A Night in Atlantis, Dubai

It is not as difficult spending a night in an aquarium as you might think. Not in a five star one, at least. And if you are one of the lucky few who have already had the opportunity to book a stay at Dubai's extravagantly luxurious Atlantis The Palm resort hotel on Dubai's man-made island of Palm Jumeirah, you know better than anyone that a stay here is certainly one of a kind.

Based upon the successful The Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, only even more extraordinary than that famously high-end holiday spot, Atlantis The Palm is the kind of place where new arrivals have trouble believing their eyes at first. Unusual architecture to say the least, the massive pink 1539 room hotel offers everything from "underwater" suites to mammoth waterslide rides at its Aquaventure water theme park to the deep recesses of the Lost Chambers, a labyrinth of underwater tunnels and halls deep below the hotel complex. And if that is not enough for you, you can also take a swim with the hotel's dolphins during your stay here, too.

One of the seven United Arab Emirates, Dubai, only some 500 square miles in size, has become what some have come to call the Las Vegas of the Near East. And the extraordinary copies of the Eifel Tower, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Taj Mahal one now finds here brings the American gambling paradise to mind indeed. Only here the copies are larger, actually larger than the real-life originals, and the nearby desert is even more merciless than the Nevadan one surrounding Las Vegas. But here, at least, there are the shimmering waters of the nearby Persian Gulf.

The Palm Jumeirah man-made island designed for the resort, a group of 17 sandy inlets in the shape of a palm frond surrounded by a crescent-shaped reef, incorporates the ocean in a very extraordinary way, while adding some forty miles of new beachfront property to Dubai in the process. Well over a billion dollars was invested in this magnificent palace of a hotel, built at the island's center by the South African Kerzner International Hotel Group, and taking some 4000 employees to keep this megalomaniacal theme park-like attraction going. But the shock and awe the United Arab Emirates' planners intended for visitors here is precisely what they got, and clearly what the visitors to the hotel want.

Take the Ambassador Lagoon at the heart of the hotel, for instance. The largest of the hotel's aquariums, it boasts the stylized ruins of Atlantis on its underwater floor. Visitors can marvel at the 65,000 sea creatures who live there, along with quite a few mythical ones who don't, and all of this from the privacy of their luxurious suites below. Hotel room bathrooms offer wall-sized views into this massive underwater world (11,000,000 liters), ocean blue water filled with sharks, manta rays and barracuda. Of course this type of luxury has its price. A night at the Neptune Suite is quoted at $8000, for instance. But you don't have to while away your time here underwater when it comes to spending money. Book a night at the 900 square meter Bridge Suite located high above between the hotel's two magnificent main towers. With private elevator, library and media lounge, not to mention the golden dining table for 16, it's all yours for a mere $25,000 a night.

But there are prices here for "real people", too, of course. And Atlantis The Palm is about as family friendly as hotels get. Kids of all ages will love the swimming area and five giant rides at the nearby Aquaventure amusement park (don't miss The Fall, Leap of Faith or Shark Attack - a slide down a glass tube through the middle of a shark pool). And right next door is Dolphin Bay where, you guessed it, visitors can pet and swim with some of the 28 dolphins the hotel has provided for them. Or take a closer look at the mile-long beach area where you can enjoy kayaking, windsurfing or climbing walls which float on the water.

Of course eating well will never be a problem here, Atlantis The Palm offers its guests 17 restaurants, bars and lounges, celebrity chefs included. And shopping and nightlife have been provided for, as well. The Avenues is a luxurious shopping promenade filled with a wide variety of designer shops and fashion boutiques.

So if you are ready for a beautiful and somewhat, well, bizarre vacation stay in an artificial world you might have trouble believing actually exists at first, it doesn't have to be Las Vegas any more, at least not all of the time. Come visit Atlantis The Palm in Dubai instead.