One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai Review: Is It Worth It with a Baby?

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In November last year, we travelled to Dubai with our 11-month old baby, staying at One & Only Royal Mirage.

We booked this trip knowing it would probably be our last holiday for a while. We were in the middle of selling our house, completion was expected in early December, and once it went through we knew travel would be off the agenda for months — between the costs, the chaos, and the inevitable list of things that needed doing to the new place. Dubai in November felt like a final gasp of sunshine before a long London winter, which this year turned out to be genuinely brutal. Cold, grey, relentless. We needed it.

The deal itself was almost too good to be true. One&Only Royal Mirage, seven nights, half board, return Emirates flights for two adults and an infant — just over £4,000 all in. When our friends found out, they couldn’t believe it. Honestly, neither could we. One&Only is one of those hotel names that carries real weight — consistently appearing in top 50 hotel lists, luxury travel guides, serious conversations about the best hotels in the world. We’d never stayed at one. It felt like too good an opportunity to miss.

Mila was 10&11 months old. Here’s the honest version of how it went.

Is Dubai Good for Travelling with a Baby?

Dubai is, on paper, one of the most family friendly destinations in the world. In practice, with a baby under one, it’s more nuanced than the brochures suggest.

The city is built entirely for cars. There are no walkable promenades connecting neighbourhoods, no option to stroll pleasantly from one area to another, no beach path that takes you somewhere useful. Every outing means a taxi, and in Dubai that means navigating traffic that can turn a ten-minute journey into forty-five minutes without warning. With a ten-month-old in the back seat, that becomes stressful very quickly — particularly on the way home when she was tired and had simply had enough.

The good news is that taxis are plentiful and genuinely easy to use. Both Yandex and Uber offer a family travel option where you filter specifically for cars with child seats, which is brilliant in theory. In practice, most available car seats suit children from one year old upwards. At ten months Mila was a confident sitter, so we managed — but if you’re travelling with a younger baby, you’d either need to bring your own car seat and figure out what to do with it in every shopping mall, or rely on public transport, which exists but isn’t developed enough to be a genuinely convenient option with a pram and a baby.

We mostly took taxis and accepted the traffic as part of the deal. Some days it was fine. Some days — particularly on the return journey when Mila was overtired and crying in the back — it was genuinely stressful. Build in far more time than you think you need for every journey, and plan your days around staying in one area rather than criss-crossing the city.

Despite this, we got out and saw things. We stayed close to the hotel for the first two days, then made a point of going somewhere different every day after that — JBR, Dubai Marina, the Mall of Emirates, the Dubai Fountain show, and visiting friends who’d recently bought a villa there. José had never been to Dubai before. I’d last visited in 2011 and genuinely couldn’t recognise the city — it has grown enormously since then. We couldn’t do everything with a baby in tow, but we did more than I expected.

Flying to Dubai with a 10-Month-Old on Emirates

We were in standard economy — no premium economy this time — and Mila no longer qualified for a bassinet, which at ten months wasn’t an option regardless. We were in a 3-4-3 layout, no two-seat row available by the time we booked, and ended up next to another family with a baby, which was fine. There was enough space for everyone.

Emirates gave Mila a small pouch of toys on boarding, which was a lovely touch and kept her genuinely entertained. She sat, crawled around in the space in front of us, ate some of the plane food, worked through her pouches, and fell asleep after a couple of hours. London to Dubai is just under seven hours. The changing facilities on Emirates aircraft were noticeably more spacious than anything we’d encountered on other airlines — a small detail that makes a genuine difference.

The return flight was equally straightforward. No crying, slept well, ate well, played happily. At ten months she wasn’t going through multiple outfit changes per flight the way she was at three months, and the flight itself is significantly shorter than the Mexico City trip, which made everything more manageable. That said, unlike at three months when she slept almost the entire flight in the bassinet, at ten months she was active, curious, and wanted attention — so while there were no dramas, don’t expect to watch any films or switch off. You won’t.

If you’re nervous about flying long haul with a baby at this age — it’s doable, and Emirates make it as easy as any airline we’ve flown with.

One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai: The Honest Review

Let me start with what this hotel actually is now, because it matters for understanding everything else.

One&Only Royal Mirage was built to feel like a palace rising out of the desert. When it was constructed, it was surrounded by nothing — a vast, ornate property that genuinely felt dramatic and isolated. That was the entire point. That is no longer what it is.

Today it is a low-rise, beautiful, historic property completely hemmed in by skyscrapers, active construction sites, and ongoing development on every side — including directly in front of it on an artificial island, which means the hotel no longer has access to open sea. What you get instead is a lagoon. The water was clear enough — we could see fish — but it felt enclosed, slightly stagnant, not particularly refreshing. And the construction noise was relentless. Cranes, drilling, sirens, machinery. Every single day on the beach, you could hear it all.

There is a newer One&Only property elsewhere in Dubai that opened more recently. Staying at Royal Mirage, you get the distinct feeling that the brand knows exactly where its focus is. This plot of land, sitting right at the entrance to the Palm in one of the most valuable areas of the city, feels like a hotel waiting for something to happen to it. It reminded me of that Pixar film Up — the little house completely surrounded by development, holding on while everything changes around it.

None of this would matter so much if the hotel itself were in exceptional condition. It isn’t.

The Rooms: We Moved Four Times

I’ll be straightforward about this because it was the defining experience of the stay.

Room one smelled strongly of mould and damp. It was also located so far from reception and the dining areas that getting there took roughly ten minutes on foot — manageable for most guests, genuinely difficult with a baby who might need things urgently.

Room two was marginally more modern but roughly half the size — so small our bags couldn’t open properly. For a family travelling with a ten-month-old and all the kit that involves, it simply wasn’t workable. We had to ask to move again.

Room three we waited for most of a day, disrupting our plans considerably. When we finally got in, there was a cockroach at the entrance and another in the shower. At this point we were genuinely angry. The hotel’s response was to offer to spray the room with chemicals, which we immediately refused — Mila was at the age of crawling and grabbing everything, and the idea of her on a floor freshly treated with pesticide was not something we were willing to consider.

We told them plainly that if they couldn’t provide a room in an acceptable condition, we would find another hotel. It didn’t come to that — they offered us an upgraded room category, which is where we spent the rest of the trip.

The upgraded room was large — genuinely large, with two bathrooms and a reception area that felt like a 1990s Wall Street penthouse. Dark wood panelling, heavy furniture, a little bar area clearly designed for receiving business associates. It had obviously been very impressive when it was built, and traces of that grandeur were still visible. But it hadn’t been meaningfully renovated since, and the wear showed everywhere — in the bathrooms especially, which felt dated in a way that no amount of fresh towels could disguise.

A room of this category on the One&Only website would cost upwards of £1,000 per night. We did not feel that.

The hotel consists of three distinct sub-properties within the same grounds — The Palace, Arabian Court, and The Residence. We were in The Palace, the oldest section, which has the most beautiful lobby but apparently the most tired rooms. The Residence reportedly has better accommodation, but despite everything we went through, we were never offered a move there. An upgrade within our existing building was easier for them logistically, even though The Residence is only about ten minutes’ walk away within the same grounds.

The Beach & Sunbeds

Genuinely one of the better parts of the stay, and something I wasn’t expecting.

Despite the hotel being at what appeared to be full occupancy, the beach never felt crowded. Sunbeds were always available and spaced generously — three to four metres between each one — giving a real sense of privacy that you rarely get at busy Dubai beach hotels. Staff prepared the beds for you and brought fresh water around constantly, provided free of charge throughout the day, which sounds minor but is exactly the kind of detail that makes a difference in Dubai heat.

Most guests seemed to prefer the pools, which kept the beach quieter than you’d expect. At ten months Mila had started to enjoy playing with sand, so we spent a significant amount of time there with her. The lagoon itself was calm and shallow, which was perfectly fine for a baby.

The construction directly in front of the beach, and the noise that came with it, was less fine.

The Pools

Beautiful, and clearly popular with families. We saw plenty of babies and young children using them throughout the stay. We personally gravitated to the beach with Mila rather than the pools, so I can’t give a detailed first-hand account — but they looked well-maintained and there always seemed to be space.

There is one adults-only pool, which was consistently quiet. The guests without children tended to be a small minority at this hotel — it was overwhelmingly families. On at least one night, a group of guests were drinking and being extremely loud in the lobby bar and its outdoor area until well past 2am, audible from the rooms and disruptive enough to wake us. For a hotel that sits this close to its accommodation, a dedicated late-night bar positioned away from the main building would make a significant difference. It’s a solvable problem that hasn’t been solved.

Food & Dining at One&Only Royal Mirage

Half board means breakfast and dinner included. The reality of both was mixed.

Breakfast at our sub-hotel was in a small buffet restaurant accessible only via a significant number of stairs, with no alternative route. For every family with a pram — and there were quite a few — this meant carrying the buggy up and down every single morning without exception. For a hotel that markets itself as family friendly, this felt like a basic oversight that nobody had thought to address.

The buffet variety was tiny — perhaps a twentieth of what we’d experienced at Cullinan Sea in Turkey. My first reaction when I saw it was genuine disappointment. But everything on offer was delicious, genuinely high quality, and the service at breakfast was the warmest and most consistent we experienced throughout the entire stay. So it redeemed itself — just not in the way you’d expect from a One&Only property.

There was also an à la carte breakfast option at a separate restaurant — lovely reviews, lovely setting, adults only. The stairs leading to it made it inaccessible with a pram. So the one restaurant families couldn’t use was the accessible one, and the one we could use required carrying a buggy up a staircase every morning. The irony was not lost on us.

For dinner, the half board offering was either the buffet — a second, larger one a ten-minute walk away in another sub-hotel, with more options — or a pre-bookable à la carte restaurant included in the rate, drinks extra.

The standout was one particular open-air restaurant with views over the city — the kind of place that genuinely felt like a destination restaurant rather than a hotel dining room. It’s open to non-guests too, and people specifically come for it. The food was exceptional and I still think about that dinner. Worth going to even if you’re not staying at the hotel.

The other à la carte options were more inconsistent. Service across the board was hit and miss — brilliant at breakfast, unpredictable elsewhere. The initial response to our room complaints was defensive in a way we simply did not expect from a chain of this reputation. Staff seemed poorly equipped to handle problems, which is a significant failure at this price point. The cleaning was also inconsistent — some days immaculate, other days the room clearly hadn’t been properly serviced. For over £1,000 a night at rack rate, that’s not acceptable.

Baby Facilities at One&Only Royal Mirage

Limited, and not what the family-friendly marketing implies.

They provided a cot and bottle warmer without being asked, which was appreciated. High chairs were available, though not to the standard of what we’d experienced at Cullinan Sea in Turkey. There was no dedicated baby food section, no children’s buffet, nothing specifically designed for babies on solids. At ten months, that mattered.

One&Only’s brand identity is built around adult luxury rather than family infrastructure, and it shows. This isn’t a criticism exactly — it’s a clarification. If you’re expecting the kind of baby-specific support you’d find at a dedicated family resort in Turkey or even a well-equipped Dubai family hotel like Atlantis or Rixos, you won’t find it here.

Is One&Only Royal Mirage Family Friendly?

It advertises itself as such, but the reality is more complicated. The stair-only breakfast access, the limited baby facilities, the inconsistent service when things go wrong, and the room quality issues all suggest that families — particularly those with babies — aren’t truly at the centre of how this hotel is designed and run.

Dubai more broadly is a good destination for babies and toddlers, with generally accommodating staff across most hotels and easy access to family friendly activities. One&Only Royal Mirage specifically, however, has some gaps that more purpose-built family hotels in the city simply don’t.

Would I Recommend One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai?

Reluctantly, and with significant caveats depending on who’s asking.

For families with a baby under one: probably not. The room quality issues, construction noise, inaccessible breakfast, limited baby facilities, and inconsistent service make it hard to recommend over dedicated family resorts that cost similar money and deliver considerably more in practical terms.

For couples spending three to four nights in Dubai who want somewhere that looks spectacular, enjoy a genuinely memorable dinner or two, and want a private and peaceful beach experience without the waterpark chaos of somewhere like Atlantis — there’s something here worth considering. The lobby and grounds are genuinely beautiful. The sense of space is rare for Dubai. Just go in with honest expectations and don’t pay rack rate.

For families with older children — there are better options in Dubai with proper kids’ clubs, waterparks, and family infrastructure. Atlantis, Rixos The Palm, and several others are better suited.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai worth it in 2025/2026? At a deal price — we paid around £4,000 including Emirates flights and half board for two adults and an infant — it offers reasonable value despite its issues. At the standard rack rate of £1,000+ per night for rooms, it’s much harder to justify. The property needs significant renovation to match the price point.

Is One&Only Royal Mirage family friendly? It markets itself as such, but the reality is mixed. Baby facilities are basic, breakfast is only accessible via stairs, and the service when handling complaints is inconsistent. Families with babies will find dedicated family resorts in Dubai considerably more accommodating.

Is Dubai a good destination for babies? Yes, with caveats. Staff across Dubai hotels are generally warm and accommodating with young children. The main challenges are the car-dependent city layout, traffic, and the fact that most car seats in taxis suit children from one year old. Build plenty of time into every journey and keep plans flexible.

How was Emirates with a 10-month-old? Perfectly manageable. Staff were warm and attentive, provided Mila with a toy pouch on boarding, and the aircraft changing facilities were more spacious than most. Unlike flying with a younger baby who sleeps in the bassinet for much of the flight, at ten months she was active and wanted entertainment — so you won’t be relaxing yourself, but there were no dramas on either the outbound or return journey.

Which One&Only is better in Dubai — Royal Mirage or the newer property? Based on our experience at Royal Mirage, we’d be curious to try the newer One&Only in Dubai. Royal Mirage feels like a hotel in its final chapter — beautiful bones, urgent need of renovation, surrounded by construction it can’t escape. The newer property is likely a more current expression of what the brand is capable of.

What are better alternatives to One&Only Royal Mirage for families with babies in Dubai? For families with babies specifically, Atlantis The Palm, Rixos The Palm, and Al Habtoor Grand Resort are all considerably better set up with dedicated baby and family facilities, easier dining access, and more consistent service.

Dubai gave us the sunshine we needed before a difficult few months. One&Only Royal Mirage gave us a beautiful lobby, one truly memorable dinner, a peaceful beach, and four room changes. It was not the luxury experience the name promises — not right now, in its current state. But it was still warm and sunny in November, and sometimes, when you’ve got a ten-month-old and a house move looming, that’s genuinely enough.

We also wrote about flying long haul with a three-month-old on British Airways, our honest Cullinan Belek Turkey review with a nine-month-old, and our guide to Mexico City with a baby — all linked above.