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Have Your Passport Handy When Visiting the Burj Al Arab

Where: PO BOX 74147, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Inside, this place looks like "tacky Vegas."

Once again, HotelChatter's tentacles have sent dispatches to the mother ship from abroad. This time, the report comes from Dubai where our source snooped around the Burj al Arab which despite magnificent architecture it is, in short, un désastre.

The architectural structure from the outside and even the inside is gorgeous. The interior is a disaster. The public areas are not Arabic like Al Qasr, but tacky Vegas style. The only nice things inside are two beautiful tropical fish tanks. Even the bar on the 27th floor is a disaster. I would not want to stay there even for half the price of my room at the Park Hyatt. I could not see the rooms or even the spa.

They check your papers as you go around the grounds as though they have a priceless place. It all reminded me of being stopped every few miles when I drove around Haiti during the days of Baby Doc Duvalier.

Being compared to a country under rule by a wacky 1970s/early 80s dictator in a leisure suit can never be good. Hard to believe this was once the best hotel in the world back in 2005, huh?