Dubai
Again, check-in at the hotel was really quick and we were escorted to our room. We were staying in a premier lagoon view room which is one of the nicest hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in. There was everything you could possibly need in the room and our balcony overlooked one of the lagoons which we could use 24 hours a day.
The bathroom had a beautiful sunken bath, a separate walk-in shower, separate toilet and twin basins with Elemis products. I would have been happy if we had stayed in the room the whole time!
We were staying on a half board basis where we could use this at either lunch time or dinner time and at dinner, we could use the buffet restaurant, the Asian restaurant Mekong or the Australian restaurant Bushman’s as well as the beach bar.
Our first day was a completely free day so we started with a good breakfast. The breakfast buffet had everything you could want from cooked English breakfast, to fruits, cereals, continental options, omelette station, pancakes and waffles. The food was excellent and this quickly became my favourite meal of the day.
We made the most of the beach, swimming pool and bar all day which was great. There were always plenty of sunbeds available and the staff would bring round, cold towels, cucumber and ice lollies throughout the day.
The following day, we left our sunbeds early to go out on a sunset desert safari. We were picked up in a jeep type vehicle and driven out to the sand dunes where we met a number of other jeeps. The tyres on the vehicles were prepared and we were soon off driving up and down the sand dunes - great fun even if it did make me feel a bit queasy at times! We stopped a couple of times for photo opportunities before being driven to the camp. Here, we were able to try sand boarding, ride a camel, try on the authentic dress and have some henna. Food and drink was included and we were treated to some traditional dancing and even had an opportunity to get up and try it for ourselves! At the end of the evening we were driven back to the hotel.
Today, we had another busy day as we went for afternoon tea at the Burj Al Arab followed by a trip up the Burj Khalifa. Our afternoon tea experience was amazing, 7 courses all overlooking Dubai. The food was exceptional but then what do you expect in the world’s most luxurious hotel.
Afterwards we made our way to the Burj Khalifa which is located at the Dubai Mall. As we went up in the lift, the anticipation built as to what we would see when we walked out at the top of the tallest building in the world and we weren’t disappointed. The view of Dubai from there was outstanding. You could stay as long as you liked at the observation deck, walking all the way around making sure you saw Dubai from every angle.
As we were at the Dubai Mall, we stayed for the evening wandering around the shops. There was a mix of designer and high street stores as well as some local shops and an aquarium! All that shopping could only mean one thing - dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! Anyone that has read my travel blogs will know that the Cheesecake Factory is my favourite restaurant and so it’s no surprise that I managed to squeeze in a visit while we were in Dubai.
Walking off our huge meal, we made our way outside to the Dubai Fountains and then had a wander around the Souks opposite the Mall.
Our last day arrived in a flash and we spent the day in our favourite spot by the pool drinking cocktails. For the evening meal we decided to try one of the speciality restaurants, Mekong. The majority of the menu was included in our half board but there was the odd dish that required a supplement but it wasn’t very much. My 3 course meal consisted of spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken and rice and pistachio crème brulee and it was fantastic. I would definitely recommend trying out the Mekong Restaurant and if we had longer then we would have loved to try the Australian Grill too.
Our final evening we took a taxi down to the “The Walk” at Jumeirah Beach and had a wander around the shops and along the beachfront. It was about a 15 minute taxi ride and there are so many restaurants here, I wouldn’t know where to start. You could certainly find a different place to eat every night if you were staying on a bed and breakfast basis.
I was say 5 nights is just about enough time to see the main sights in Dubai but I could quite easily have stayed for longer. Maybe next time!