Hotels in Dubai

Went to attend my daughters graduation from the Emirates Cabin Crew Training College, and to spend Christmas with her. The weather in December is very good. Almost like an English summer. Warm during the day, cooler in the evenings. It did rain on one day, but didn't last long. It kept the dust down as there is always ongoing construction works. On Christmas day we ate at the Westin Hotel. The Bubbaliscious brunch. Very enjoyable with a table of seven. Food was excellent and loads of it. Good for people watching as everyone got dressed up. Jugglers and entertainers did the rounds. Good music, not too loud. All together a nice, if different Christmas. They even had turkey and sprouts! Champaign glasses were kept topped up by very attentive waiters. Plates cleared away quickly. We had a great time. Visited Kite Beach, near Jumeirah. Adequate and clean public toilets, funny tube like changing cubicles on the beach for men and women. Assortment of food outlets/cafe's. Difficulty finding a taxi to get you back to your hotel. Must walk to the main road and flag one down. Difficult during rush hour and workers change over times. Dubai is expensive. Driving is an experience! Locals don't give an inch and roads are confusing. Sat Nav a must. Remember to see the fountain display on the lake near the Burj Khalifa. It happens every half hour when it gets dark...and it's free. Get there early as it gets very crowded. When arriving/departing the immigration procedure is lengthy. The officials seem to treat you with disdain and they usually talk amongst themselves. Beckoning you forward when it suits them. They don't seem to care about the length of the queues. It took us 45 mins to get through on departure at T1 in Dubai. Arriving at Heathrow...it took us 10-15 mins. Not a very good welcome/goodbye to Dubai. They need to speed the process up and be a bit more friendly, like the hotel staff.

I visited with family including young children. We visited almost all big shopping malls but me and my family was most impressed by the unique interior design theme of Ibn Battuta Shopping Mall. Ice skiing at Mall of Emirates; Ice Rink, Water Fall, KidZenia, Aquarium and Fountain show after sunset at Dubai Mall; Fabulous Pakistani and Chinese stalls in open air Global Village; Jumeira Beach in the afternoon; Dubai Safari in the evening; Miracle Garden in evening, At the Top 124th floor of Burj Khalifa around sunset and Sea cruise in night are recommended to have the most enjoyable and memorable trip to Dubai. One full day from 11:00AM till 6:00PM at Ferrari World and 7:00PM to 9:00PM @Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. We also enjoyed tasty Chinese food at pF Chang at Dubai Mall with Famous Fountain Show. Pakistani delicious food at Barbecue Delight in Downtown near Burj Khalifa and Al-Saudi Al-Yemeni Mutton Mandi and Madfun near Emirates Office in Bur Dubai and B&B (Bat & Ball) Restaurant serving oriental and Barbecue Pakistani cuisine in Bur Dubai near Lamcey are recommended to dine at. For tea lovers Filli is a must experience especially near Mamzar Park. It's very easy to move around in Dubai if you book a hotel near Metro 🚇 station, as majority places are reachable from Skeikh Zayed Highway through Metro after 10:00AM. Taxis easily available but expensive and time consuming for 6+ Km journeys in evening or night. Metro 🚇 is also best to reach to Deira and Bur Dubai area. Dubai is best for Gold, Pearl and Dimond shopping and if not experienced then should prefer branded shops like Damas, Malbar, Pure Gold etc. A trip plan of at least 10 days from November till February is the best one could enjoy to Dubai.

Dubai is very clean and organized. We loved how the traffic wasn't bad in comparison with other GCC countries through out our stay. We loved the free WiFi in most of the malls. Burj Khalifa is amazing, Dubai Mall is enormous! Our favorite place with the Dubai Miracle Garden; it is just amazing! Our favorite restaurant is Texas Road House (Dubai Mall); the service is perfect! and the food is very delicious :) We loved the Creekside Park and the Dolphinarium show was really nice for families to attend. we've also been to Abu Dhabi and visited Ferrari World; it has the fastest roller coaster in the world!! (240 Km/hr) it was an amazing experience. Dubai's best time to visit is between November and March; the weather is just amazing. We've been to Dubai Outlet Mall which had very nice prices for a lot of brands; totally recommended for shopping! We hated how far things are through out Dubai. It always 30-40 minute drive from a location to another; if you plan to take the metro then plan for 1 hour- 1 hr 30 mins for each trip as the metro is a bit slow and has too many stops. We weren't impressed by the Dubai Mall Aquarium; we've seen better in Malaysia (not worth the money). Dubai is a very nice place to go to; but its all human-made. If you're natural sight-seeing lover then Dubai is not your place as you won't find many.

We stayed in Dubai for a week over New Year. The overall atmosphere in Dubai during the festive season was amazing. We were staying right next to the Dubai Mall in downtown Dubai. We visited the Dubai Mall most days as our hotel offered a free shuttle bus. From there, you can access the metro and go anywhere you want to go. We took the metro to the Marina one evening and had dinner at a nice Chinese Restaurant beside the water. The marina area has a real buzz about it with plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from. I can also recommend a great seafood restaurant called Aprons and Hammers at the marina. It's a crab shack situated onboard a traditional dhow. The food was amazing and the service was typically excellent. We had planned to take a trip up the Burj Khalifa and had booked and paid for the tickets (this is essential as its always fully booked) but sadly it rained on the day and the top of the Burj Khalifa was obscured by clouds so we had to cancel. Its worth noting that they offer no refunds or exchanges!!! The dancing fountains at the Dubai Mall are worth seeing. We saw it while eating a very nice dinner at a Lebanese restaurant on the waterside. We are planning to return to Dubai with the kids in February and will stay at the Palm on Jumeira Beach. We will take them to the water park there and hopefully to swim with the dolphins at the Palm Atlantis Hotel.

Stayed in dubai from 22nd jan 2016 to 26 jan. Took accommodation in sun and sands downtown. 1) Make sure your hotel is very close to metro. This wil save some expenses. 2) Buy NOL card once and recharge it every time needed. Do not take NOL card every time. I mean don't forget it at room or don't lose it. 2 dihrams extra if u take card every time. 3) buy water bottles from near by super markets or shops. dont buy in hotel or malls. in hotel it is 6 dirhams, in malls it could go to 15dirhams based on brand of bottle. Outside it will cost only 1.5dirhams. carry water where ever u go. 4) plan properly. take bus or metro but not taxi. taxi is expensive and meter will be running even at red signal and every signal stop would take 5mins atleast. 5) Desert safari is must in the package. 6) when u take hop-on-hop-off. plan very well. buses won't ply in the mornings to magical garden and global village. 7) dhow cruise given by hop-on-hop-off pkg has its own timings and buffet not included. If u plan to take dhow cruise with dinner book it separately. taking both is not worth. 8) wild wadi park and aqua-venture parks are expensive. see if u get package. 9) Book a package with travel agency. If u try booking every thing on ur own inclusive flights, it wil be very much expensive. 10) shopping in malls is expensive. better shop outside. you can bargain including gold. 11) Dressing in dubai not strict. modest dressing is preferred. ladies can even wear 3/4ths, sleeve-less, tight dress. 12) prepare yourself to walk a lot.

I'm sure this won't be the case for everyone but Dubai seems an exercise in incompetence from the tour company for my desert safari messed up two days straight resulting in no tour to the crowd control after the new years eve fireworks which was silly, if you've got temporary fences which they did use them to make a queue not just close of the really wide street with one small gap in the middle. Even more silly was that this is what the train station within sight had actually done but the police in the street couldn't reproduce this. If your there to shop the malls are huge though they are full of stuff you find at home - couldn't say if the prices are better since this wasn't why I was here. I think you'd be better off visiting the markets (souks) outside the malls for more interesting buys thou if doing so be prepared to haggle or at least make an offer well under the asking price and stick to it, getting something for 1/3 to 1/4 of the original asking price was not uncommon. Likewise food prices and high and servings smaller in the more tourist locations compared to taking a short train ride to somewhere like Baniyas Square or the Union Hub station and then taking a walk around. Public transport is excellent trains run every 5 minutes like clockwork signs and announcements are in both Arabic and English making getting around on the public transport easy. If I was to go back I'd pay a little more and book a tour through a booking company that way when things go wrong they can do the chasing to get a me a new tour with someone else rather than doing it myself. Overall Dubai was interesting and worth the visit particularly if everything had gone right however my visit was marred by disappointment.