have 2 kids – do get in touch with them to see if they can consider accomodating, especially if they are young, ie under 6.
• For other accomodation options – have a look at banyantree.com

What is Banyan Tree’s Pool & Beach like?

One big factor that sets Banyan Tree aside from a lot of the luxury resorts in Dubai is the fact that it looks out completely to open sea. You are not looking out at another island with buildings, or construction. It’s just the Arabian Gulf, as it is. And with that – of course, comes – waves. Endless, rolling waves….

Private Beach

…..where I spent hours, and hours bodyboarding in. I’ll be honest – it wasn’t in my original itenary to spend so much time in the water catching waves. But if you surf, or board – you will absolutely love the beach at Banyan Tree.

Another important point to highlight here is the fact that the beach and pool, and main hotel building is very close to each other. So I could easily go to Alizee with the family and order our lunch, run out to the sea for half an hour of boarding, and then come back in again to have lunch. If you were at Banyan mid-May and you saw this crazy-looking Asian lady with a bodyboard walking back and forth from Alizee to the beach, to Alizee. Hello, that’s me! High on adrenaline, ha ha!

You must be wondering – would it be too rough for kids to swim in then? I mean – you can decide, depending on how strong a swimmer your little ones are, and it also depends on the conditions of the sea when you’re there. If you really want super calm water without any waves at all – there’s 250 other resorts in Dubai to look into. Banyan Tree wouldn’t be it. But if you want rolling waves – that kids could jump over with you as a family, this is the spot to be.

Family Pool

Banyan Tree has one main family pool – separated into two tiers.

Part of it gets shade very early in the morning and then it remains lit for the rest of the day. If you want shade – there is a little heated spa pool next to it ( as seen on the right, in the photo below ) which is surrounded by trees. We spent sometime chilling with the kids there when it got too sunny elsewhere.

Family Pool is 1.5m deep, and Spa Pool is 1.0m deep

We spent a lot of time in the pool on both Saturday and Sunday when we were there. There are life-jackets for the little ones if they prefer – so the kids were quite happy just bobbing and playing in the water.

Hang around for the afternoon and you might catch the staff handing out iced fruit lollies. I love that they’ve gotten it prepped in-house, and placed in a big bowl of ice to distribute – which means no plastic waste. The team also gives out ice cold glass bottles of water in these lush-looking white bottle sleeves. Just make sure you put the aluminium bottle covers back in the sleeves, or in the bin! Good job, Banyan Tree – on stepping away from plastic!

Adults-only Pool

Next to the family pool you’ll find Banyan Tree’s adults-only pool. I secretly wished they had hidden the adults pool somewhere else, away from the family pool, haha. Still lovely to have an option without little people splashing about, if you want a kid-free afternoon.

Adults Pool is 1.5m deep.

Does Banyan Tree have a Kids’ Club?

A short stroll from Banyan Tree – you’ll find Club Tropicool – which is located within Delano’s premises. It’s got a nice indoor space – with mini trampolines and slides into ballpits suitable for toddlers, activity walls, and numerous attendants to keep the little ones busy. In their outdoor space, you’ll find nest swings, see saw, foosball as well as a gated shaded toddler pool.

Things to note :

• The Kids’ Club is open from 10am to 8pm Mon-Thurs, and till 9pm Fri-Sundays.
• The Kids’ Club takes kids from ages 3 to 12 (drop-off allowed), and younger ones are allowed in there with a guardian.
• Closest restaurants would be Gohan or La Cantine Beach, if you’re planning for a bite while the little ones are in there.

Are there any family restaurants in Banyan Tree Dubai?

Alizee

A big highlight of our stay would be dining in Alizee. Again – the word boutique and luxury comes to mind. Unlike a lot of big resorts where it’s typically hectic and busy in the mornings – breakfast at Alizee was actually a really comfortable experience. It’s cosy, comfortable – and is very much family-friendly.

For breakfast, Alizee’s has a decent spread with the most beautiful croissants and danishes you have ever seen in a breakfast hall, haha. Remember, it is a french restaurant! The main deal is done via ala carte – so you order your eggs and pancakes. The kitchen team preps and then serves it to the table. I think any family with kids would appreciate not having to run around to get food for three little kids, right? 🙂 Keep an eye out for their croissant trolley! 🙂

Alizee does a pretty good business lunch offering as well – so check that out one afternoon when you have time!

More on Alizee on banyantree.com

What other dining options are there when staying in Banyan Tree Dubai?

If you’re going half-board, take note that other than Alizee, you can also choose to have lunch at Tutto Passa, La Cantine and Gohan which is located in Delano. For dinner – you can choose to dine at Alizee, Demon Duck or Tocha – all located at Banyan Tree. Alternatively, you can also pop over to La Cantine & Gohan.

Demon Duck

Demon Duck does asian fusion with a twist – and we got to try Alvin Leung’s creations ie crispy duck with Alvin’s special hummus, bang bang chicken, and of course – the famous slow-roasted demon duck with home-made duck sauce and condiments. It was a feast, though I would personally like to return again with just the husband for a date night 😉 Read our review of the Demon Duck Brunch.

More on Demon Duck on banyantree.com

Gohan

The family is a big fan of Japanese cuisine in general, so it was quite easy for us to choose which restaurants to eat at, when we were given the options. Gohan’s food concept is all about sharing – so that’s yakitori, sushis, gyozas. Again, another spot that I would be keen to return with the husband or friends, without the little ones. I hear they do a fab Friday Evening Brunch?

More on Gohan on delanohotels.com

Tocha

An alternative to the usual hotel lobby lounge is Tocha – a japanese tea house which opens for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. Whilst we did not dine there over our staycation, I have tried their Japanese Afternoon Tea and it’s definitely one to add to the list. Read our review of a Japanese Afternoon Tea at Tocha.

Things that stood out about Banyan Tree Dubai

With so many hotels in Dubai – it’s always interesting to see what sets one apart from the other, and why you would want to choose one from the other. Here’s what I liked about Banyan Tree :

• Its location on Bluewaters – which means minimal traffic getting in and out, but still right in the hotspot of new Dubai. In good weather, you can easily walk across the bridge to JBR.
• Access to private beach and open sea, with rolling waves.
• In terms of its property layout – it’s ‘short’ – which means you can easily walk from the main building, to the pool, beach and restaurants. This is fabulous for families with kids.
• Access to other fine restaurants beyond Banyan Tree – at Delano.
• Modern room design, with wooden flooring and beautiful views.
• A really nice spa – with mixed-use facilities. See our review on Banyan Tree Spa
• Convenient communication via whasapp – which I used throughout our stay
• Have I already mentioned about the waves? 🙂

Overall Thoughts

Let’s just hope no one decides to build another island in front of Bluewaters, hey? 🙂 If all of the above ticks your boxes, give Banyan Tree a go with the family. Not 100% sure? Go for a day pass to start and you can see if you want to spend a couple more days there. I’m sure you will.

Leaving you with a photo of sunrise, taken at the edge of Bluewaters by Maison Revka, when I went for an early morning stroll on Saturday morning…….

• Banyan Tree Dubai
• For bookings – contact Banyan Tree directly :
  • Call +971 4 556 6666
  • Email reservations-dubai@banyantree.com
• More details on banyantree.com

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Disclosure : We were guests of Banyan Tree Dubai to review the hotel over a staycation with the family.