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#962471 by Martin5192
28 Sep 2023, 19:07
Looking at first time visit to Dubai in November. Can anyone offer any advice on what tourists do there. Any recommendations of the best areas to stay in. Finally how do you get about, is it taxis or metro? Thanks..
#962473 by mikethe3rd
29 Sep 2023, 13:38
I’ve been a handful of times and my visits have been far from cultural.

I’ve mostly stayed within the hotel resort (JBH), splashed around in the water park, drank a lot, sweat a lot and ate really good food. We used Uber to get around and it’s incredibly cheap. I think we only actually went to the mall and some other hotel to meet friends.

Whilst I am sure there is more to do, I think the majority use it as a relaxing sunshine destination for a long weekend. Think Tenerife plus.
#962477 by Kraken
29 Sep 2023, 17:44
The simple answer is "how long is a piece of string"? In terms of accommodation, none is particularly cheap, but you can really blow the budget on some of the properties on The Palm should you so wish & if you have won the lottery, the Burj-al-Arab. We have stayed at both the Hilton Jumeriah Beach & Hilton The Walk (they are across the road from one another and linked by a footbridge). Stay in the cheaper Hilton The Walk and you have full use of the Hilton Jumeriah Beach's private garden & beach. One warning about staying in any hotel along The Walk - it is where the locals congregate on Friday & Saturday nights to show off their supercars - get a room facing The Walk and it could be noisy until quite late.

We ate in a number of good places - some of which have since closed. Food in the hotels is at hotel prices (although the "Beach Bar" in the Hilton Jumeriah Beach garden was very reasonable. If you want slightly cheaper food, then go a block of two away from the beach area and hunt out the places that "the locals" may dine in. Do be warned, as a general rule only the hotels have alcohol licences (but this is starting to change). Alcohol is very expensive - I seem to recall we were paying over £10 equivalent for a pint of Heineken, I do remember being presented with a pretty large drinks bill on check-out.

We did both Wild Wadi and Aquaventure waterparks & suffice it to say Wild Wadi failed to impress us much - Aquaventure was way better. What else did we do there? Skied in the Mall of the Emirates, went up the Burj Khalifa, watched the Dubai Fountain show (was not over impressed with this TBH). Oh yes, we also did Skydive Dubai, a pleasant tandem skydive from about 13,000ft.

Getting around is easy - the Metro is efficient and cheap, as the tram doubtless is too (the latter was being commissioned when we were last there). Do be aware on the Metro - and I assume the tram too - there is a dedicated carriage for women & children only. Uber was not in Dubai on our last visit but the official taxis were also very cheap. I remember asking a taxi driver the cost of petrol in Dubai as the filling stations don't have price boards like here. He showed us a receipt from when he had filled up earlier that day from almost empty and it was about a fifth of the price we pay. We told him how much it cost us to fill up - converted to Dirhams - and he almost had a heart attack... not a good idea on the quiet Sheikh Zayeed Road - 6 lanes in each direction in places. The two main things that are cheap in Dubai are taxi's and strangely cigarettes.
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