Dubai Marina or Downtown: where to stay

What each one is

Downtown is the centre that Dubai built for itself in the 2000s: the Burj Khalifa, the fountain lake, Dubai Mall and the Opera, with towers of apartments around them. It is dense, finished and walkable in the way that few parts of Dubai are. Everything you have seen in a photograph of Dubai is here, and so is everyone who came to see it.

Dubai Marina is a canal cut in from the sea, lined on both sides with towers, with a seven-kilometre walk around the water and a public beach, JBR, on the sea side. It is where people live rather than visit: joggers at seven, dog walkers, families on the promenade after dark. The towers are taller and closer than Downtown's, and the mood is a resort town rather than a capital.

They are about twenty minutes apart by car, or thirty by metro. Many guests do one and visit the other for an evening. That is the right way round: choose the one you want to wake up in.

Downtown, if

It is a first visit and the Burj Khalifa is the reason you came. From Downtown you walk to the tower, the fountain and the mall, and you see the light show from your balcony rather than from a queue. The fountain plays every half hour in the evening, and from a high floor on the lake side it is the quietest show in the city.

You like to walk out to dinner. Souk Al Bahar and the mall's lakeside terraces are a five-minute walk; DIFC's restaurants are ten minutes by taxi. You have a short stay and want to spend none of it in traffic. Downtown is also the better base for the old city: the Creek, the souks and the museums are fifteen minutes north.

• Best forA first visit, three to five nights, couples, anyone who wants the tower in the window
• The tradeNo beach. Crowds at the mall on weekends. Road closures on New Year's Eve
• Our homeBurj Vista: four bedrooms, the Burj Khalifa and the fountain lake straight ahead

The Marina, if

You want the sea. JBR beach is a walk from most of the Marina, free, clean and lifeguarded, with the promenade behind it full of cafés. The Marina walk is where you take the children on a scooter and where you drink a coffee by the yachts. Bluewaters, with the big wheel, is across a footbridge.

You are staying a week or more. The Marina has the supermarkets, the gyms, the laundries and the pharmacies of a place where people live, usually in the ground floor of your own tower. Families with a stroller find it easier than Downtown. And it is closer to the Palm, the Emirates Golf Club and the beaches to the south.

• Best forBeach days, families, stays of a week or more, people who like a walk after dinner
• The tradeTraffic into and out of the Marina on weekend evenings. Some towers are loud on the JBR side
• Our homeSulafa Tower: two bedrooms, a balcony between the towers, a pool and gym in the building

Noise, light and the time of day

Both areas are loud in places and silent in others, and the difference is which side of the tower you are on. In Downtown, homes that face the Boulevard hear the traffic and the fountain's music; homes that face the lake hear the fountain and little else. In the Marina, homes over the water hear the yachts and the promenade until midnight; homes facing the towers behind are quieter and darker.

We note which way each of our homes faces and what you will hear at eleven at night, because it changes the stay more than any amenity does. Ask us, and we will tell you.

Getting around from each

Both are on the metro's Red Line. Downtown's station is Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall, a long covered walk from the mall; the Marina has two, DMCC and Sobha Realty, plus the tram along JBR. Taxis are quick from both, and the airport is about twenty minutes from Downtown and thirty-five from the Marina outside the rush hours. For more, read getting around Dubai without a car.

• Downtown to the MarinaAbout 20 minutes by car, 30 by metro
• Downtown to the airportAbout 20 minutes outside rush hour
• The Marina to the airportAbout 35 minutes outside rush hour
• The Marina to the PalmAbout 10 minutes to the trunk

Our guides to each area go deeper: Downtown and DIFC, on foot and Dubai Marina and Bluewaters, by the water.

Next in the journal

Dubai with children: where to stay and what a week looks like. Which area of Dubai works for a family, what to ask about the home before you book, and a seven-day plan with room for naps.