Address Montgomerie

In Dubai, where bigger is typically better, it’s refreshing to run across a 21-room boutique-style lodging — to say nothing of a 21-room boutique-style lodging that’s set on a Colin Montgomerie golf course, surrounded by lakes, gardens and links. This is Address Montgomerie, a human-scale palace on the south side of a town where skyscraper hotels are the norm.

This being Dubai, however, Address is big in its own way. Despite its relatively intimate scale, it’s equipped like a much larger hotel, with a full-scale spa and fitness center and no fewer than three restaurants. The rooms are palatial, lacking nothing you’d expect from a Dubai luxury hotel room (save, perhaps, for a bit of ostentation — these rooms are remarkable for their stylish restraint). Some golf resorts can feel a bit bare to those guests who visit for other purposes, but this place is the equal of any business hotel, with an atmosphere that’s only improved by all that green space.

Of course it’s even more impressive if you’re here to play. The location, obviously, couldn’t be better for golfers, and in addition to the championship course there’s a floodlit par-3 course and a full complement of training and coaching facilities. It’s probably a stretch to say it’ll remind you of St. Andrews, but it’s as close as you’re going to get in this part of the world — and the weather, it must be said, is a distinct improvement.