A dip in the Dubai that no longer exists: review Al Seef Heritage Curio Hilton Hotel

This hotel has always intrigued me And the other times I've gone by Dubai for one reason or another I never booked it, until this time.

The possibilities of sleep in Dubai are many, and for any budget. This hotel is an example of how little a 4-star hotel can cost and how different one hotel can be from another. In the specific case this I think is (probably) the only widespread hotel in the entire UAE.

Reservation

When a hotel is cheap, it is never convenient to use points, unless very few points are required. The paradox is that this Curio cost more in points than in cash, then booked as always through the app and accumulated qualifying points, stays and nights in my chase for Diamond status renewal.

The beauty of being an owner American Express Platinum is that you will have free breakfast at all Hilton hotels a benefit that combined with the free upgrades and other benefits helps pay back the monthly card fee.

To stay one night we spent less than 70€.

Location

Dubai is huge; it is many cities attached to each other. Getting around on foot is impossible, and getting from place to place requires using Uber or traditional cabs And waste time on commuting.

This hotel is not in the most popular areas such as Dubai Marina or the Financial District, but it is in a location that is on the list of stops to visit if you pass through the city. If Dubai is, arguably, the safest city in the world, this hotel is in the safest area of the city, as it borders embassies, ministries, and consulates.

The area is developed on one bank of the Khor Dubai, also known as Dubai Creek, is an arm of the Persian Gulf sea that extends inland from Dubai for several kilometers. It is a reconstruction of what Dubai looked like until the late 1980s, when the city's economic and tourism boom began.

It's all fake, like we're in Alladin's neighborhood at Disneyland, but it's not cloying. Of course the soul is fake, but the environment is pleasant.

Check-in

Here we spent the last night in Dubai on our crazy Emirates ticket., after staying at the JW Marriott and Hilton The Palm we approached the airport and chose this property.

The cab dropped us off in front of the hotel door. As mentioned I had been intrigued by the photos in the app, this hotel looked like it was inside a seaside village, a small Varigotti or Laigueglia, for those familiar with the Ligurian west coast.

And indeed, that was the case in person as well. After the paperwork was done, we were invited out and into the golf car to get to our room.

The hotel occupies 10 buildings around the hamlet, all within a very short distance of the main building. In addition to this, it is possible to use the facilities (swimming pool and gymnasium) of the Hampton Inn not far away, and this too can be reached for free by the hotel's golf car.

The room

The hamlet has small buildings of up to two stories, looks like the gut of Alassio, narrow streets and small stores on the ground floor And hotel rooms on the upper floors.

Our room was reef view,upgrade from basic room,booked through the app and promotion obtained through status included in the annual fee for American Express Platinum.

Everything in the room is strictly a historical reconstruction of what life would have been like in these houses in the old UAE, obviously reimagined in a modern way. Nothing is missing in the room only everything looks deliberately old, I must say it does not come across as tacky, quite the contrary. TV screen, dial phone stuff that Generation Z has only seen in movies, and other callbacks from the past such as the light bulbs or the shower si melts.

All revamped, but there's everything you'd expect from this category of hotel and from a Curio, the most design-driven sign in the Hilton portfolio.

The structure

As mentioned. is a diffuse hotel in the hamlet, the buildings are numbered and scattered around the neighborhood. The lobby is on the square, the only one facing a street where cars circulate. The rest of the suburb is pedestrian, except for golf cars.

Amidst souvenir stores, traditional clothes and gadgets are a dozen restaurants and even a Starbucks, perfectly integrated with its surroundings. There is everything in the hamlet, and if many people come here to take a walk, a dip in the past, the guests of this hotel can live in it.

We did not take advantage of the Hampton Inn's amenities, but just walked around in the evening before going to sleep, and it was really nice to be away from skyscrapers and noise for an evening.

Breakfast

Being a diffuse hotel, you have to reach the breakfast room in the morning. Guests go on a sort of treasure hunt, following the signs scattered around the village. Of course you can also call the front desk and the toy car comes to pick you up, but it's definitely more fun this way.

The breakfast room is located on the second floor of a building inside the hamlet; it also offers the possibility of eating out, but in June it is impractical; perhaps in December it can be done.

Again, as in the rest of the hotel, everything here is apparently old. The buffet is the classic offering, with a few flashes of local flavors. There is also an egg menu that is freshly prepared by the chef. All in all, even the breakfast did not disappoint us.

In conclusion

Good experience, I recommend this place to people who don't want to live on the 30th floor of a soulless hotel, here you can breathe of being in Dubai even though everything is rebuilt. Nice idea of the spread hotel, to be able to walk along the "river" and observe the Dubai skyline from a different perspective than usual.

• Hilton Honors

The verdict

Of course it is not a huge hotel like all the others in Dubai, however, the beauty of it is precisely this being different and, above all, costing very little while still maintaining the Hilton guarantee. Of course we are far from the Palm and the better known areas of the Emirate's capital, but since you have to take the car anyway, it is a fair compromise.

7.5

Pro

• The price
• The style

Against

• The pool is in another hotel
• Breakfast could be better