I've been to Dubai twice now, once when I was one, too young to remember anything, and again three years ago. All I got to say is WOW!
I didn't know what to expect when we decided to visit family in Dubai, I had no idea what is was going to be like, but assumed for some reason it was going to be similiar to India.
~~The Journey~~
We flew with Emirates, and the jounrny took about six hours from London Heathrow Airport. I was really looking forward to it.
We arrived at Dubai Airport and my excitement grew....we got off the plane and made our way down to arrivals to meet our family.
~~The Airport~~
I was astonished! The airport itself is a treat...so beautiful, there were so many shops in dutyfree, gold, clothes and electricals all really cheap! We thought we would buy a few things on our way back.
We met our family and started to load our luggage in the car. Then off we went down to their home.
I
was really astonished, for some reason I was expecting to see what I had seen in India a few years back, I don't know why really, but for some reason I assumed Dubai was a developing country and was quite poor, so was half expecting to see homeless people on the streets...boy was I wrong, on our journey way down to my uncle's home, the scenery was so modern! Beautiful buildings, the architecture, the cleaniness of it all.
~~Places to visit~~
There is so much you can do in Dubai, and very easy to get to, apparently there is a saying that everything is only 20 minutes away from the airport.
-Sightseeing-
Our first night we decided to go sightseeing, there are so many beautiful buildings and places to visit in Dubai that I was breath taken. We saw the emirates towers, which was a relatively new building, used as a hotel and the Burg Al Arab, which is a seven star hotel. God, this building is soooo beautiful, I know I keep saying beautiful but there is no other words to describe it! The Burg Al Arab is a hotel which rises out of the blue waters of the arabian gulf sea and resides on the coast of Jumeriah Beach, and at night, the whole building glitters!
We also drove down something refered to as the Arabic version of Beverly Hills in America, this is where all the rich people live with their palaces, you can also drive past Sheikh Saeed's House who is a very influencial arabic ruler.
You can also visit some of Dubai finest Mosques, the most famous, Jumeriah Mosque which is a spectacular example of islamic architecture, very modern!
~~Other places to visit~~
We also visited, 'Wonderland' which is a themepark. We had so much fun here, very modern, very much like the rides we get in Thorpe Park or Alton Towers in the UK. This was the first time I have ever been go karting, which was brill! The entrance tickets didn't cost too much, about £15 per person.
You can also visit really lovely parks and gardens, have picnics, or laze about! The largest of the city’s parks are Jumeirah Beach Park, Dubai Creekside Park, Mushrif Park, Al Mamzar Park and Safa Park.
-Dubai Museum-
A really nice place to visit is the Dubai Museum, built around 1799, it has served variously as a palace, garrison and prison. It was renovated in 1970 for use as a museum, one of the most spectacular exhibits is the underwater world of pearl-diving. Also on display are artefacts such as fine copper, alabaster and pottery objects found in 3,000–4,000 year-old graves at Al Ghusais.
-Dubai Zoo-
If you visit Dubai with a young family, then there are so many places to visit so that kids can have fun too, one place that is very popular is Dubai Zoo which is situated in Jumeriah.
-Jet Sking-
This was the most thrilling experience of my life! Jet Sking was excellent! There are also many other watersports you can do, and there are professionals that look after you so don't worry if you havn't done it before!
-Dune Bashing-
Now this is one of the famous things to do when you visit Dubai, you basically get into a huge monster truck and go into the desert and go dune bashing! Really good fun, and then at night you can have a BBQ around a fire and belly dancers providing entertainment in the desert.
-Shopping-
Now, this is my favourite pastime, the first place we went was to Meena Bazar, this is where you can buy gold, electricals and also visit the tailors to get traditional clothing made for yourself.
You can also visit shopping malls, there are so many the most popular are, BurJuman Centre, Lamcy Plaza, Al Dhiyafa Centre, Karama Centre, Al Rais Shopping Mall, Dune Centre, Al Hana Centre, Al Khaleej Centre and Holiday Centre.
Don't forget to haggle, this is the most fun and traditional way of buying things from dubai and get a real good bargain, whether it be electrical, gold or clothes.
The malls are very modern looking, and have many western shops like, Morgon, Next and also designer shops, such as Channel, Gucci, and D&G and all shops have Air Conditioning, thank god!
I personally found that the designer stuff not that cheap compared to London, so didn't buy much. But eastern goods like jewellery and traditional asian clothes are much cheaper in Dubai then London.
-Weather-
We travelled in July, so it was very hot, I wouldn't recommend it, it was about 45-50C, which is too hot to do much. We travelled mostly at night. I would recommend December - March to visit as the weather is much more bearable.
-Food-
The food I found was very yummy, we had traditional arabic food, which consisted of kebabs, naan, lots of salads and pickles. There are also KFCs, Pizza Huts and MacDonalds, so don't worry if you don't like arabic food!
I could write so much about Dubai, but dont want to bore all you, and also it's up to you to book that plane ticket and take a look yourself!
-Nightlife-
Dubai is a strict muslim country so you won't find many clubs, but there are a few that you need to hunt around for, alcohol is not freely served in most places.
Sounds like you had a hot stay in Dubai :-) I went there in March and the weather was more or less perfect at that time. Dubai is a place I would like to go back to because it seems like they are constantly working on making new attractions there. Regards Gard
worm1976 28.07.2005 17:05
I have been dithering about going and now i want to go more than ever. I liked the end comment to this review, all reviews (about travel) should say this "Now its up to you to book your ticket and go!"
busibee83 28.09.2004 09:26
I've been to Dubai many times, and you've made an brilliant job of reviewing the place, i cant think of much more you missed out !!
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Advantages: Dubai is a safe place with very good quality of life. There is universal brotherhood everywhere. Disadvantages: None for me, but the hot weather for tourists who are not used to this.
Advantages: Clean, safe, sophisticated, very friendly, modern, shopping! Offers the best of East and West Disadvantages: None (At present I really cant think of any..just hope too much tourism doesn’t kill the place in 10 years time!)
Connoisseur_Haggler 05.02.2002 (05.02.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Dubai (United Arab Emirates)
Advantages: A Bustling Nightlife, Very cheap Shopping with a huge array of different popular retail stores, Beautiful Hotels, Beautiful Beaches, Pleasant weather between October and April, Brilliant service in restaurants across the board, Lots to do Disadvantages: Alcohol is generally quite expensive, Ramadan (holy month of ramadan means that you must not eat or drink in public during the day)
Advantages: Dubai is a safe place with very good quality of life. There is universal brotherhood everywhere. Disadvantages: None for me, but the hot weather for tourists who are not used to this.
Advantages: Located on Jumeriah Beach, comfortable, relaxed and friendly atmosphere, SUPERB VALUE for money and quality for a 4 star hotel Disadvantages: none really - if you get a sea view room
Connoisseur_Haggler 30.04.2002 (18.12.2004)
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Review of Oasis Beach Hotel, Dubai
Jun 9th, 2004
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