Top 10 cities for luxury travel: Abu Dhabi tops list for five-star hotels


Hayley Skirka
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When it comes to luxury travel, the capital of the UAE is the best place to go if you're looking for five-star places to stay.

Abu Dhabi has more five-star hotels as a percentage of its total hotel offering than any other city in the world.

Of 146 hotels across the capital, 47 are ranked as five-star including the opulent Emirates Palace, Mandarin Oriental and celebrity favourite Qasr Al Sarab by Anantara.

This means that Abu Dhabi has a 32 per cent concentration of luxury hotels according to new research by luxuryhotels.com.

Neighbouring Dubai does not make it in to the top 10 rankings. The emirate is home to the Burj Al Arab, known as the world's first seven-star hotel, and has 2,960 properties listed on booking.com.

Of these, only 188 are five-star meaning the luxury segment accounts for 6.35 per cent of Dubai's hotel options. This earns the city the 20th top-spot on the list.

Despite being home to 188 five-star hotels including the famed Burj Al Arab, Dubai ranked 20th for concentration of luxury properties. Unsplash / Roman Logov
Despite being home to 188 five-star hotels including the famed Burj Al Arab, Dubai ranked 20th for concentration of luxury properties. Unsplash / Roman Logov

Luxuryhotels.com compiled the data by taking cities from Euromonitor's Top 100 City Destintions report and using Booking.com to find out how many hotels each city has, and which of these are ranked as five-star.

Second in the world's top 10 cities for luxury hotels report is China's Shenzhen where 23.61 per cent of hotels are five-star rated.

Chinese cities also ranked in third, fourth and fifth place via Beijing, Shanghai and Zhuhai, respectively.

Saudi Arabia's Makkah is the sixth highest ranking city when it comes to concentration of luxury hotels. The holy city in western Saudi Arabia has 166 hotels, of which 34, or 20.48 per cent are five-star.

Singapore, China's Guangzhou and Guilin, and Vancouver in Canada round out the top 10 list.

Click through the gallery above to see some of the five-star hotels in each of the top 10 cities

The Top 10 cities with the highest concentration of five-star hotels

Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island is one of the newest five-star hotels to open in Abu Dhabi. The city has the highest concentration of luxury hotels according to new research from LuxuryHotel.com. The National
Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island is one of the newest five-star hotels to open in Abu Dhabi. The city has the highest concentration of luxury hotels according to new research from LuxuryHotel.com. The National
  1. Abu Dhabi, UAE – 32.19% five-star hotels
  2. Shenzhen, China – 23.61% five-star hotels
  3. Beijing, China – 21.88% five-star hotels
  4. Shanghai, China – 21.11% five-star hotel
  5. Zhuhai, China – 20.63% five-star hotels
  6. Makkah, Saudi Arabia – 20.48% five-star hotels
  7. Singapore – 15.89% five-star hotels
  8. Guangzhou, China – 13.05% five-star hotels
  9. Guilin, China – 12.50% five-star hotels
  10. Vancouver, Canada – 12.41% five-star hotels

London ranked 18th on the list but is also the city with the most number of five-star hotels in total, the UK capital has 347 luxury hotels.

Researchers also compared the price of a five-star stay in cities across the world to find the average cost per room, per night for a luxury sleepover.

And it turns out that depending on where they go, travellers don't need to spend a fortune with five-star rooms in Chennai, India costing tourists just $48 per night.

The cheapest five-star stays in the world

The Raintree Hotel in Chennai. The Indian city ranks first for the most affordable five-star stays. Courtesy flickr / The Raintree Hotel
The Raintree Hotel in Chennai. The Indian city ranks first for the most affordable five-star stays. Courtesy flickr / The Raintree Hotel
  1. Chennai, India – $48
  2. Johor Bahru, Malaysia – $58 per night
  3. Bangalore, India – $58 per night
  4. Agra, India – $59 per night
  5. Kolkatta, India – $70 per night
  6. New Delhi, India – $70 per night
  7. Mumbai, India – $74 per night
  8. Jaipur, India – $79 per night
  9. Phuket, Thailand – $81 per night
  10. Cebu, Philippines – $81 per night

Travellers seeking a luxury European summer escape on a budget will want to consider Greece's island city of Heraklion. It had the most affordable five-star prices in Europe, with an average cost of $111 per night.

Turkey's Istanbul and Antalya ranked in second and third place, with average prices of $117 and $119 a night.

UAE squad

Men's draw: Victor Scvortov and Khalifa Al Hosani, (both 73 kilograms), Sergiu Toma and Mihail Marchitan (90kg), Ivan Remarenco (100kg), Ahmed Al Naqbi (60kg), Musabah Al Shamsi and Ahmed Al Hosani (66kg)

Women’s draw: Maitha Al Neyadi (57kg)

Afghanistan fixtures
  • v Australia, today
  • v Sri Lanka, Tuesday
  • v New Zealand, Saturday,
  • v South Africa, June 15
  • v England, June 18
  • v India, June 22
  • v Bangladesh, June 24
  • v Pakistan, June 29
  • v West Indies, July 4
Company%20profile
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Disclaimer

Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville 

Rating: 4/5

The specs

Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8

Power: 611bhp

Torque: 620Nm

Transmission: seven-speed automatic

Price: upon application

On sale: now

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

The specs

Engine: 5.2-litre V10

Power: 640hp at 8,000rpm

Torque: 565Nm at 6,500rpm

Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto

Price: From Dh1 million

On sale: Q3 or Q4 2022 

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Mercedes V250 Avantgarde specs

Engine: 2.0-litre in-line four-cylinder turbo

Gearbox: 7-speed automatic

Power: 211hp at 5,500rpm

Torque: 350Nm

Fuel economy, combined: 6.0 l/100 km

Price: Dh235,000

Sanju

Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Details

Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
LILO & STITCH

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Director: Dean Fleischer Camp

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At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

Profile of MoneyFellows

Founder: Ahmed Wadi

Launched: 2016

Employees: 76

Financing stage: Series A ($4 million)

Investors: Partech, Sawari Ventures, 500 Startups, Dubai Angel Investors, Phoenician Fund

Company profile

Name: Fruitful Day

Founders: Marie-Christine Luijckx, Lyla Dalal AlRawi, Lindsey Fournie

Based: Dubai, UAE

Founded: 2015

Number of employees: 30

Sector: F&B

Funding so far: Dh3 million

Future funding plans: None at present

Future markets: Saudi Arabia, potentially Kuwait and other GCC countries

Company profile

Date started: December 24, 2018

Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer

Based: Dubai Media City

Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)

Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech

Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year

Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020

Zidane's managerial achievements

La Liga: 2016/17
Spanish Super Cup: 2017
Uefa Champions League: 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Uefa Super Cup: 2016, 2017
Fifa Club World Cup: 2016, 2017

Cinco in numbers

Dh3.7 million

The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown

46

The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.

1,000

The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]

50

How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday

3,000

The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

1.1 million

The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.

KLOPP%20AT%20LIVERPOOL
%3Cp%3EYears%3A%20October%202015%20-%20June%202024%3Cbr%3ETotal%20games%3A%20491%3Cbr%3EWin%20percentage%3A%2060.9%25%3Cbr%3EMajor%20trophies%3A%206%20(Premier%20League%20x%201%2C%20Champions%20League%20x%201%2C%20FA%20Cup%20x%201%2C%20League%20Cup%20x%202%2C%20Fifa%20Club%20World%20Cup%20x1)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

The specs

AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

On sale: Now

The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPowertrain%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle%20electric%20motor%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E201hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E310Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBattery%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E53kWh%20lithium-ion%20battery%20pack%20(GS%20base%20model)%3B%2070kWh%20battery%20pack%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETouring%20range%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E350km%20(GS)%3B%20480km%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh129%2C900%20(GS)%3B%20Dh149%2C000%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Army of the Dead

Director: Zack Snyder

Stars: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera

Three stars

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UAE v Ireland

1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets

2nd ODI, January 12

3rd ODI, January 14

4th ODI, January 16

THE APPRENTICE

Director: Ali Abbasi

Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong

Rating: 3/5

Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5