So here we are in Dubai. It’s full of skyscrapers of all kinds, shapes and sizes, amazing cars, Muslim women dressed in black and men dressed in white. Beaches, sun, hot weather and omnipresent pressure to look trendy – it’s all in the seaside district of Marina. There’s even more – palm islands, highest buildings in the world and a summer in the middle of winter. Lots of restaurants offering meals from all over the world, cosmopolitism instead of regionalism, luxury and splendour. These are my first impressions. Written on the spot. Now I’m going to elaborate on it a little bit 🙂
cosmic panorama of Dubai as seen from Palm Jumeirah
Burj Al Arab, one of Dubai landmarks
We stayed Dubai for 4 days. First thing – if you’re travelling with a child, keep it in mind that you will have absolutely no time for yourselves because of the time zone changes. We thought that 3 hours is not much of a change, but Maks lives according to Polish clock and every day he went to sleep at midnight or even later! That means no rest for the mother and for the father as well. You can’t sleep until 12 or 1 pm every day on a 4-day trip!
Apart from that, Dubai is a great place for children. Restaurants usually have high chairs and kids meals, and the attitude of the service is positive. The beaches, streets and hotels are also child-friendly – spacious, clean and tidy.
the beach!!!!!!!!!
second favourite place (after the beach) in Dubai — stairs and a platform to run on 😉
There’s also plenty of attractions for older kids – aqua parks, large playrooms, etc. Our little one couldn’t become a tester yet, unfortunately!
The only problem is the so called happy hours – in our hotel there was a possibility to get a little snack (fruits or bits of cheese) and have a free drink between 6 and 8 pm. However, the local law says that children can’t be present in such establishment at that time, so we had to sneak out with the snacks and eat them in our room 😉
What is there to see in Dubai? All those weird architecture pieces, that Dubai is famous for, are surely worth seeing. What I wanted to see, was the highest building Burj Chalifa, a sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, ski slope in the shopping centre and obviously the palm-shaped island.
We decided to go and see Mall of the Emirates on our first day. It’s a giant shopping centre, where you can go skiing despite 30 degrees heat outside. At first I didn’t really believe our guide stating that it’s impossible to move by feet in Dubai. But it’s true… it’s completely impossible. And it’s not because of the distance – you know, we like to walk. It’s because once in a while, the pavement suddenly ends and you have to walk in the sand. That’s quite difficult, especially when you’re pushing a pram. What other transportation options are there? The subway (we haven’t tried it as we would have to take a taxi to get to the station), buses (the guide says that only workers use it – what a weird place;)) and taxis. The latter option seemed the most appropriate – the taxis were cheaper than in Poland and could get you anywhere. And most of the attractions are quite far from each other.
That’s how we got to the Mall of the Emirates…
Ski Dubai — skiing in the desert
You can’t see the whole slope in the picture, but after escaping our winter we were not really into paying for skiing here. So we looked from the outside. It was quite surreal to see kids throwing snowballs, skiers and a ski lift behind the window and people in shorts outside at the same time. What makes it even more surreal are the very ski costumes, which you can rent if you decide to go skiing here. Really weird 🙂
Not far from the Mall of the Emirates, there’s Burj Al Arab (aka. Arabic Tower) – a famous sails-shaped hotel built on an artificial island, one of Dubai landmarks, and until recently – the highest hotel in the world (321 m). It’s surely a great place to stay for those who need space. The smallest apartment is supposedly 170 sq. m and the biggest one — 780 sq. m!
Burj Al Arab seen from Marina beach
Burj al Arab looks even better at night, so we went for a “dinner with a view” to Beachcombers restaurant located next to it, in Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Burj Al Arab looks great from there and a dinner in a form of an open buffet, consisting of various Asian dishes was a great culinary experience.
cosmic Dubai
Jumeirah Beach Hotel
a mix of Asian flavours
Beachcombers is also a great idea for those travelling with kids. Not only because of the food and view but also because of a separate buffet dedicated to children, and a playroom. Regardless of the Jumeirah Beach hotel high standards, the playroom is not in best condition, with dirty tables, broken crayons and old teddy bears. Maks didn’t care about that, though 😉
After dinner, we took a taxi trip around Palm Jumeirah. The core of the palm is made mostly from apartment houses while the “leaves” are covered with villas with their own private beaches. Around the palm, there are more giant hotels i.e. Atlantis, another Dubai’s landmark. We didn’t get to see the “palm” from above, but our hotel room situated on 24th floor offered good view and we saw a part of it. It looked stunning!
Palm Jumeirah with Atlantis hotel in the background
stunning hotels on the island
In the first picture you could actually see some of the “leaves”. A trip through the palm is great for one more reason – magnificent views of Marina district:
Marina by night
the big world
We chose Marina as our “base” and it was a great idea. It’s a good place to stay as the hotels are situated on the beach, or “almost on the beach” (there are many new buildings being constructed close to the sea) so you can go swimming during the day (fun for the little one!) and eat dinner in one of the restaurants on The Walk promenade in the evening – it’s safe to go for a walk here and the taxi is not necessary.
Where to eat on The Walk? Try Barbecue Delights for a delicious Indian, Afghan and Pakistani buffet. You can eat plenty of chicken tikka, butter chicken, naans, biryani, Indian sweets and other foods for a reasonable price. Turkish Kosebasi is also a great idea. I also realised that it’s a chain of restaurants to be found in Turkey and some other places in the world, so it’s well worth remembering! The food was delicious!
Turkish starters
yummy!
selection of grilled meat with bulgur
marvellous kunefe
After eating and walking around a little bit, you will notice that The Walk is a perfect place to see what’s trendy in Dubai. Muslim women wearing Louis Vuitton bags, amazing cars driving by and a traffic jam that lasts until 3 am! Why? When we saw this car for the second time during our walk we understood, that the cars are not to be used as basic means of transport but rather as a way of showing off 🙂
fancy cars
fancy clothes 😉
When you get bored by this posh and trendy world, you can travel a little bit further and visit Bur Dubai, an old district in Dubai. You could see “ordinary” people there, the Museum of Dubai, a little bazaar similar to the one in Istanbul and most of all – old wooden boats sailing between Bur Dubai and Deira for less than PLN 1.
let’s go!
romantic Dubai
tradition and modern age
the locals
The boats were cool, the views too, but generally we were a bit disappointed with Bur Dubai. Maybe that’s because we had bigger expectations after seeing the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. The one here was just one street with w few shops and lots of shouting salesmen. There’s something to eat in the neighbourhood as well. Karachi Darbar for instance. It’s a traditional place with Indian, Pakistani and Chinese food. If you like the restaurant to be clean, don’t bother coming here. Łukasz warned me not to go to the bathroom before the meal. And believe me, he’s not exactly a cleanliness freak 😉 If you travel with a child or don’t like spicy food – be careful! Don’t get fooled that fish biryani is just “rice with fish”. Maks was really into it but after tasting it once he only said: “spicy!” and that was it. So it was another meal for us to finish off 🙂
waiting for Indian specialties
delicious India and devine Pakistan on a plate
After three days of looking at the glass skyscrapers, taxis and trendy people we got a bit tired and decided to spend the last day out of town. Soon, I’ll write more about it. I’ll tell you a bit about the most amazing premium Vietnamese culinary experience. An absolute must for every fan of Asian cuisine visiting Dubai.
In the meantime check out another Dubai landmark – Burj Chalifa – the highest land construction ever built. The highest skyscraper in the world…
Burj Chalifa
The picture was taken from a driving car and it doesn’t look that amazing. It’s quite stunning when seen live 🙂
PS. one practical advice. Fly with Emirates. If you’re quick, you might find some good prices for a flight to Dubai. We got our tickets for PLN 1400 return, direct flight. The service is great, the food delicious and kids get lots of gifts. They also really care about good opinion. “Can I invite you to the front, you will be much more comfortable there”. That’s how they moved us to business class!
Here’s Maks travelling VIP style:
luxurious!
PS2. justice took its course during our flight back 🙂 All seats were taken, and Maks didn’t get his own. Also, there was a month old baby next to us and a queue to the toilet 😉 But the flight attendants still looked after the littlest passengers, there were gifts and souvenir Polaroid photos 🙂
PS3. don’t forget about the visa. If you fly with Emirates, they will arrange everything. You just have to deliver the documents, scan them and set the format. All can be done via phone and e-mail. It costs around PLN 300-350 per person.
PS4. I was worried that the stamps in our passports that we got in Israel might be problematic but despite the advice of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a warning in our guide we got through the border with no problems at all 🙂 That’s it for today…
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