Quite recently I visited Dubai again. I went first time with my family years ago and again with my new family. We decided to let Zain go on his first holiday (an excuse for us really) and damn it was a hot holiday. We intentionally wanted to go on a hot holiday because our other vacations have been nice and cool, not too hot where I feel like I'm gonna pass out. So guys this post will be all about my Dubai travel and I will talk extensively about my experience so I will include everything I did, how I travelled, prices etc and this can be classed as a mini guidance for yourself if your looking to go to Dubai. The place is astonishing if your into the whole urban atmosphere and is a shopping capital.
How to save money
First thing first I will tell you how to save your well earned money. There is a heavy book filled with buy one get one free vouchers and for each dining or activity there is about 3 vouchers so if your going as couples or family then what better way to save money right. The book is called The Entertainer (click here). This book has many vouchers that you could use throughout the whole of your holiday and some to name are for Nandos, Burger King, Ferrari world, Aquarium, Desert Safari, Arabian nights, Jamies Italian etc! I have just names many there and there is actually over 2000 vouchers in there. The book price is aed 475 which in pounds is £85! Does that sound like too much? Well imagine 4 meals at nandos full price that would cost around £40-£60. If you had the vouchers you would save half your money and in no time you will make your money back from the savings made so it's a no brainer really. Everyone needs this book if your looking to dine out, do some activities and if you have kids then this is must. I actaully bought mine off eBay for £35 because people tend to sell them because who is really going to get through 2000 vouchers. I only used 3 vouchers and made some good savings but I also came back and put my book on eBay and sold it for £28. Yes I made huge savings and glad I did that so if you guys buy a new book come back and sell the book.
Plane Ride
The plane ride wasn't my usual plane ride where I would be watching a movie or two, eat and sleep peacefully. I knew it would be different this time because this little one, yes my little Zain kept me very busy. Now that he is past 6 months he is getting super active and wants lots of attention which he definitely gets. Throughout the whole ride I believe he got about 45 minutes sleep. I found it really hard to feed him because he likes to sleep on the bed and drink his milk as I bf him but it was hard in general to feed him because I needed to constantly keep myself covered as well as finding space within my seat to feed him and yes it wasn't easy. Zain felt uneasy which lead him to crying. It wasn't excessive crying but everything seems excessive when your cramped for 7 hours. However it could have gone much worse so alhamdulillah that my plane journey wasn't too bad. Would I do a journey like that again whilst breast feeding him then maybe not. I would opt for a journey that is about 3-5 hours long and nothing more than. Actually I don't think I will go on a long journey till he is at an age where he will sit and not run around because there was a girl who was 16 months that was sat next to me and at that point I was glad my Zain was the age he was because the girl was at a walking age and all she wanted to do is run around and jump around on her seat and her parents were fully worn out so thats something for me to keep in mind I guess. We was on emirates and has a lovely munch that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Weather
Dubai is lovely inside and out but if your one who does't like heat then I suggest you first look at the yearly weather for Dubai and plan your holiday from there. I kind of wish I hadn't have gone at this time of the year (40-42 decrees) because I wanted to enjoy a little of the outdoor things but I couldn't enjoy it as much because of the heat. It's even hot at night so boo hoo heat.
Jumeirah Emirates Towers
Throughout my stay I was at the Jumeirah Emirates Tower hotel. An amazing hotel to say the least. Everything in this hotel was done to perfection apart from my ac in the room! The ac in my room seemed perfect for my husband but I was feeling really hot so maybe it was just me. Below is the lobby area so theres tea/coffee available here.
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I booked a double/twin room so whatever they gave was not of my choice but look at the frickin beds. This is their twin beds and usually twin beds in hotels are single beds but these are queen beds! My husband slept in one and me and Zain slept in the other and it worked out in my favour. My boudoir was honestly perfect and the view was stunning from the window.
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This is the breakfast area. The breakfast was lovely. The place where they did their breakfast was so lovely and you could see the pool from that area. The variety in the breakfast was endless. Theres many selections of bread, cheese, cereals, fried things, fruits, oats etc. They also made fresh juice from whatever fruit and veg you chose.
Taxi Drives
The taxi in Dubai was our only form of transport we used to get about. I thought the taxi was cheap but I will give you examples of how much the taxi fares cost etc. As soon as we landed we used the taxi at 8.30pm from the airport to get to our hotel which took us around 25 minutes with a little bit of traffic and that cost us aed 78.00 which in pounds is around £13. From our hotel to the airport at 5.30am it cost us aed 35.00 which in pounds is around £6.50 and the travel time around that time was around 15 minutes. From our hotel to get to sheikh zayed road which is the main road where you will find eating places, money exchange and other hotels it took us 10 minutes to get there and cost us aed 12.00 which in pounds is £2. To get to the Dubai mall it took around 20 minutes from our hotel to get there and cost around aed 15.00 which is £2.60 in pounds with very little traffic. I have given examples of the cost of taxi fares and as you can see it's not much at all. The taxi fares are ran by metre so no scamming business.
Dubai Mall
You ask anyone in Dubai what is there to do and they say shopping or dubai mall.. The Dubai mall is one of the worlds largest shopping heaven in the UAE and is honestly amazing. It is so big and you need plenty of time to look around. I would say making 2-3 trips here for a good shopping date would be good because to look everywhere in one day is tiring. I think we only walked around a 1/4 of the mall and we got so tired. I started dragging my feet like a little sulking baby. Within this mall there is so much to do. You have the aquarium, the worlds largest dancing fountain which we missed out on, restaurants and so much more. I could keep going on to be honest.
The Mall of Emirates
The mall of emirates is another shopping mall in Dubai. This one is smaller but still lovely. I actually found this one much better because it wasn't as busy and I felt like I got to see a lot more without being overwhelmed.
The Noodle House - The Boulevard
The Boulevard is a very small shopping area where there is starbucks and a few shops and eating places. The best thing was that it was through our hotel we stayed at so we didn't need to go outside, jump in a taxi or anything. We got down the lift and a 30 second walk led us to the boulevard. Within this we found the noodle house and I loved it. A chinese restaurant where I got to eat egg fried rice and noodles. It was a lovely meal and affordable too but the best part was that the noodle house is included in the dubai entertainer book so 3 vouchers could get you 3 free meals.
Desert Safari
If I had no baby with me then the desert safari car ride we had would have been a thrill for me. I used an entertainer voucher for this and little did I know that we will be going for a mad drive through the safari. When I say mad I mean mad like were almost tilting inside the car kind of mad. That is madness right!? I quickly put my seat belt on and all I could think of is keeping Zain tightly put. Zain enjoyed it though. He was on a full on joy ride. Within this package there was entertainment and food. We got taken to this area where there was seating available and it was so good. There was unlimited food and drink available and free shisha. Honestly guys I would recommend this to you all. I enjoyed it so much.
Wild Wadi Water Park
The wild water park was so fun. It was a free entry for us because our hotels allows free entry so needed to get ticket from our hotel to enter. The whole theme park was water and gosh if there was no Zain I would have dived into every water ride possible. We took Zain swimming though and he enjoyed his little swimming session. Even I enjoyed my water play. There is an eating area where they do fast food. They give you a wrist band and you have to put money in that wrist band for food and other things etc because you should't be walking with money otherwise it will get all wet unless theres someone there with you to hold it for you.
Jumeriah Beach
Lastly we went to the Jumeriah Beach and we visited around 5.30pm because during afternoon time it gets too hot for me so we decided to catch sunset there and it was so beautiful. We had an amazing view of the Burj al Arab which is the only 7 star hotel in the world. At the Jumeirah beach hotel there is lots of restaurants and we ended up going for Indian.
Naya Restaurant
This is the restaurant we ended up going to when visiting the Jumeirah beach. Naya is a north indian cuisine. We ordered tandoori lamb chops, Chicken tikka biryani, a lamb curry and nan which was perfect for the two of us. The food was so delicious and the lamb chops were the most succulent juicy lamb chops ever. I most certainly enjoyed my food so much.
A S S A L A M U – A L A I K U M
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