FIVE Palm Jumeirah: Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Guide
Sixteen storeys of homes, from studios up to four-bedroom apartments, stand on Palm Jumeirah, and the tower was developed by Skai Holdings. That range decides who the building suits before you look at a single photo.
A studio works for one person or a couple on a short break. The larger homes work for a family that wants a kitchen and a second bathroom rather than a hotel room. A Palm apartment pairs a walk to the water with a monorail and a mall on the island, which suits anyone who wants a beach holiday with a kitchen.
Storeys
16
Developer
Skai Holdings
Pool at breakfast, lounge at night
The day inside this tower starts at the swimming pool, which opens the morning. After a swim you can go to the gym in the same building, then finish in the spa. Nothing in that routine needs a taxi or a booking at another address.
Afternoons suit a family, because the play area for children keeps small ones busy while adults sit nearby, and the barbecue area turns a Friday evening into an outdoor dinner for the whole family. The games room covers the hour when the pavement is too hot.
There are cafes or restaurants on site, so a coffee or a plain lunch needs only a lift ride. Evenings end in the residents' lounge or function room, a good place to sit when the family has gone upstairs and you still want company over a last coffee.
A month in the same home
Over a month the floor plan matters more than the view. A studio keeps things simple for a solo traveller, and a four-bedroom gives each adult or child a door to close. The laundry service and the maintenance services at the building take over the jobs that turn a long stay into chores, such as a dripping tap or a basket of towels.
Parking for residents helps if you hire a car for the stay, and the reception desk is the first stop when parcels or visitors arrive. Security and CCTV cover the building, which matters when you arrive with luggage and a pushchair after a long flight and want a staffed entrance rather than a locked one.
Over the bridge and up to the door
Dubai International Airport (DXB) is the airport you land at, and a taxi from arrivals reaches the island in one leg. The island joins mainland Dubai by a road bridge. That bridge connects to Sheikh Zayed Road (E11). Cars drive on and off freely along the trunk. Traffic builds near the entry and exit points during peak hours, so a late-afternoon arrival takes longer than a midday one. The building has a reception desk, so you arrive at a door that someone is watching.
Rail gets you most of the way. Take the Red Line to DMCC or Sobha Realty, change to the Dubai Tram, and arrive at Palm Gateway as the ninth tram station, where a footbridge from the stop on Al Sufouh Road reaches Gateway Station and the start of the monorail. The Red Line stops short of the island: there is no metro on it. No bus routes run inside it, so a taxi covers the last stretch.
Doctors and the school run
Emirates Hospitals Clinic Palm Jumeirah and Dubai London Clinic are at Nakheel Mall. Medcare Medical Centre at Seven Palm covers general medicine. Al Zahra Hospital is within a short drive.
Palm Jumeirah has no school of its own. Dubai College and GEMS Wellington International School lie across Sheikh Zayed Road, along with American School of Dubai, and Blossom Nursery Palm Jumeirah follows the British EYFS curriculum for the youngest children.
An island of hotels
Atlantis, Fairmont The Palm and Anantara The Palm are hotels on the island, and this tower is listed among them. Apartment buildings sit mostly on the trunk, while villas and townhouses occupy the fronds. It suits you less if you want a frond villa with its own beach. If a tower is still the right shape for your stay but this one is not, Marina Residences 6 is a Palm neighbour with its own page. Fairmont The Residence North is another.
Nakheel built the island, with Van Oord as the dredging contractor, and work began in June 2001. Atlantis The Palm opened in 2008 at the apex of the island. The Aquaventure water park sits beside it.
Trunk, fronds and crescent
The island is a trunk, a spine, fronds and a crescent, and each frond villa has its own beach. The trunk is the mixed area, with residential apartments, hotels, restaurants, cafes and marinas along its length. The fronds are the residential arms, given over to homes and villas rather than commercial space. The outer crescent is the ring of resorts around the fronds, and a tunnel leads to it from the spine of the trunk.
Boardwalk and running track
The boardwalk and beaches along the Palm are used for jogging and yoga by the water. Palm West Beach has swimming and dog walking, plus Surf Club and Lucky Fish for lunch. The Club at Palm West Beach groups Ayla and Playa for a longer evening by the water.
A running track on the trunk between Shoreline and Golden Mile has play areas and exercise machines along it. Al Ittihad Park adds a running track of its own, room for picnics and yoga, and a welcome for dogs. Children who have outgrown the play area in the tower have somewhere larger to run.
Wet-weather afternoons
Nakheel Mall is the wet-weather answer. It has five levels of shops and restaurants, and a Vox Cinemas complex with fifteen screens. The mall has its own monorail station. Indoor play areas for children sit among the shops, with Golden Mile Galleria as a second centre. Those are a change from the play area in the tower.
The Palm Monorail has four stations: Palm Gateway, Al Ittihad Park, Palm Jumeirah Mall and Atlantis Aquaventure. Palm Gateway has public parking, with the first three hours free for monorail ticket holders. Aquaventure is the last stop. Its station is next to the waterpark entrance, so a family day out on the island needs no car at all.
The View at The Palm is a 360-degree deck on level 52 of Palm Tower. Aquaventure at Atlantis has more than 105 slides and attractions. Aquaventure alone can fill a whole day.
The shops, then dinner
Spinneys and Choithrams have stores on the Palm. There is a Carrefour inside Nakheel Mall. Waitrose runs a supermarket in the same mall. It is the stop for the larger weekly shop, while a studio fridge only needs the small one.
Golden Mile Galleria sits on the western side of Al Ittihad Park and has Caffe Nero, Wagamama and Habib Beirut among its cafes and restaurants.
For dinner, Nakheel Mall has Cheesefarm and Gatsby Dubai. Frevo and Zest are two more names for dinner.
If you own here
Royale Stays manages homes for owners from a management fee of 15%, covering furnishing, photography, pricing, check-in, guest communication and maintenance. A holiday home on the Palm needs Dubai Economy and Tourism (DET) approval before the property can be advertised. A DET permit does not override building rules, so check what the building itself requires. Read how we run Palm Jumeirah homes before you decide.
Sources
Sources: Gulf News, Bayut area guide, The National, Dubai Online, dubizzle Property blog, Nakheel, Property Finder blog, What's On, Wikipedia, Propsearch, Bayut.
Questions