Lavana Spa Al Barsha

On the rooftop floor of the Grand Excelsior Hotel Al Barsha, in Al Barsha 1, a short drive from Mall of the Emirates. Enter through the hotel lobby and take the lift to the top floor; the spa is signposted from the lift landing. The address on our Google listing is the hotel address, so a map pin brings you to the right building, not a service entrance. Reception has its own direct line and its own WhatsApp, so if you are already nearby and cannot see the entrance, a message reaches the people who are actually standing in the building, with no central desk elsewhere in between. The branch opens at 10:00 and takes guests until 1 am, seven days a week, and the phone number on this page rings that desk and no other. If you are travelling from Barsha Heights or Al Barsha South, the hotel is the one on the main road, not inside the residential blocks.

All five massages on our menu: European Aromatherapy and Purifying Swedish from 400 AED for sixty minutes, Deep Muscle and Lava Shell from 500 AED, and the Four Hands Massage from 650 AED. Hot Stone is not offered at this branch. Those are Al Barsha prices, lower than Bur Dubai, with 5% VAT added at reception; DIFC prints its own list with VAT already inside the figures. What Al Barsha cannot offer is the hammam. There is no heated hammam room at this branch, so the Moroccan Bath and the Royal Hammam package are not on the list here. The bath and Hot Stone are booked at Bur Dubai or DIFC instead, the Royal Hammam package at DIFC only. Of the two, DIFC is the closer alternative if you are heading along Sheikh Zayed Road, and Bur Dubai is the one to pick from the Mankhool side.

Reception takes guests until 1 am, seven days a week including public holidays, which is an hour later than our Bur Dubai and DIFC branches. The appointment has to finish by closing, not begin at it, so a sixty minute session needs to begin by midnight and a two hour session by 23:00. Late bookings are common here and the branch is used to them. That said, evenings are also when it is busiest, so a message ahead is more reliable than turning up: the branch answers its own WhatsApp line and reception can tell you in a minute what is free that night. Opening hours do not change at weekends, though they can shift during Ramadan, so a short message before travelling is sensible in that period. Reception also answers Telegram if that is easier than WhatsApp for you.

Yes, on the two treatments they cover. Book a start time between 10:00 and 15:00 and the European Aromatherapy and Purifying Swedish massages drop to 350 AED for sixty minutes, 500 for ninety and 600 for two hours, against 400, 550 and 700 at full price. There is no code and nothing to sign up for; the rate is read from your start time. The Deep Muscle, Lava Shell and Four Hands massages are charged at full price whatever hour you book. The Early Bird rate also covers the Moroccan Bath at Bur Dubai and DIFC and the Royal Hammam package at DIFC, but since Al Barsha has no hammam room, neither applies here. All prices are subject to 5% VAT, added at reception and not built into the figures shown here. Tell reception your preferred start time when you message and they will confirm which rate applies before you travel.

Rooftop, Grand Excelsior Hotel Al Barsha, near Mall of the Emirates, Al Barsha 1.Open daily 10:00 to 01:00, seven days a week. Book on WhatsApp CallTelegram

More than most guests realise, and it is never a code or a voucher: what triggers it is a start time from 10:00 and before 15:00, so the same treatment with the same therapist simply costs less in that window. The Aromatherapy and Swedish massages run at 350 for an hour, 500 for ninety minutes and 600 for two hours at Al Barsha, and at 400, 550 and 700 at Bur Dubai. Bur Dubai and DIFC both put the Moroccan Bath on it at 300 instead of 400, and DIFC brings the two hour hammam package with deep tissue or Balinese down from 950 to 725. DIFC runs its own version: Swedish at 470 for an hour and 630 for ninety minutes, the Moroccan Bath at 300, and the Full Body Exfoliation at 250. Every branch page prints its own Early Bird list in full.

Length and what is included, not two different baths. The Moroccan Bath on its own is a sixty minute appointment in the heated hammam room: the room warms and softens the skin first, black soap is left on to loosen the outer layer, and only then does the kessa glove do its work, which is why the glove needs no force. The Royal Hammam package is two hours and pairs that same full bath with a full body massage afterwards, so you are not booking two separate visits or paying two separate prices. The package costs 900 at DIFC with a Classical Swedish massage, or 950 with deep tissue or Balinese, against 400 for the bath alone. Both need a real hammam room, so neither runs at Al Barsha. Bur Dubai has a hammam room and sells the bath at the same 400 figure, but with 5% VAT added at the till and without the two hour package, which is printed on the DIFC menu only.

One at Al Barsha and Bur Dubai and two more on the DIFC list, and it is worth separating them from a treatment that only sounds like it. The Four Hands Massage is two therapists working on one person at the same time, not a couple: it costs 650 for an hour at Al Barsha and 800 at Bur Dubai. DIFC lists the same idea as the Dual Synergy Massage at 1000 for an hour, and separately a Couple Massage at the same figures, which is the one where two of you are on two tables in the same room. If you want two people booked together at Al Barsha or Bur Dubai, message that reception directly: it needs two therapists free at the same hour, which is worth arranging a day ahead instead of the same evening.