Dubai
Where tradition meets futuristic innovation
Our Dubai Experience
We are documenting our Dubai travel here. A lot of Dubai itineraries are already available on the internet so instead of giving our day to day plan we will be talking about our Dubai experience in general.
When We Visited & What the Weather was Like
We travelled to Dubai in the mid of October for 11 days and the weather was a bit hot in the afternoons. The weather in the mornings and evening was nice and pleasant. For us the most incredible part was going around the city like a local. We always opted for metros / buses over cabs and that really made us feel like a part of the city.
Getting Around Dubai
Public Transport
We mostly covered all of Dubai just by local transport. We took one or two cabs in our entire 11 days. We predominantly got around the city via metros, but we also took the bus, mono rail and abra rides. Getting around Dubai using just metros was quite easy as all the attractions are very well connected via metro.
NOL Card System
Dubai has something called a NOL card. All one needs to do is get a NOL card in Dubai (which is easily available on any metro station) and load it. The entire metro network is divided in zones and how much will you get charged will depend on where you enter the netro station and where you exit. What is even more amazing is that you can use the same NOL card in buses and it works in exactly the same way. As you enter the bus you need to tap your card and then tap your card while exiting the bus and it's done! The same NOL card can be used for payment in tram, cabs and Abra rides as well.
Where We Stayed
As we had planned to travel in Dubai by metros mostly, we got all our accomodations close to a metro station (200-300m) from a metro station.
Orchid Hotel Al Barsha
- • Just 350m from Mashreq metro station
- • Clean and decently priced
- • Good breakfast every morning
- • Stayed here for 3 days
- • No issues during our stay
George Hotel by Saffron
- • Only 400m from Al Ras metro station
- • Clean and well maintained
- • Decent breakfast options
- • Stayed here for 4 days
- • No issues during check-out (despite some bad reviews)
Places We Visited
5-Star Experiences
JBR Walk
JBR walk - It is a an upscale neighbourhood in Dubai which is about a 2km strip where people can walk around and eat in cafes. It is an amazing place to aimlessly stroll, rent cycles and cycle around and just chill without an agenda. We spent a few hours here and had a lot of fun. We also planned to return on another day but sadly could not. If we go to Dubai again, we are definitelt spending a lot of time here!
Dhow Cruise Dinner
The Dhow cruise was amazing! We spent two hours sailing through Dubai Marina, watching all the skyscrapers light up at night. The food was great, and the music made it even better. It was such a fun evening!
Pro Tip: Make sure to book the upper deck tickets - they're open-air and give you the best views. The lower deck is usually the default option but isn't as good.
Kite Beach
We went to the kite beach in the morning and surprisingly it was not over crowded. The beach has clean shores, clear waters and stunning view of the Burj Al Arab. We spent hours walking in the clean waters and just chilling and relaxing on the beach.
Getting There: 4 minute walk from Orchid Al Barsha to Insurance Market Metro Bus stop. Get off at Manara Enoc 2 bus stop and walk to the beach.
Burj Khalifa
The tallest building in the world is totally worth the hype! We visited Burj Khalifa in the morning and took the high speed elevator to the 124th floor and reached the 124th floor in about a minute. The 124th and 125th floor give an amazing view of the city and it was almost difficult to believe how up we were! We spent hours here taking in the views of the Sheikh Zayad road, watching the metros go by. The entire area is full of high rises and yet the Burj Khalifa makes every single building there look tiny. It a am experience one must not miss when in Dubai.
Getting There: 4 minute walk from the George hotel by Saffron to Al Ras Metro station. Change from Green line to red line at Burjuman metro station and ride to Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall metro station. A covered walkway of about 700m to the Dubai mall.
Dubai Fountain Show
The Dubai Fountain Show happens within Dubai Mall, right outside in the lake near the mall. It is absolutely breathtaking and is a must-watch. There Is a Fountain Show every half an hour starting at 7 pm in Dubai Mall. during the fountain show, even all of Burj Khalifa will light up. This is mind-blowing, and we went and watched the fountain show four times in our trip.
Getting There: This is inside Dubai Mall itself. The easiest way to reach there is getting off at Dubai Mall Metro Station.
Global Village
Global Village was absolutely magical. It is one of those places where we ended up getting so exhausted from all the walking around and all the things to see that we weren't able to complete the entire space. There were individual country stalls for more than 30 countries in Global Village. We had so much fun exploring each of the stalls, eating random samples of food from each country, viewing the souvenirs, crockery, and exhibits in each country. We entered Global Village at about 5:00 pm or so and we were there all the way until 12:00 am.
Getting there: We went from Miracle Garden directly to Global Village and we took a cab. Global village is quite far away from the city and if you are to reach global village on your own you can get a bus there. While leaving we got the last bus back from Global Village back towards Bur Dubai at 1 am.
Spice Souk
Spice Souk was so much fun! In Spice Souk, you get all forms of spices, of course, but also dry fruits, fruits, souvenirs. The shopkeepers allow you to taste all their products. We went there three times because it was just so much fun to walk around that place. After a point, the shopkeepers stopped calling us because they recognized us! Highly recommend going to Spice Souk.
Getting there: This is very easily accessible if you are in Burj Dubai. You can just walk directly from Al Ras Metro Station.
4-Star Experiences
View at the Palm
We took the monorail to get here and timed it perfectly for sunset. From the 52nd floor, we got amazing views of the Palm and Atlantis. When the sun went down, all the buildings lit up - it was pretty magical!
Desert Safari
Our desert adventure started at 2:30 PM when they picked us up from our hotel. After a two-hour drive (about 100 km), we reached the Hamdan Desert Safari camp. While some people did camel rides and ATV rides, we waited for the main event - dune bashing! We got strapped into a 4x4 and had an exciting 15-20 minute ride over the dunes. After that, we took pictures, tried sandboarding, and headed back to the camp for dinner. The evening ended with a fire show, belly dancing, and a cool Tanoura dance performance.
Gold Souk
Gold Souk was a real sight. Never had we ever seen such mannequins wearing lots of gold jewelry all out there available straight on the road without any security. It was very fascinating to see how much jewelry people and tourists were buying. The area was filled with Indians buying jewelry.
Getting there: directly walkable from Gold Souk metro station itself. We walked from our hotel George Saffron because again it was only about 800 meters.
Sky View Dubai
The Sky View Dubai is one of the few publicly accessible buildings which gives you a view of the Burj Khalifa from a height. It was beautiful, and we got very nice views of the entire city from the Sky Observatory. The other great fun part of the Sky View is a glass slide which enables you to slide from the 53rd floor to the 52nd floor - This can be quite scary, but we had a lot of fun. The Sky Observatory is very skippable if You aren't an absolute nerd when it comes to city views - if you have already gone all the way up to the Burj Khalifa and seen the Dubai skyline from the top there, Then you don't really need to do the Sky Observatory. There is also an edge walk on the Sky Observatory where you can actually walk on the edge of the building in open air with a harness. We did not do this, but a lot of people did.
Getting there: Very easily accessible - directly get off at Burj Khalifa metro station (5-minute walk from there).
Museum of Illusions
This interactive museum was a fun experience with various optical illusions, holograms, and mind-bending installations. We spent about two hours exploring all the different rooms and taking lots of photos. Our favorites were the infinity room with its endless reflections and the gravity-defying room where everything appears tilted. It's a smaller attraction compared to others in Dubai, but it provides some unique photo opportunities and a nice break from the heat.
Getting There: Located in Al Seef, it's easily accessible by taking the red line to Al Fahidi Metro Station and then a short walk to the waterfront area.
3.5-Star Experiences
Museum of the Future
The building itself is super cool - you've got to see it both during the day and at night! While the museum inside was a bit disappointing, we really liked the DNA species display. The terrace was great too - we got some awesome views of Sheikh Zayed Road.
Important: You can't take backpacks inside, but they have a safe place to leave them on the ground floor.
Getting There: Take the red line to Emirates Tower Station - there's a covered walkway right to the museum.
Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo
Dubai Aquarium is inside Dubai Mall itself. We spent about three hours in Dubai Aquarium, and it was very fascinating. There were a lot of different variants of water creatures in Dubai Aquarium, ranging from these pretty beautiful fish to large crocodiles. The crocodile in Dubai aquarium is over 5 meters long and weighs 750 kgs, it's absolutely massive. There also is a Penguin Cove in Dubai Aquarium. There are also desert animals within Dubai Aquarium in a dry section. That was also very interesting.
Getting There: This is inside Dubai Mall itself. The easiest way to reach there is just getting off at the Dubai Mall Metro Station.
3-Star Experiences
Mall of the Emirates
This is the mall with the famous Ski Dubai inside. Though we did not go inside, we could see people playing in snow and doing snow rides from the outside. The mall itself is quite huge with a lot of jewellery shops and high end shops. Totally skipable if one does not want to do Ski Dubai or shop in one of these super high-end shops.
Getting There: Take the red line to Mall of the Emirates Station - there's a covered walkway right to the mall.
Miracle Garden
Miracle Garden is a giant garden outside Dubai city. It is closer to Global Village than the city itself, so it makes sense to do Miracle Garden and Global Village on the same day. It is large, beautiful, funky, and very, very well maintained. there is a large Emirates plane inside. We spent about three hours here.
Getting there: This is quite far away from Dubai. We took a bus to Miracle Garden - This was bus F36 which is available from Mall of the Emirates station. We took our train from Al Ras Metro Station all the way to Mall of the Emirates, and then we took the bus from there. It was about a 45-minute bus ride from Mall of the Emirates.
Dubai Frame
We visited the Dubai Frame in the evening. It's a big frame-shaped building, and we went up to the 48th floor for city views. It was a bit hazy when we were there, so we didn't get the best views. Overall an okay experience, however entirely skipable if going to Burj Khalifa.
Getting There: In all the attractions in Dubai, getting to Dubai by public transport was the most difficult. It is not well connected by metro or bus and getting a cab might be the best idea.