The Best of Dubai: A review of all that we did and liked the most

At the end of last year, my wife (May) and I each listed our top 5 favorite places to go in the whole world and the idea was to travel to only places that were on our list. For May, Dubai was in the first and when planning this year’s big travel, Dubai was one of the best options for the year so we decided to go.

We went at the beginning of the month of May, which is already getting very hot in Dubai as the summer is approaching. In theory, it is better to go before as the weather is milder and it is better to enjoy it, but we had an anniversary that we wanted to celebrate there.

Dubai is an incredible city, it is amazing to see how everything was built so fast and so big. It is really amazing that they built Burj Khalifa and the Palm Jumeirah in around 6 years. It is good to see what humans are capable of achieving (giving enough resources and motivation).

Major things about Dubai

It was a memorable trip in many aspects, especially for May as it was her top place to go in the whole world. I will try to summarize a bit of the most important aspects for someone who wishes or is planning to go there.

Camels

As I mentioned in the post, “Dubai Desert Safari: Is it worth it?”, camels were one of the main things that we wanted to see. They are really common if you go outside the city. We saw and rode one in our Desert Safari, and also in The Camel Farm.

The Camel Farm was the best place as we got an animal feeding tour and were able to feed the camels and also to be close to them. Despite people warning us that they smelled bad, we didn’t feel much as the places that we got close to them they were showered.

The Camel Farm

For sure one of the best service experiences that we had in Dubai was in the Camel Farm. We got the “Admission with Tour Guide and Animal Feeding” for the first time available (9 AM) and our tour guide Samson was really amazing! We were the only ones at that time so we went animal by animal feeding and having fun knowing more about them.

The Farm is not big, but it is really nice! We saw many animals and the best of all was our experience feeding the birds and mostly the camels. They had many camels and we could really touch them and be close with them. We had lots of fun and really recommend this activity.

We also rested in the tent and drank a arabica coffee and rested there. We also did the “Short Camel Ride in the Farm” and it was nice, it was only one each and it was a good experience.

Burj Khalifa

Burj Khalifa is amazing and impressive. We went to see it many times during the day and also at night. During the night it has some light show and a whole side lights up with its impressive LED panel.

When you think about going up in the paid floors, you basically have two options, the top which is “At the Top” which is the 124 and 125 floor, and “At The Top Sky” which is 148. The price difference is huge and we thought that the 124 and 125 were enough for us and it really was. There were not so many people and we were able to see everything. We waited close to the sunset so we saw it during the day and also during the night.

Dubai Fountain

Right in front of Burj Khalifa, we have the Dubai Fountain, and the water shows are amazing. We watched many and some of them also have the led shows in Burj Khalifa.

It is amazing that human beings have the potential to create great things. Especially when the budget is not a big constraint.

Desert dunes

The best view of the desert dunes that we had was during the Desert Safari because the car went a lot in the middle of the desert. Most of the desert around has a lot of bushes and does not have dunes like the stereotypical desert that we wanted.

There was one place that was recommended to us by a friend’s friend, and we were able to see dunes without the need to go inside the desert. This is the location in case you want. Unless you have a 4x4, We recommend leaving the car on the side of the road and going walking.

Desert Safari

We went on a Desert Safari tour and as it was one of the main things, I created the post Dubai Desert Safari: Is it worth it? where you can find more about it.

Parking

Parking was free in all the malls that we went to. In the city, there’s paid parking and you can pay via WhatsApp. We sent a chat message to the RTA bot with the parking number and it charged us from a preloaded account that we paid with a credit card. We tried to use the App but it required phone number validation via SMS which I didn’t have access to.

Alcohol

Buying alcohol in Dubai is a bit challenging as there are only a few stores that sell it. We went to an MMI store and had to create an ID to be able to buy alcohol. we only bought Heineken and paid 8 DHS for a pint (473 ml). We went on another called African + Eastern but the prices were higher (same 8 DHS but for a 330 ml Heineken).

It is funny that the stores are usually kind of hidden and the only outside thing they have is the store logo, but no glass windows showing inside or anything showing.

Mobile data

We bought in Nomad for 5G 5GB for 18 CAD each. It was enough for us for 8 days. The one that I was using Google Maps on the car was the one that used the most data and almost used all the data.

It was our first time using a travel SIM and it was really easy as we used an eSIM, so we just bought it online, scanned the QR code, and activated it when we got there, very very easy.

Local clothing

We wanted to have some local clothing to look like the locals and also to use in the Mosque. We bought our clothing on Carrefour. I paid around 110 AED for the whole thing (Agal, Ghuthra, Kandura, Sawal)

Beach

We went to Jumeirah Beach which was close to Dubai Canal and it was not that good. We tried another one but was not as good as the Jumeirah Beach which is closer to Burj Al Arab. It had clean water, a good patch of sand, and also a public restroom nearby. It was also easy to park.

We went very early (around 6 AM) and stayed until around 10 AM and left before the UV got too high.

Supermarket

We went to two big supermarket chains, one was Carrefour and the other was Lulu. The ones that we went to were very conveniently located at shopping malls.

We like to save during travel, so we use a lot of the supermarket’s ready-to-eat food. Both are nice, but Lulu had a place to eat inside (the cafeteria) so we could have lunch there.

Hotel

When looking for hotels we were trying to find a good hotel with a good price that was not very far away from the Burj Khalifa and the main attractions. Also, at that time we were not considering renting a car. The best cost-benefit option that we found was the Rove City Walk and it turned out to be an excellent choice. The hotel is great. It has a gym (that we didn’t use), a pool with a view to the Burj Khalifa (that we definitely used) and it is around 25 minutes walking to Burj Khalifa.

The room was really clean and beautiful with a very comfortable bed. It had a minibar, an electric kettle but lacked a microwave. We had a view but was on the opposite side of Burj Khalifa.

The View at the Palm

We were not planning to go to The View at the Palm but when we visited The Palm Jumeirah we decided it was worth taking a look from the view and it was really nice. It is not a very high point (compared to Burj Khalifa), but we could have a view of all the Palm.

Also, we liked a lot the interactive history of the building of the palm that we had before goint to the top of the view. It was really nice to learn more about how this amazing structure was built.

Paying for things

Almost all places accept credit cards. Only one or two only accepted cash. For the credit card, I used the Wise Credit Card to save on the conversion rate. I preloaded an account in AED and when paying, Wise got the money from that account.

Cash

For cash, I withdrew money from an ATM at the airport. I used the Wise Credit Card and the ATM fee was only 1.06 AED

Car rental

When looking for a car rental, there are a lot of options. Most of them are very well-known brands like Enterprise, Alamo, Hertz, etc and they also have some that look local.

I didn’t want to risk so I booked Enterprise in advance. We got a mid-size SUV and the actual car was a JAC S3. The car was brand new (only 6k km) and it was in good condition. It had CarPlay but only used the cable. It was a good car but not a car to go in the sand. It easily got stuck when we went to the side of the road where it had sand.

Tolls

The city has a lot of tolls on the main roads. The tolls are charged automatically when you rent a car. The Enterprise charged us 5.25 EAD for each toll gate we passed and in total, we passed around 20 gates.

Exotic cars

We didn’t see as many exotic cars as our friends were expecting as a lot of people asked us about the cars there. We saw very few exotic cars and the most we saw was on the Jumeirah Palm at night one day. In all fairness, we didn’t go out at night much and mostly visited things during the day.

Al Fanar Restaurant

We didn’t go to many restaurants, but we decided to go to one of the best that we could find that was thematic and had local dishes. We chose Al Fanar in the Dubai Festival City Mall and the experience was excellent.

We decided to try shobat harees, hobool, and the mix grill table which was excellent. The desert was sizzling dates.

The service was excellent, our server was Amit and he was very nice and very attentive. He explained the dishes with attention and calm and also gave us good food suggestions as he knew we didn’t know about the local food.

Mosque

We didn’t go to a mosque in Dubai but we went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It is huge and really beautiful.

Are things cheap in Dubai?

We are not big shopping people and we don’t buy anything (except in supermarkets) But we look at the prices of things in the shopping mall and also in an outlet and for everything that we look at (clothes, shoes, perfumes, etc.) But most of the things were more expensive than they are in Canada (Or at least the same price). So we don’t know why Dubai is so famous for shopping because for us it was not interesting at all (but we are not shopping people anyway).

Is Dubai a walkable city?

Definitely no. Everything is big and far apart. Also, the sun and the heat don’t let you walk that much. We were able to walk in very few places, around the Burj Khalifa is really nice to walk, in the old city you only get by walking, and in a neighborhood where there were a lot of stores.

Summary

For sure Dubai is a really interesting place to go. It has many attractions for different people and different interests. This was a bit of what we did and what liked. Hope it helps you to decide if it is a place for you to go or not.

Happy travels!