Condé Nast Traveler Hot List 2012: Jumeirah Zabeel Saray

Conde Nast Traveler, purveyor of fine hotel reviews and travel advice, has just released its 2012 edition of the Hot List, a list of hotels that are setting the hotel world aflame with fresh designs and new concepts, or maybe just a solid new look at classic luxury. 41 reporters embedded themselves anonymously in hotels across the globe to review their targets. What results is a list of 121 hotels around the world that are so on fire they should be put on your watch list, just in case they end up burning down.

 The Jumeirah Zabeel Saray is a 405-room beach hotel built to look like an imperial palace, and it's very much exactly what you imagine when you think of the opulent luxury of Dubai. In most other places, a luxury palace hotel would be converted from an old royal residence, but at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, it was built just to evoke that measure of royalty. It's covered in silks and gilted furnishings, and its marble tubs are the size of a room in some smaller hotels. It has spared no expense and very much wants you to know that. The Talise Ottoman Spa and numerous fine dining establishments ensure that you never have to leave the premises unless you'd like to. The Jumeirah Zabeel Saray is one of the first in a flurry of constructed resorts on its man-made island, and it's doing its best to establish itself as the favorite before the others encroach on its territory.