J1 Hotel, Gran Meliá's first UAE hotel, opening on Dubai's Jumeirah 1 beach

Gran Meliá is coming to the UAE for the first time with J1 Hotel, a beachfront property named after its stretch of coast on Dubai's Jumeirah 1. First announced in 2025, it is due to open in the fourth quarter of 2027 and will be Meliá's third Dubai hotel, after Meliá Desert Palm and ME Dubai. Plans run to 366 rooms and suites looking over the Arabian Gulf and the skyline, 40 of them with private pools, plus four swimming pools, a ballroom, a rooftop terrace, landscaped gardens and shops.

The real pitch is the food. Zuma Beach House will sit on a 140-metre private beach beside the hotel, the brand's first beachfront spot in the Middle East, pairing its izakaya-style cooking with a pool, lounge and bar. Park Chinois, born in Mayfair, takes the rooftop with its 1930s Shanghai mood, and Novikov brings a Mediterranean beach club with cabanas. Newer additions include Jul's, which recently opened a London flagship, and Tala, which mixes Riviera-style design with the intimacy of an Arabic majlis.

Also on the roof, Journée Wellbeing, run by Waring Wellbeing Hospitality, plans Aufguss sauna ceremonies and group Reformer Pilates. For now this is an announcement with nothing to book yet; one to keep an eye on if a Dubai beach trip is somewhere in your future.

Our summary of a story from Sleeper, published 21 October 2026. Read the original