There’s something about being on a beach — with the air in my hair and the sand tickling my feet — that makes me feel young(er) again.
And a stay atRove La Mer Beach, the Rove hotel group's first shoreline property with Dubai’s La Mer beach on its doorstep, has the same heady effect.
The welcome
The peppy, art-filled, open-plan lobby is positively bustling when my husband and I check in on a Saturday afternoon: an arcade-style machine in one corner means that he disappears before I can say “Ms Pac-Man".
Fortunately, I am able to tap him on the shoulder just a few minutes later, signature Rove wooden key card in hand, and we proceed to our seventh-floor Rover Sea View room.
The neighbourhood
The hotel is on the southernmost tip of Dubai's La Mer beach, which is accessible directly from Rove La Mer Beach via a flight of stairs, and where guests, or “Rovers” as the hotel refers to them, can occupy dedicated sun loungers if the rest of the beach gets too crowded.
Also a stone’s throw away is a melting pot of restaurants and bars, from the fusion Indian Masti and Japanese Miyabi to Pizza Giuma and seafood eatery Aprons & Hammers, many of which offer guests staying at Rove a handy 20 per cent off the bill. We promptly add restaurant-hopping to our agenda. Until the end of March, the hotel provides free shuttle buses to its sister property at the Expo 2020 Dubai site.
The safety measures
Rove follows Dubai Municipality guidelines when it comes to hygiene, including an increased sanitisation schedule in public areas and rooms and plenty of hand-sanitising stations dotted about the property, with staff quick to remind guests to keep their masks on and maintain social distance.
Rove Hotels was also the first midscale hotel brand in Dubai to receive the Safeguard Label from Bureau Veritas, a French company that specialises in testing, inspection and certification services, which means the property ticks global safety, hygiene and cleaning requirements.
The room
The extra-large, extra-comfy double bed takes up most of the space, but the room’s 26-square-metre size is belied by the arching views of the beach by daytime and the twinkling lights of La Mer’s restaurants by night.
The room continues the lively decor theme from the lobby, with psychedelic wall art, a trio of quirky paintings and graffiti-style splodges plastering the electrical metre box. The industrial-chic “wardrobe” is an open cage-like structure with various vestibules for storage, plus a beam on which you can hang your clothes.
The service
From the receptionist and restaurant hosts to the team manning the various counters by the swimming pool, every single member of staff we interact with is, in a word, animated.
Effusive greetings and farewells seem to be part of the code as are, what we imagine to be, mile-wide smiles under the masks. The attitude certainly serves to add to the property’s life-is-good vibe.
The scene
The bustling lobby and balmy beach aside, make time to hang out at the sea-facing swimming pool. Here, you'll find a cheery red food truck taking orders for bites and beverages, a House of Pops stall selling refreshing ice lollies, a rickshaw-style towel station and a cabinet dispensing water bottles. The hotel is a veritable magnet for families, but the pool is large enough that you can steer clear of children or adults, as the case might be.
Elsewhere, the hotel has terrace seating for those who want beach vibes sans the sand, a 24-hour gym and laundromat, and a locker room for storing luggage, plus The Daily, the property’s in-house restaurant.
The food
The two meals we had at The Daily fell on either end of the spectrum, with breakfast paling in comparison with an a la carte meal. While the morning buffet had some of the usual suspects (breads, fruit, cold cuts, sausages), the spread didn’t get us overly excited. The eggs-your-way option was one saving grace.
Lunch, on the other hand, was exceptional. The Daily has an extensive a la carte menu, with plenty of options for vegan and gluten, nut and dairy-free diners. We went for the crab quesadilla (Dh52) to share, and thoroughly enjoyed the tender crabmeat laced with melty cheese and avocado, with a hint of cumin punching up the flavour. While the grilled sea bass fillet (Dh89) was a bit fishy for my taste, my partner lapped it all up, while I made short work of a creamy prawn and Parmesan spaghetti (Dh74), which we requested in a piquant pink rather than plain white sauce.
Sadly, the tempting sounding apple crumble was unavailable on the Sunday we lunched at The Daily, but the ice cream sandwich (Dh31) — scoops of chocolate and strawberry smooshed between giant chocolate chip cookies — made up for it.
Highs and lows
Having the beach at your doorstep is definitely the first and best reason to book a stay at Rove La Mer Beach. And while the breakfast buffet did not excite, the numerous restaurants dotted around La Mer means you can easily dine at any of these instead.
Insider tip
Should beach breezes and seawater do to your hair what they do to mine, carry your own frizz-fighting conditioner because the hotel provides only a conditioning shampoo in rooms.
The verdict
If going from room to pool to beach to resto-bar is your idea of a holiday well spent, then this hotel has you covered.
The bottom line
Rates start from Dh299 ($82) for a Rover room, not including tax.
Check-in is from 4pm, but you can arrive earlier and leave your luggage while you enjoy the beach, and checkout is at 2pm.
Rove La Mer Beach, Jumeirah 1, Dubai; rovehotels.com
This review was conducted at the invitation of the hotel during the global coronavirus pandemic. It reflects hotel standards during the time, services may change in the future
England's all-time record goalscorers:
Wayne Rooney 53
Bobby Charlton 49
Gary Lineker 48
Jimmy Greaves 44
Michael Owen 40
Tom Finney 30
Nat Lofthouse 30
Alan Shearer 30
Viv Woodward 29
Frank Lampard 29
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Final scores
18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)
- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)
-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)
-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)
-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)
-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
How has net migration to UK changed?
The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.
Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species
Camelpox
Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
Falconpox
Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.
Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
UAE SQUAD
UAE team
1. Chris Jones-Griffiths 2. Gio Fourie 3. Craig Nutt 4. Daniel Perry 5. Isaac Porter 6. Matt Mills 7. Hamish Anderson 8. Jaen Botes 9. Barry Dwyer 10. Luke Stevenson (captain) 11. Sean Carey 12. Andrew Powell 13. Saki Naisau 14. Thinus Steyn 15. Matt Richards
Replacements
16. Lukas Waddington 17. Murray Reason 18. Ahmed Moosa 19. Stephen Ferguson 20. Sean Stevens 21. Ed Armitage 22. Kini Natuna 23. Majid Al Balooshi
The biog
Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents
Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University
As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families
Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
