Opening 2029

Cheval Blanc

Cheval Blanc Naia Island Dubai

Name: Cheval Blanc Naia Island Dubai
Address: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Cheval Blanc's first Maison in the Middle East, on a new private island off the Jumeirah coast.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

First look

This is Cheval Blanc's first Maison in the Middle East, and the brand is going about it the way LVMH usually does: a single property on a brand-new private island. Cheval Blanc Naia Island Dubai is slated for roughly 2029, built with Shamal Holding on Naia Island off the Jumeirah coast. The reported program is about 70 keys split into 30 suites and 40 private-pool villas, with branded beachfront residences on the side. Announced in August 2025, it is a genuine LVMH Cheval Blanc Maison, not to be confused with the unrelated Cheval Collection serviced-apartment company that shares part of the name.

On paper the appeal is the combination of a small key count, a villa-heavy mix, and an island that does not exist yet, which gives the developers room to shape the setting from scratch. There is no dedicated official property page yet, and 2029 is far enough out that the details will move. What we will be watching for is whether the villa-to-suite balance holds, how the residences sit against the hotel, and what the Gulf debut means for a brand that has so far kept its Maisons rare. For now this is anticipation, not a verdict.

Not yet scored. We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — this is a first look, not a verdict.

Sofie, who runs the Fat Voyage booking desk with Nicolas

Want us to get you in when it opens?

Nothing to book yet — rates usually load a few months out. We're Sofie and Nicolas; tell us roughly what you're after and we'll come back the moment Cheval Blanc Naia Island Dubai is bookable, with rates, what the rooms are actually like, and whether we'd go in the first season.

You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.

Open now

What you can book today

Cheval Blanc Naia Island Dubai is still under wraps. Here's what's already open and scored in our collection — more from Cheval Blanc, and nearby in United Arab Emirates.

Fat Legend

Cheval Blanc

Cheval Blanc Courchevel

Courchevel, France

This is the hotel people go back to every year on purpose, not out of habit. Guests who've done the full circuit of Cheval Blanc properties around the world single out Courchevel as the favorite, and the reason is specific: it's not just a beautiful building on a slope, it's a building that runs like a machine built entirely around getting you out the door and back in again. Ski boots come off at the entrance and slippers go on before you've said a word. The ski room team clocks you coming down the mountain and has your gear ready before you've caught your breath. The food is where the picture splits. Le 1947, Yannick Alléno's three-star, is treated as close to essential by people who plan whole trips around it, meat-forward and technically serious. But the hotel's grill drew a sharp complaint about a €95 filet arriving with nothing on the plate and a €20 side that tasted like fast food, with the same guest pointing across town at a restaurant doing more for half the price. Nobody disputes the staff, even there: the same review that hated the value called the service across the board kind and professional. The spa, a Guerlain, gets treatment rooms with a slope view and a team that finds room for you even when the book is full. Book it for the ski-in, ski-out setup and the level of care that has people rebooking a year out, sometimes literally waiting a year for a room. Go in expecting Courchevel pricing throughout, including a grill that doesn't always earn its menu, and eat at Le 1947 at least once while you're there.

Fat Favorite

Cheval Blanc

Cheval Blanc Paris

Paris, France

Cheval Blanc Paris is LVMH's argument that a 72-room hotel on the Seine doesn't need a single gilt mirror to compete with the Ritz or Le Meurice, and most guests who stay come away agreeing. Peter Marino's rooms run light, marble-heavy and contemporary rather than Haussmann-ornate, and the gifting culture is the thing people actually remember: nightly turndown surprises, a metal bookmark left in a book overnight, Dior bath scents from François Demachy that keep arriving all week rather than just at check-in. Plénitude's three stars and the rooftop bar's river views are the other reasons this costs what it costs, and both hold up across recent reports. The catch, raised often enough to take seriously, is noise: guests on multiple floors through 2025 and into this year describe furniture being moved on the rooftop past 2am and thin enough insulation that closed windows don't fully solve it. The all-glass bathrooms work fine for couples and awkwardly for friends sharing a suite. And the aesthetic itself is genuinely divisive rather than universally loved, some travelers find it a relief from the stuffier grandeur of the Ritz or George V; others say the lobby reads more South Beach condo than Paris and never fully shakes an international, could-be-anywhere feeling. Service is strong on balance, but a badly handled lost-property case and occasional slow room-service follow-through surface enough in recent reviews to note plainly rather than wave away. Book it for the most materially obsessive hotel in the city right now, the Plénitude table, and a version of Paris hospitality built on gifts rather than gilding. A light sleeper on a high floor near the roof should ask for a lower one first.

Fat Favorite

Cheval Blanc

Cheval Blanc Randheli

Noonu Atoll, Maldives

A week here runs somewhere around $4,000 a night once you're in the top villas, and what you get for it is genuinely hard to find elsewhere in the Maldives: identical, enormous villa layouts whether you're on the water or on the island, a 45-foot pool that heats up in the sun, and a lagoon in front of the Lagoon Villas that people who've done a dozen Maldives trips still describe as unlike any water they've seen. The Jean-Michel Gathy design carries the whole property, from the restaurants to the spa, which sits on its own island reached by a short boat ride and includes a pool big enough that you'll likely have it to yourself with a waiter bringing drinks. The butlers can make or break the week, and that's the real trade-off worth knowing before you book. One couple's stay turned on Mr. G tracking down dolphins and surprising them with snacks and treats; another couple's most-referenced complaint was a butler who felt reactive rather than anticipatory, plus a few requests (reserved goggles, an itinerary update) that never made it through from the pre-trip planning team. A run of hygiene complaints followed a general manager change too: hair in food, a live worm in a salad, reckless buggy driving, reported by more than one long-time guest who called the resort their second home before that stretch. It hasn't shown up everywhere, but it's real, and it tracks with the management turnover other guests flagged around the same period. The house reef is also weak, so don't come expecting to snorkel straight off your villa; the better marine life is a short boat ride away. Book it for the villas and the spa island, and go in expecting the food to be the strongest and most consistent part of your week, especially breakfast and the pastry counter — a few guests found the sushi at Diptyque didn't match the rest of the menu, which is worth knowing rather than worth avoiding the resort over. Couples and families both seem to do well here; the kids' club gets specific praise, and the villas are private enough that other guests barely register. For the room alone, and for a lagoon that keeps coming up as the thing nobody expected, this is worth the seaplane transfer.

Fat Legend

Cheval Blanc

Cheval Blanc St-Tropez

Saint-Tropez, France

What you're paying for here is flat ground and a kitchen that never clocks off. The beach is level, no cliff steps or funicular to manage, which is why it keeps getting recommended over the clifftop Riviera names for anyone traveling with a baby or a stroller. Cheval Blanc treats young kids like actual guests, down to kid-sized robes. La Vague d'Or's three stars are the obvious pull, but the same discipline shows up in a pool sandwich or a room-service breakfast, which is the harder thing to sustain than one great tasting menu. Staff learn names fast, and one guest's write-up of the whole team lining up in the driveway to wave off a departing car says more about the culture here than any amenities list would. The trade-off is space. Rooms run small for what you're paying, a complaint that shows up from first-timers and from a guest on their fifth Cheval Blanc stay alike, and there's no bigger category to book your way around it. The property also goes quiet after 1am: the shuttle stops, and a late night in town means an Uber rather than a house car. Breakfast has been reported slow when the hotel is full, with guests asking two or three times for coffee and bread even as the food itself gets no complaints. One 2024 review described being turned away rudely as a walk-in at the bar, worth knowing if you're hoping to eat there without a room key. Book it for the beach and the kitchen, not the square footage. If more room in the same stretch of coast matters more to you than either of those, Byblos or the château at Airelles Messardière are the names worth weighing instead.

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