There is a difference between a cigar lounge and a cigar club, and the difference is not the cigars. A lounge is a place you walk into, order from the humidor, smoke, and leave. A club is a place that knows your name, stores your cigars, and gives you a reason to come back that goes beyond the menu.
Dubai has both. The lounges are well-documented. The clubs are less so, partly because they are designed to be less visible and partly because the information about what a membership actually includes is scattered across hotel websites, Instagram posts, and word of mouth. This guide puts it in one place.
What a Cigar Club Membership Typically Includes
Before looking at individual venues, it helps to understand what you are paying for when you join a cigar club in Dubai. Most memberships include some combination of the following:
Private locker in the humidor. This is the centrepiece. A dedicated, climate-controlled locker inside the venue's walk-in humidor where you store your personal collection. The locker is maintained by the venue's staff at the correct humidity (65% to 72% RH), which means you can buy cigars, store them at the club, and smoke them over weeks or months without worrying about home storage. For smokers who visit regularly, this alone can justify the membership.
Priority seating. Members skip the queue on busy evenings (Thursday and Friday nights, event weekends) and often have access to reserved sections or private rooms.
Discounts on food, drinks, and cigars. Typically 10% to 20% across the venue's menu. Some clubs offer discounts at partner restaurants within the same hotel group.
Curated tastings and events. Private cigar and whisky evenings, new release previews, manufacturer visits, and member-only dinners. The quality of the events programme varies significantly from club to club.
Guest privileges. Most memberships allow you to bring one or two guests per visit.
The Clubs
La Casa Del Habano (City Walk)
The Habanos S.A. franchise and the most serious Cuban cigar operation in Dubai. The City Walk location combines a full walk-in humidor stocking the complete current Habanos portfolio with a smoking lounge and a membership programme.
Membership includes: Private cigar locker in the humidor, priority access to limited and regional editions, member pricing on cigars, and invitations to Habanos-branded events and tastings.
The humidor: The strongest in Dubai for Cuban cigars. If your rotation is built around Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagás, Bolívar, or Romeo y Julieta, this is the definitive source. The trade-off is that the inventory is almost entirely Cuban. New World cigars (Nicaraguan, Honduran, Mexican, Dominican) are not the focus.
Best for: Dedicated Cuban cigar smokers who want guaranteed access to the full Habanos catalogue and the peace of mind that comes from buying from an authorised franchise.
Above 21 (FIVE Palm Jumeirah)
A members-club-adjacent cigar and whisky lounge on the Palm. The setting is contemporary, the whisky list is deep, and the membership programme is one of the better-structured in the city.
Membership fee: AED 12,000 per year.
Membership includes: Private locker in the humidor with a personalised brass plaque, cigar box maintenance, 15% discount on food and beverages across all FIVE Palm Jumeirah restaurants, exclusive invitations to tastings and events, and access to the members-only lounge on the 14th floor.
The detail that matters: The membership fee is fully redeemable against food and beverage spend. This means the AED 12,000 is not a sunk cost. If you dine or drink at FIVE properties regularly, the membership effectively pays for itself, and the locker, the events, and the private floor come as a bonus.
Best for: Smokers who socialise on the Palm and want a home base that combines cigar storage with a broader dining and nightlife ecosystem.
Smoke & Mirrors (SLS Dubai, Business Bay)
A rooftop cigar club at the SLS Dubai with a membership model built around private humidor storage and lifestyle benefits.
Membership includes: Private humidor storage, 20% dining benefits across SLS Dubai restaurants, priority event access, and rooftop terrace access.
The setting: Business Bay rooftop with city views. The atmosphere is more nightlife-adjacent than the traditional wood-and-leather cigar club. Thursday evenings are lively. Weeknight visits are quieter.
Best for: Business Bay residents and DIFC professionals who want a rooftop cigar spot with dining perks and a younger, more social energy.
The Cigar Bar (Fairmont Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road)
One of the oldest cigar bars in Dubai, with a traditional members' club atmosphere. Mahogany interiors, leather seating, and a walk-in humidor with a limited number of hand-crafted private lockers.
Membership includes: Private cigar locker, access to rare cigar selections, speciality cognac and whisky pairings.
The setting: Classic. If you want a cigar club that feels like a private study in a country house, the Fairmont's Cigar Bar delivers that atmosphere more convincingly than any other venue in the city. The dress code is semi-formal.
Best for: Traditional cigar smokers who prefer a quiet, intimate setting and are less interested in the social scene of rooftop lounges.
Churchill Club
A dedicated cigar club with multiple locations, built around the old-world aesthetic of its namesake. The Churchill Club positions itself as a cigar-first venue rather than a hotel bar with a humidor attached.
Membership includes: Private cigar lockers, cigar box maintenance, special member discounts, complimentary meeting room rental, and access to private events.
The detail that matters: The complimentary meeting room rental is a genuine differentiator for members who use the club for business. A cigar meeting at Churchill Club with a private room and no venue fee is a practical benefit that the hotel-based clubs do not match.
Best for: Business-oriented smokers who use cigar settings for client meetings, deal discussions, and professional networking.
Vault (JW Marriott Marquis, Sheikh Zayed Road)
Not a membership club in the traditional sense, but included here because it functions as a regular's venue for many Dubai cigar smokers. Vault sits on the 71st and 72nd floors of the Marriott Marquis and is consistently rated among the best bars in the city.
No formal membership programme. Vault operates as a premium bar and cigar lounge open to all. The cigar selection is curated, the spirits menu is among the deepest in Dubai, and the view from 71 floors up is the best in the city for a cigar setting.
Best for: Smokers who want a premium cigar experience without a membership commitment, and anyone hosting out-of-town guests who need to be impressed.
Private Members' Clubs with Cigar Facilities
Several of Dubai's broader private members' clubs include cigar lounges as part of a wider offering:
The Arts Club Dubai (Al Habtoor City). AED 15,000 annual membership. Five floors including a cigar lounge, restaurants, bars, private dining, and a rooftop terrace. The cigar lounge is one component of a much larger cultural and social programme.
Capital Club (DIFC, Gate Village). AED 15,000 annual membership. Business-focused with a cigar lounge, private dining, and meeting facilities. Strong networking events and speaker programmes.
Neera (Al Habtoor City). AED 15,000 annual membership. Includes a cigar lounge, shisha lounge, restaurants, co-working spaces, and event programming.
No Homme (Waldorf Astoria DIFC). Opening in 2026. An ultra-exclusive private members' club with a cigar facility. Details are limited.
These clubs are not cigar-specific. The cigar lounge is an amenity, not the anchor. Membership makes sense if the broader offering (dining, events, networking, workspace) aligns with how you use private clubs. If you join purely for the cigar lounge, the AED 15,000 annual fee is steep compared to a dedicated cigar club membership.
How to Choose
If cigars are the primary reason for joining, the dedicated cigar clubs (La Casa Del Habano, Above 21, Churchill Club, Fairmont Cigar Bar) are the right tier. Membership fees are lower, the humidor programmes are cigar-focused, and the events revolve around tobacco rather than art openings or tech talks.
If cigars are one of several reasons, a broader private members' club (The Arts Club, Capital Club, Neera) gives you the cigar lounge plus dining, workspace, and networking under one fee.
If you do not want a membership at all, Vault, Pair, and several hotel cigar lounges offer walk-in cigar service with no commitment.
If you want cigars delivered rather than stored, Cházaro operates a different model entirely: no venue, no locker, no annual fee. Instead, a tiered private-access programme, hosted events, and an ambassador network that functions as a cigar club without a fixed address. The details follow.
The Cházaro Circle: A Cigar Club Without Walls
The Cházaro Circle is the House's tiered access programme. It replaces the traditional club model (one venue, one locker, one annual fee) with a structure built around the relationship between the smoker and the brand. Access is determined by your tier within the House, and each tier unlocks a different level of the collection, the events calendar, and the private list.
How the Tiers Work
Circle Member. The entry tier. Open to anyone who registers through cigarsbychazaro.com. Circle members receive access to the core collection (Black and Habana lines), 10% off their first order, early notifications for new releases, and invitations to select public events. There is no fee to join.
Private Access. The second tier. Unlocked by purchase history, referral, or direct invitation from the House. Private Access members receive priority allocation on limited releases, including the Don Tito Edición Limitada, access to the full gift set range (Prelude, Trilogía, Selección, Reserva), and invitations to private tastings and curated gatherings. Private Access is the tier where the relationship becomes personal: a dedicated concierge, direct communication with the House, and recommendations tailored to your palate history.
Collector. The top tier. By invitation only. Collectors receive first allocation on every limited release, access to unreleased blends and pre-production samples, priority seating at all House events including The Collector's Table, and the ability to commission custom selections for corporate or personal use. The Collector tier is not a price threshold. It is a relationship threshold, determined by the House based on engagement, taste, and alignment with the brand's values.
The tier system is the Cházaro answer to the annual membership fee. Instead of paying AED 12,000 for a locker at a hotel lounge, you build a relationship with a single house over time, and the access deepens as the relationship does. The cigars come to you (same-day delivery in Dubai, one to two days across the UAE) rather than waiting in a locker for your next visit.
Private Tastings and House Events
Cházaro hosts private events under the banner of The Collector's Table. These are intimate, invitation-based gatherings held at Casa Chazaro in DIFC and at partner venues across Dubai.
The Collector's Table
The Collector's Table is the House's flagship event format. A seated tasting for a small group (typically eight to twelve guests), featuring two to three cigars from the Cházaro range paired with curated spirits, Arabic coffee, or both. The format is guided but not scripted: the host walks the table through the tobacco's origin, the fermentation process, and the specific tasting notes of each cigar, with the conversation moving at whatever pace the group sets.
The Collector's Table is not a sales event. There is no product pitch, no upsell, and no pressure to purchase. It exists because smoking a cigar in the company of people who understand what they are smoking is a fundamentally different experience from smoking alone, and the House wants that experience to be associated with Cházaro rather than with a third-party venue.
Upcoming Collector's Table events are announced to Private Access and Collector tier members first, with remaining seats opened to the Circle.
Private Tastings
For groups of four to twelve, the House arranges private tastings at the client's chosen location: home, office, yacht, hotel suite, or partner lounge. The tasting includes a curated selection of cigars, pairings, accessories (cutters, lighters, ashtrays), and a host who guides the experience.
Private tastings are the most common format for birthday celebrations, bachelor gatherings, corporate offsites, and small client appreciation events. They carry no venue fee. The cost is the cigars and pairings consumed.
Tasting enquiries are made through cigarsbychazaro.com or directly through the concierge.
Partner Venue Events
Cházaro occasionally co-hosts events with Dubai cigar lounges, hotel bars, and private members' clubs. These are announced through the Circle and the House's social channels (@cigarsbychazaro). Past formats have included cigar-and-mezcal tastings, new release previews, and pairing dinners with guest chefs.
The Cházaro Ambassador Programme
The Ambassador Programme extends the House's reach through creators, enthusiasts, and community figures who genuinely smoke and appreciate Cházaro cigars. It is not a generic influencer programme. It is a structured referral and representation partnership with two paths.
Global Creator
Open to creators and cigar enthusiasts worldwide. Global Creators share their experience with Cházaro through their own channels (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, personal blogs, cigar forums) and earn referral commission on every completed order generated through their unique link. Global Creators also receive early access to new products and invitations to House events when visiting the UAE.
UAE Creator
For UAE-based creators and brand partners. The UAE path carries a compliance requirement: valid Emirates ID and creator or influencer licence, as mandated by UAE media regulations. UAE Creators receive the same commission structure as Global Creators, plus priority invitations to all Dubai events, product seeding for content creation, and the opportunity to host or co-host private tastings under the Cházaro banner.
Commission and Tiers
The Ambassador commission structure is performance-based: a referral commission on each completed order, plus a tier bonus triggered at volume thresholds. As an Ambassador's referral volume grows, their tier within the House also rises, which means the benefits of Ambassador status and Circle membership compound. A high-performing Ambassador with Collector-tier access has early allocation on limited releases and priority seating at events, in addition to their referral income.
Applications for both paths are submitted through cigarsbychazaro.com/become-an-ambassador. The House reviews all applications personally. Response time is five to seven business days.
How to Choose
If cigars are the primary reason for joining, the dedicated cigar clubs (La Casa Del Habano, Above 21, Churchill Club, Fairmont Cigar Bar) are the right tier. Membership fees are lower than broad private clubs, the humidor programmes are cigar-focused, and the events revolve around tobacco.
If cigars are one of several reasons, a broader private members' club (The Arts Club, Capital Club, Neera) gives you the cigar lounge plus dining, workspace, and networking under one fee.
If you do not want a venue commitment at all, the Cházaro Circle offers a club experience without a fixed address: tiered access to a single house's collection, private events across Dubai, a personal concierge, and same-day delivery to wherever you are smoking that evening. No annual fee. No locker. The relationship is with the House, not the building.
If you want to represent a cigar brand, the Cházaro Ambassador Programme offers a structured path to earn through referrals while building access within the House's tier system.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a cigar club membership cost in Dubai? Dedicated cigar club memberships range from AED 5,000 to AED 15,000 per year. Broader private members' clubs with cigar facilities typically charge AED 15,000 or more annually. Some cigar club memberships (Above 21) are fully redeemable against food and beverage spend. The Cházaro Circle has no annual fee.
What is a private cigar locker? A personal, climate-controlled storage space inside the venue's walk-in humidor. You purchase cigars, store them in your locker, and smoke them during visits. The venue maintains the humidity and temperature.
Can I visit a cigar club in Dubai without a membership? Most hotel-based cigar lounges (Vault, Pair, Bulgari) allow walk-in access without membership. Dedicated cigar clubs may require membership for full access but often allow guest visits.
Which cigar club in Dubai has the best humidor? La Casa Del Habano (City Walk) has the deepest Cuban cigar inventory. For breadth across Cuban, Nicaraguan, Dominican, and boutique brands, Above 21 and Churchill Club offer wider selections.
Is a cigar club membership worth it in Dubai? If you smoke at a specific venue twice a month or more, a membership typically pays for itself through discounts, locker fees saved on home storage, and event access. If you prefer flexibility across venues, a delivery-based model like the Cházaro Circle may suit better.
What is the Cházaro Circle? The House's tiered private-access programme. Entry is free. As your relationship with the brand deepens (through purchases, event attendance, and engagement), your tier rises from Circle Member to Private Access to Collector, unlocking limited releases, private events, and personalised concierge service.
How do I attend a Cházaro tasting event in Dubai? Register for the Cházaro Circle at cigarsbychazaro.com. Public events are announced to all Circle members. Private tastings and Collector's Table events are offered first to Private Access and Collector tier members. You can also enquire about hosting a private tasting for your own group through the site.
What is the Cházaro Ambassador Programme? A referral and representation partnership for cigar creators and enthusiasts. Ambassadors earn commission on referred orders, receive early product access, and build tier status within the House. Two paths: Global Creator (open worldwide) and UAE Creator (requires Emirates ID and creator licence). Apply at cigarsbychazaro.com/become-an-ambassador.
Can I get cigars delivered instead of joining a club? Yes. All Cházaro Circle tiers include same-day delivery in Dubai and one-to-two-day shipping across the UAE. The concierge recommends cigars based on your preferences and delivers to your home, office, yacht, or any venue of your choice.
