My Dubai

I, my wife and 11 year old daughter took our family holiday to Dubai in May 2010. What an amazing place! We arrived from Birmingham, and were transferred to our hotel, The Hilton Jumeriah Beach. The hotel is exactly what you expect from a Hilton, clean, friendly, comfortable and unpretentious. It has a good pool set beside pleasant gardens in a fantastic location. The beach in front of the hotel is lovely – white sand and clear blue sea reminiscent of the Caribbean and a sea temperature in May of 35C. From the beach you can see the Atlantis the Palm Hotel in the distance and The Burj al Arab. When you step outside the front of the hotel you are instantly on a new area known as The Walk. Here you will find a multitude of restaurants, fast food outlets, shops and a supermarket. There isn’t anything else quite like this in Dubai at the moment. If you go back a block you come to the Dubai Marina. Here you will find Marina Mall with dozens of shops and a food court as well as the boats moored on the Marina. This diverse mix is what makes the location so good – the beach, The Walk and the Marina.

On day two we visited Wild Wadi Waterpark. It’s not a huge park but has everything you need for a fun filled day. Most of the flumes are interconnected which means that you never have to get out of your tube and queue, you simply float from ride to ride. They have a great kid’s area for smaller children and a wave pool. For the brave try Sceirah it’s worth it just for the views. The next day we took a 25 minute cab ride to town (approx £5.00). Our destination was the Dubai Mall – the world’s biggest shopping mall. We weren’t there for the shops though. We were there because we were going up the Burj Khalifa. The world’s tallest building with 160 floors reaching almost a kilometre into the sky. We took the lift to floor 124 where they have the ‘At the Top’ experience. I can’t put into words the view; you’ll have to try it yourself. Above us were another 36 floors, equivalent to a skyscraper and we were already 124 floors up – incomprehensible. One hour later and back down to earth we were in the Dubai Mall. Here you will find over 1200 shops, a huge food court, amusements and even an Olympic sized ice rink. We shopped until 6pm then made our way outside and stood under the Burj Khalifa next to a massive lake area. Here they put on a show from the world biggest water fountain. Set to music it takes place every 30 minutes throughout the evening. The next day we just chilled. Daytime temperatures were reaching 50C but a faint breeze coming from the sea made it bearable. The following day we hit the Mall of the Emirates. Although smaller than the Dubai Mall it still has 400 shops. In the Mall is an amusement area with funfair rides, bowling, arcades etc and from here you can see Ski Dubai; a full size indoor ski dome complete with real snow and ski lifts. Our next stop was the Burj al Arab; the world’s only 7 star hotel. I had arranged a viewing of the hotel to see for myself what it was like. Breath taking, elaborate, over the top luxury. Apparently the Eiffel Tower will fit inside the lobby. All the rooms are suites set over 2 floors and if it looks gold, it probably is. The room we viewed had a spiral staircase leading from the lounge area to the bedroom. The views are stunning. We could see ‘The Palm’ and the Burj Khalifa from here. No visit to Dubai would be complete without seeing The Palm and the Atlantis. The sheer size and scale of what has been created is unimaginable. We took a tour of the hotel and on arrival the lobby just blows you away. A huge glass centrepiece and highly polished marble floors, it definitely has the wow factor and I understand why it was used for filming during the X factor. The hotel is a resort within itself and has its own aquariums and the Lost Chambers as well as waterpark and dolphin swim. We spent a day in the waterpark and had a fantastic time. It’s a bigger park and has an extensive lazy river with torrents, waterfalls and rapids incorporated in it and make’s a wonderful family day out. We never got time to do all the other amazing things available so another trip is a must. I wonder what will have changed when we go back, as Dubai’s skyline and facilities are continually evolving.