Overlooking the world below is one of life’s luxuries. Staying in one of the top 6 tallest hotel rooms* in the world can be defined as pure luxury. This list could also be titled “Top 5 Tallest Hotel Rooms in Dubai except for that first one in Saudi Arabia (because that one is ginormous) so I had to make it Top 6 Hotel Suites to make room for a non-Middle East country”.

Compiled below is the top 6 tallest hotel rooms and hotel suites in the world.

#1 Abraj Al Bait Towers (opening mid-2010)
Mecca (Mekkah), Saudi Arabia
Height: 1,952 ft – 76 stories
Reservations: not accepted at this time
(note: Unless you’re a devout Muslim and can pretty much prove you are, you’re not getting into Mecca. As cool as this place would be to see in person, many people will never get the chance as only Muslims are allowed in the city of Mekkah.)

Abraj Al Bait Hotel, Mecca, Saudi Arabia (artist rendering)

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As the needle shaped Burj Dubai – the world’s tallest building, opens with a grand launch party, it also clears the decks for the opening of the world’s first Armani Hotel, housed inside the Burj.

Burj Dubai

The Armani Hotel Dubai is now all set to open on March 18, 2010. The hotel is the first project for Armani Hotels & Resorts, developed jointly by Italian fashion house Giorgio Armani and Dubai’s Emaar Properties.

Exclusively accessed through its own Grand Entrance, the Armani Hotel Dubai occupies eleven floors of Burj Dubai. The guest rooms are on floors 5 to 8, and the suites on levels 38 and 39.

No one ever accused Giorgio Armani of playing down his brand in the fashion world, and he’s not about to let it happen in the Armani Hotel either. He personally designed all the rooms.

Spread over 40,000 sq metres, the hotel features a luxury Armani Spa, an Armani Dolci chocolates and sweets store, the Armani Fiori flower shop, the Armani Galleria, and the Armani Club and Armani Privé.

There’s also a swimming pool, library, fitness center, business center and eight restaurants. 12,000 people are expected to be working in the building, which is the centerpiece of Downtown Burj Dubai.

(Note: The Burj Dubai has been renamed as the Burj Khalifa, after Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan - the ruler of Abu Dhabi, which recently bailed out Dubai to the tune of $10 billion. Now you know what $10b gets you in the middle east -the world’s tallest building named after you.)

Nearby hotspots include the Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destinations, which already has an Armani café. There’s Emaar Boulevard, flanked by more boutiques and more designer brands, and also the Dubai Fountain.

So it’s assumed that the hotel won’t be short of clientele. Not that the world’s first Armani Hotel needs to worry about pesky things like recessions, but it always helps when your hotel is right in the middle of all the action. Even if it is in the middle of the desert.

More Armani Hotels & Resorts are all set to open in Milan, Marassi and Marrakech, followed by even more Armani hotels in New York, Shanghai and London. But until then, the Armani Dubai remains the only Armani Hotel in the world.

Burj Dubai photo by Joi