Dubai
We had many air miles we had to use them or lose them and Dubai seemed a reasonable choice! We flew Upper Class, which was a touch of luxury provided by our air miles. We went into the lounge at Heathrow, which was very nice, except when my husband accidently tipped a glass of wine over me. Luckily it was white wine, so dried without a stain! Once on board we decided to go straight to sleep, as we flew over night. We were woken, before it was light, and served breakfast and watched the dawn through the window as the sun rose.
On arrival our private taxi was waiting for us. We were given details of excursions available. We arrived too early for our check in at the hotel, but they had a room ready on 4th floor within half an hour, very nice overlooking the sea and the large swimming pool. Our hotel which was lovely was on the Palm. We could see the Atlantis the Palm in the distance from our window and from the gardens and beach.
I booked a Club King room which entitled us to half board with a good choice of places to eat, (this covered the meals but not drinks, including tea and coffee, all quite expensive) although our favourite was the Indian restaurant. We had breakfast in the Club Room, which looked like what I imagine a London Gentlemen’s Club may look like. We could sit inside or out on the terrace, which we did when it wasn’t thundering and raining! We weren’t very lucky with the weather. It was possible to have afternoon tea in the Club Room but we don’t have large appetites so we didn’t take advantage of this. However in the evening they have a Happy Hour from 6 o’clock to 7 o’clock, where everything was free, especially the wine, which they kept filling up, unless we told them to stop. The time wasn’t exactly adhered to, we managed to arrive at 7:30 once but still were served wine and a small plate with something to eat. My husband was very surprised by the fact that alcohol was available at all.
In order to go on excursions or on the Hop-on Hop-off buses we took a taxi to the Atlantis, a huge hotel and very busy with buses and taxis coming in and out.
Every evening we returned to our room to find a towel animal of some sort, two swans and pink rose petals on the first night. Then there were elephants - a big one and the next night a smaller version, a duck (I think) and a monkey on two coat hangers.
We went on an excursion to Musandam, an exclave of Oman, as I had heard Oman was beautiful, but this excursion was disappointing, not helped by the violent thunderstorm which followed a night when lightning flashed constantly throughout the night. When we got to Oman we went on a dhow which was interesting. To get to the one we were going on we had to negotiate several others, which was fun. This excursion included a swim, but we didn’t take our costumes. We had lunch on the dhow. This was very good and was typical Omani food apparently. This was after several people had been swimming in the water and some went to a local beach. They had to paddle ashore. The area we were in wasn’t far from the Strait of Hormuz.
We used the Hop-on Hop-off service to get around. We went first to Madinat, wondered around, took photographs and looked at the Burj El Arab from the beach. We stopped for lunch in a café which had a wall full of bottles of whisky, brandy and wines etc. We went later to Dubai Mall. I was blinded by all the gold in the jewellery shops but of course there weren’t any prices on the necklaces and rings.
The following day, we used the service again. This time we visited the Dubai Marina, walked along the waterfront and eventually visited the Marina Mall and were very surprised to find a Waitrose there. The weather had improved and was quite warm.
After exploring we decided to go back to our hotel when we went for a swim in the large pool, which was lovely and warm enough for me. I usually take absolutely ages to get into the water! We did go in the pool a couple of times.
The Manager from the Club Room was happy to show me the various different style of rooms, which was very interesting.
My husband seems quite keen to return at some time.