The pool at Barasti is definitely one of the best pool party ready pools I have ever been to. With plenty of floats, tiki torches, a multi-level island pool and inclusive BBQ food and drinks available you cannot go far wrong here when it comes to enjoying the party atmosphere. Helped along by the mix of 70s, 80s and 90s pop classics coming from the DJ booth. Barasti tropicana pool party has it all!

If you are looking for something to do midweek in Dubai, or fancy a night time pool party (loads of them are in the day time in Dubai like Zero Gravity’s tropical brunch!), I would definitely recommend going to Barasti’s Tropicana BBQ Pool Party. Now let me tell you why!

Entry to Barasti Tropicana Pool Party

The Tropicana BBQ at Barasti runs from 8pm-11pm. For boys the cost is 199AED (approx £42) and for girls it is 99AED (approx £21). As with all of these boy/girl price differences we encountered on our trip to Dubai, Craig and I just split the total cost so paid 150AED (approx £31) each. There is no need to book tickets in advance for the Barasti Tropicana pool party, you just turn up!

Barasti is located not too far from the base of the palm. Our taxi from the base of the palm wasn’t too pricey at all.

You must be over 21 to go to this event, like many other such events in Dubai. They do check on entry so remember to bring your passport with you! You walk through a little bamboo tunnel, past the main bar area, which looked pretty lively and was showing sports, down through to the pool, which is located just behind the beach.

We paid our entry and received our wristbands just before 8. However they wouldn’t serve any drinks to us until 8 on the dot.

Barasti beach pool

The pool is honestly so great. It is large and rounded although with little nooks and alcoves with multiple islands of varying levels in the middle dotted about. This was great as you could chill on a ledge without getting totally in if you wanted! The pool wasn’t deep, even I at 5’3 could stand in it. Which is more than I can say for the pool at Dukes the Palm where we were staying…

The barasti pool was also pretty nice and toasty temperature wise, not too cold at all. Although it did cool down a bit I felt towards the end of the night. We got out around 10pm to try and dry off a bit in the final hour!

They had even provided a large round watermelon float in the pool. Plus two kiwi half floats for people to mess about with which was very welcome. I may be slightly obsessed with pool floats!

While we were waiting for the clock to reach 8 for the Barasti tropicana pool party to officially begin, I went for a walk around the pool. The DJ booth is at the back opposite the bar and there were actual tiki style flame torches everywhere. Which I thought was a very cool touch.

The pool was lit underneath. This was handy for extra light and photo taking. As well as being able to better spot the islands so you didn’t bash into them accidentally when swimming.

The drinks

For the included drinks, you could get beer, spirit and mixers, shots of tequila and sambuca. And they had four different cocktails to choose from. I can’t remember what they all were sadly. Sidenote, really need to get better at making notes when drinking! But they definitely had blue lagoon and a rum based Mai Tai type cocktail on offer.

They gave us reusable plastic cups for the cocktails and we just went back with those and got them refilled. They check your wristbands at the bar so unfortunately you cannot go and get the drinks for you and your friends. You each have to go up individually which is a bit of a pain but fair enough.

The BBQ

There was a pretty good spread put on for the BBQ. This was located back towards the entrance to the pool and set out buffet style. There was plenty of salads to choose from, as well as breads. There were also lots of different BBQ meats on offer. As well as some random buffet food like calamari rings, chicken nugget type things and breaded cheese bites. The vegetarian option weirdly enough was pizza. Pizza may not be typical BBQ food but I wasn’t to complain in this case!

We both loaded our plates fairly soon after they had finished setting the food out. Then were joined by a small cat that seemed pretty interested in any leftovers we might have for it. You were able to go up and refill your plate as much as you wanted during the time the food was out. Which was most of the three hours, with it being ready for guests just after 8.

The vibe

The evening was a chilled kind of party vibe, with people hopping in and out of the pool and chatting, mostly in large groups. We spoke to a few people at the bar and did shots with some people but generally hung out just by ourselves. It wasn’t overly busy, there were probably only 50-60 people that night. Which was good as it meant there was plenty of space and seating for everyone. But maybe a bit less lively than it may otherwise be.

The music was fun, lots of disco kind of classics and so forth from across the 70s, 80s and 90s being played all evening, not too aggressively loudly which was nice.

As it approached 11pm they asked us all to pack up and go and finish any drinks we had left in the main bar upstairs. Presumably so they could pack everything away for the night without us lingering in the way.

We headed up and there was a Liverpool game on, Craig’s team, and a live band playing music which was actually pretty good fun so we ended up staying and buying more drinks which was a costly error. A group of people invited us to sit with them so we did and shared some drinks with them, but the main topic of conversation was bragging about how rich and successful they all were. So we declined the invitation to go to another bar and headed back much later than we had intended, given we hadn’t slept much on our overnight flight and had now been up all day!

It was a very fun evening, and worth what we paid. Especially if we were bigger eaters we would have got more for our money. Although I think we managed that in drinks anyway, especially having seen how much regular drinks were in the main bar. The unlimited drinks and food for a girl cost the same as two drinks in the main bar…

Definitely check it out if you are in Dubai midweek and want to go to a pool party!

Top tips

• The beach area was roped off, which was sad because it looked really cool, but it would have been too dark to take any pictures really anyway. If you want to come and enjoy the beach, come during the day time as well!
• Remember your passport as you will likely be refused entry without it, they were checking everyone’s IDs even those in their 30s.
• Bring your own towel! It costs to hire one and it isn’t cheap! We only had my travel towel and although you dried in the heat a bit, the sun being gone made it a much slower process.
• Go in your swim stuff and take a change of clothes so you aren’t wet for your taxi home or continuing the party. I spoke to some girls in the bathroom who thought it was just a BBQ and drinks thing and hadn’t bought swim stuff and they looked pretty gutted to be missing out!
• If you get a new drink just before it ends you can take it up to the main bar, which is a very good idea. We had almost finished ours without realising the time and couldn’t get new ones and the main bar was pretty extortionate as there were no deals on. It cost £10 for a pint, and not a particularly good one at that – I literally had a strongbow.
• It is a tourist area and was full of westerners, but still wouldn’t recommend overt public displays of affection. Messing around on the floats together seemed ok, plenty of couples and friends doing that, but wouldn’t want to take it much further than that personally. You don’t want to offend anyone or accidentally get yourself in trouble
• Read more about Barasti tropicana pool party by clicking here!