"Atlantis, the Palm"

The pink twin-towered hotel is the centerpiece of the resort, which sports an Atlantis theme. For the super-rich, there’s the $25,000-a-night suite that spans the bridge connecting the hotel’s two towers.

Visitors are dwarfed by the Ambassador Lagoon at Atlantis, the Palm, Dubai’s latest and possibly greatest luxury hotel to date, where water is an ornament and a plaything. Anchoring the place is the three-story aquarium, which holds 2.9 million gallons of water and an abundance of exotic and dangerous-looking marine life.

Aquaventure’s water slides send guests twisting and turning. The launch pad for the half-dozen slides of varying degrees of scariness is the water park’s 98-foot-high ziggurat. And surrounding the tower is a network of pools connected by meandering rivers and water escalators, meaning you almost never have to get off your inner tube.

For the bold and the brave, there’s the Leap of Faith — a near-vertical nine-story drop down a ziggurat — at the resort’s Aquaventure, a 42-acre water park filled with slides and pools. Too wild? Head over to a nearby saltwater enclosure, where guests can swim with the resident dolphins.
(Chris Vedelago)