Dubai Holiday

Dubai

Dubai is a very good stop over to explore specially for people who travels thru emirates. We had 4 nites stop over and I believe 3-4 nites are good enough tho we came across some travelers for more than 7 days too. Main attractions are

1) Desert Safari: I believe they charges around 190-200 dirhams (1 USD = 3.6/3.7 dirhams) per person tho we booked thru bell boy in our hotel for 130 dirhams per person with child under 5 free – just confirm (Pahel was free). The guy will come to your hotel and take you to desert in car/bus (an hour drive). From there, ~20-30 mits drive in sand dunes in close jeep to reach a set up like an Arabian village. We didn’t feel the sand dunes drive as fascinating as we had in pismo beach (may be coz pismo beach was our first experience and that too open hummer) but its fun.
At the village, again you can rent ATVs (tho are costly compared to pismo). At the village there are typical Arabic entertainment such as clicking pictures in burqhaks and white robs, henna, camel ride (free but ride is very small). Soft drinks and food are free. (They will serve appetizers first and after some times dinner. Most dishes are south Asian /Indians. I was surprised to see Jain Food Table too). Tho nothing great but not bad food either (we didn’t eat much). The main attraction of safari is dances mainly belly dance. Overall it’s fun and kind of ‘must do’ if your visiting Dubai. The guy will drop you back to your hotel by 10ish.

2) Jumarirah beach Park: Note that there is Jumairah beach and Jumairah beach park. Go to beach park. It has a park, play structure (Ok Ok) and VERY VERY beautiful Beach. Clean white sand, clear blue WARM water and 90’s weather. What else you can ask for? Sandip, this is MUST 4 you. Infect when we were there, tum sab ko yaad kar rahe they.. ?. Pahel had a gala time there (as these kids always have whenever we go to beach…)
The only issue with this beach is not connected thru Metro but buses do go there.

3) Mall : A huge mall with all international brands. But nothing is cheap – especially to us being used to buy in door buster sales with 20%-30% discount coupon. There’s sports area (bowling alley, go carting etc. ) as well as kids video game/area. Again, need to pay for everything. My opinion, better to pay in Mumbai or US. There’s also ice skating ring. (Gondola type ride, tubing, ice area etc. Tickets for each service). I think this is more of attractions for people of Africa and South Asia most of who just see ice once or twicein their lifetime?. Tickets are expensive so I would suggest take your kids one more time to Tahoe this season/next year ?
Can go thru Metro – Infect exit directly into mall

4) Dubai Mall : Again a gigantic mall for shopping (not for us as mentioned above ?). Other attractions are a fish tank/aquarium. They have aquarium tour, snorkeling, scuba diving, glass submarine tour, dolphin feeding etc activates. Off course, fees for everything and bit expensive too. We skipped as we recently had such activities and Pahel was also not very keen. But people going there can give a serious thought for it.
Oh yeah, we saw a huge candy shop there- just different varieties of candies. ?
The Dubai Mall is just next to Burj Khalipha Building. The building is REALLY tall and gigantic. Unfortunately, we could not go up as we could not reserve the tickets online. Tickets are 100 dirhams if booked online in advance or 400 on spot per adult. I had lot of trouble booking online thru Mastercard (And even Kalpendu has also mentioned similar issue). Tickets can be booked only thu Mastercard or Visa. So if anyone of you are planning, make sure you reserve the tickets as soon as your air tickets are confirmed. Also, people have mentioned to us that nite time view is not as much as spectacular as daytime. Between Burj and Dubai Mall there is an artificial lake and musical fountain (just like Bellagio, LV). Whole atmosphere is beautiful especially in late evening time (9ish when it cools down). You can easily spend couple of hour there. There are lot of fine dining places too if you want to explore and spend some money ?
You can travel thru metro n then bus or cab – easily available.

5) Ibn Batuta (yes that hindi song..) and World village Mall – We just went to Ibn Batuta for couple of hours – Again huge malls. Interior and exterior based on different countries (mostly south Asia /middle east) architectures – Just like hotels in Vegas. Check websites.
Ibn Batuta can be thru Metro but world village is kinda far. We wanted to go there but couldn’t

6) Palm Atlantis. A 7 star hotel with water park and aquarium in it. Initially I thought it will be just a water park and decided to visit from outside (tickets are very costly). But when we went there, we felt like we should have done it but it was too late for time left. Alternatively, as one of my frd has suggested, you can stay one nite there and Water Park etc are included in stay. Well if you’re getting a good bonus this year, not a bad idea to stay 3 or 4 nites there ;). Check websites for more info. Need cab from nearest Metro

7) Gold Souk : This can happen only in Dubai – So much of gold, gold n more gold ? After visiting there, either you can simply fall in luv with gold or simply hate it. I hate it. Ended up spending huge and reaching max on CC first time in my life ?
Convenient travel thru Metro.

8) There are other markets such as Meena Bazar, Nife Bazar where other items are sold – cloths, vessels, antiques etc. we could not go there tho’. Again, convenient travel thru Metro

9) There are local ‘walmarts’ too like Ansar Supermarket etc. Cheap (made in China) goods available.

Other points
Dubai is NOT Cheap.
Travel thru metro (fully AC) is convenient. Buy day pass (16 dirhams). Can be used for buses too. Keep that pas. Next day renewal will cost 2 dirhams less.
Oct to Feb/March is traveler’s seasons and weather is not very hot but hotels are expensive.