We had arranged through Expedia.com our first night at Le Meridien Baniyas Square. Le Meridien is a fairly high end chain. They have several expensive hotels in Dubai, but they also have one cheap location (“Baniyas Square”) in the Deira district (close to a lot of Dubai’s top tourist attractions). The rate was only $70 US per night for a fully serviced apartment. There was a little bit of strangeness surrounding Expedia’s advertised free airport pickup. When I called the hotel to confirm they would pick us up, they told me the free airport pickup was no longer available. However, they would honor Expedia’s mistake.Le Meridien has a desk at the airport (presumably to support guests arriving for their much nicer beach hotels also in Dubai) and they quickly had us inside their transport to the hotel.

At 3 am, there was no traffic on the road at all and we were at the hotel within 10 minutes.

The room at Le Meridien Baniyas Square was very clean. The decor and surroundings were equivalent to a medium-quality American motel. It did have a kitchen, with burner plates and a kettle, but curiously enough no microwave. The dishes were clean, but the pots and pans clearly needed to be replaced. There wasn’t much of a view to speak of – although on our second stay at the hotel a week later, we did have a view of the ocean if we craned our neck outside the room.

To see the rest of our photos and videos from our trip, please click here.