Dazzling Dubai

Claire Summers on 03 October 2019
We visited Dubai for 3 nights at the end of our Mauritius holiday. It is only a 6 hour flight from Mauritius and back to the UK so its an ideal mid way stop off point to break the journey up.

We stayed in apartments called Jannah Place which were just behind the Marina. The apartment was big and basic with good kitchen facilities. The bathroom was the smallest bathroom I have ever seen but for 3 nights it was adequate.

The location was excellent, within a 2 min walk you can access the Marina with its 2 mile long boardwalk with boats, stunning buildings (especially at night all lit up). There are many restaurants, bars, stalls, children's playgrounds and the Marina shopping mall.

Because the Marina is pedestrianised there were lots of people running, cycling (dedicated lanes) and it was really safe to walk at night. The buildings look great and at night when they are all lit up, it does look amazing!

During the day we did a Hop on Hop Off bus as these are a great way to see the city and get your bearings. They take you to the Atlantis on the Palm, Burj Khalifa, Burj al Arab, the beach, the Marina, Media City, to be honest everywhere you want to go. Its hard to do all this in a day as different buses do different routes, so if you have time take a 2 day pass.

I know Dubai is expensive to eat and drink but we don't drink alcohol and around the Marina were some reasonably priced eating places so we didn't spend an awful lot of money on eating out. We had breakfast each morning at a place called Feta, which was adjacent to the sister property of the Jannah Place Apartments and it had a great view of the Marina. The price was only £12 for all you can eat full English buffet and pastries, egg station and drinks.

On our second day we took a taxi to Abu Dhabi. The prices are all on a meter, there are plenty of taxis available, we tended to stick with the beige coloured taxis as there were lots of them around. The taxi cost was approx £50 one way.

The reason for going to Abu Dhabi was to visit Ferrari World so we could ride the fastest roller coaster in the world. The park is completely undercover apart from a couple of rides which travel outside the building so you can keep nice and cool for the most part. They wont allow you to take any food or drink past the security entrance so you have to purchase a locker at the entrance if you have any consumables on you. You can take small bags into the park (without food or drink) and free lockers are available to use whilst you go on the rides.

It is quieter to visit the park in the morning and it was really quiet when we went, no need for fast passes as there were no queues. When we left at 3pm it was starting to get really busy as people tend to go in the evenings. There are a couple of extreme rides, as well as the fastest, they had the tallest loop in the world on the Flying Aces ride. Also lots of places to eat, not too expensive either. We were there 4 hours and did everything we wanted to. There were also plenty of taxis outside to get back to Dubai.

Dubai is huge and there are lots of things to do, safari desert visits with 4 wheeled drives, camel rides, speedboat rides around the Palm, boat trips, dinner cruises, water park at the Atlantis.

There are many tall buildings which look great at night and the Marina was a nice place to stroll around at night, I would highly recommend this area as a base to stay. I know a lot of people like to be on the Palm, but it is quite isolating, there is no where to really walk to, whereas by the Marina, you can stroll to restaurants, bars, shopping, etc.

The people were friendly and welcoming, everywhere was spotlessly clean but there are building works everywhere going on day and night. I cant even imagine how many builders must be working there right now.

The weather in early October was very hot but not overbearing, it was quite humid, definitely shorts/skirts and t-shirt weather all day and night.

Personally I think you only need a few days in Dubai, unless you just want to spend time relaxing at the hotel and on the beach then you could easily stay there longer with some very nice weather.