We’ve just got back to the hotel after an incredible evening in Dubai. The city itself wasn’t much to write home about, but it ended with cocktails in a perfect setting – overlooking the sea at one of the world’s most famous hotels. This created memories that will stick with me for a long time.
Our plans for the day
We left the hotel this morning after breakfast at around 09:30. As we only had one full day in Dubai we decided not to fit too much in, opting instead to simply see the city by open top bus so that we could take in the sights before a tour that I had booked in the afternoon.
As I mentioned yesterday, we don’t think that the metro is that convenient in Dubai and so we decided to just take the local bus from our hotel to the Dubai Mall. It took a little bit longer than taking the metro, but it was much more convenient.
The departure location for the open top buses was quite hard to find due to the size of the Dubai Mall, but we found it in the end and bought tickets just in time to get on the next departure.
We had decided, if we had time, to do the red route first which concentrates on old Dubai, before then taking the blue route which focuses on new Dubai and the Marina since this went past where I had reservations for a tour later in the day.
The Red Route of Old Dubai
There weren’t any seats in the covered section on the upper deck, only in the full sun, and so we decided to sit downstairs for the journey instead of risking sunburn and heatstroke being in the full sun for a couple of hours.
The red route was interesting and it took us past most of the main sights of old Dubai including the Royal Palace, the Al Fahidi Fort, and various sights in Deira such as the Gold Souq and Dubai Creek. It also went straight past our hotel so we could have got on it without the trip into town, but we didn’t know how busy the buses were going to be and so we didn’t want to risk them going past full.
On the way back from Deira the bus took us past the Dubai Frame and the Museum of the Future before making its way back to the Dubai Mall where we ended the tour after a couple of hours on the move.
The other route had a departure that was about to leave but we decided to wait for the next one, grabbing an iced coffee and using the toilets in the Dubai Mall instead.
According to the timetable there was still plenty of time to catch the other route and still make our reservation and so we jumped on the subsequent departure for the trip down towards the Dubai Marina.
The Blue Route and Dubai Marina
If you stay on the entire of this route you’ll go past all of the sights in the Dubai Marina area before heading out onto the Palm Jumeirah to check out the sights there including the Atlantis Hotel, before making your way back to the Dubai Mall past all of the big hotels including the Burj al-Arab.
Things didn’t exactly go to plan, however, as there was horrendous traffic in the Marina area and it added about 30 minutes onto our journey time which meant that we would probably miss our reservations if we stayed on the tour if the bus picked up any more delays.
After consulting various options online we decided to alight the bus at the final stop before the Palm Island, which was Media City where we thought it would be easy to pick up a taxi.
Abandoning the Blue Route for an Uber
Unfortunately, there were no taxis to be seen and no trams appeared to be coming in the near future and so we decided to order an Uber to take us to our next stop, which at this point as the only way we were going to get there on time.
I live in a big city, where there are Ubers everywhere, but our luck changed after making the booking on Uber as the driver was less than a minute away – in fact, he had just passed the junction near us when he accepted the journey and he pulled in at the tram stop almost before we realised that the journey had been accepted.
This meant that were at our next stop in no time, and actually arrived 30 minutes before we needed to be there.
We came very close to missing our reservation though – both due to the traffic, and due to an oversight on my part. I completely forgot to recharge my SIM card last night as I was so tired, and the free 24 hours of data ran out about 3 minutes after we got into the Uber. Luckily, the early arrival meant that I could jump on the free wifi and recharge it before our reservations.
Touring the Burj al-Arab
The tour that we booked was at a very special place, the Burj al-Arab hotel. This is the famous hotel shaped like a sail that is on the coast and that describes itself as the world’s only seven star hotel.
It’s not somewhere that we could ever afford to stay, but cashing in on the fame of the hotel they offer tours around the key areas including the lobby, and one of the suites. There is also a small in-house museum where you learn a lot about the history of the hotel.
We were offered the chance to go on an earlier tour, as we arrived early, but we decided to wait for our allocated time since we had booked one of the sunset tours that are timed to finish at sunset and we didn’t want to be too early to enjoy the views.
To get to the hotel you get into golf buggies that drive you the short distance across the causeway from the visitor centre, with a short pause for photos at a viewpoint. After arriving at the hotel you are taken into a room where you are told about the history of the hotel before being introduced to your guide that will take you through the hotel.
Inside the hotel
The first place that you visit is the lobby, which is a grand internal void that goes up the entire height of the hotel. No photos are allowed in this location, which is a shame, due to it being a working area of the hotel where paying guests will be. But there are photos online if you want to see them.
You’re then whisked up in the elevators to the in-house museum where the guide takes you round and tells you all about the hotel, before giving you some time to walk around on your own, after which you are taken to your next stop – one of the suites.
As one of the most famous hotels in the world the suites have to be as over the top as the rest of Dubai and they include a huge dining room, a gold-themed lounge area, rotating beds, separate his and hers bathrooms, and a selection of treasures including expensive paintings.
Since the suites are so expensive they aren’t in use that often, which is why they offer tours when not in use, and we were told that the last person to use the suite that we were shown around was Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton a few years ago.
The suite is the last part of the main tour, and after leaving you are directed towards elevators that take you down to the ground floor where there is a gift shop. We picked up a few basic souvenirs, but didn’t want to get too much due to the prices.
Cocktails at sunset
For most people this is the end of the tour, but we had booked one of the sunset cocktail packages which included entry into a stunning bar set right on the waterfront in a perfect location to view the sunset.
We chose a couple of their signature cocktails and sat there for an hour or so watching the sun get lower while enjoying the drinks, snacking on some nuts on the table, and – strangely – being annoyed by a bird that kept landing on my chair and pecking me every time I ate one of the nuts.
It was a memorable experience that we didn’t want to end and so we ordered another round of cocktails, at extra cost, so that we could soak up the atmosphere of our final night of the holiday for just that little bit longer.
After finishing our cocktails it was a short buggy ride back to the visitor centre, where our Burj al-Arab experience ended.
A long drive back to our hotel
The traffic was still pretty bad when we got back to the visitor centre, which seems normal for Dubai, and so we decided to just order an Uber back to our hotel and to eat there rather than fuss around with buses, trying to find somewhere to eat.
To my surprise, despite the long distance and estimated journey time, it only took a couple of minutes for a driver to accept the journey. It took around 5 minutes for him to arrive, and it was then time for the long, 15 mile, journey back to our hotel.
The journey took 1 hour 20 minutes due to traffic and I think that we both fell asleep at some point during it. I don’t think that it would have taken much less time trying to get back by public transport so the Uber at least gave us a chance to rest.
We arrived back at the hotel at 7.45pm and I’ve just been relaxing in my room since then. We will shortly head down to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner, but we have another early departure tomorrow so I don’t think that we will have a late night.
About our time in Dubai
Our time in Dubai has been short – we only arrived yesterday afternoon, but overall I’m glad that we came here. I don’t think that it’s a place that I could spend a lot of time, as it’s not the sort of destination that I usually visit, but a short two night stopover like this was perfect to see the highlights, and have some nice food, before heading off to our next destination.
Other people have different priorities for their travels which is fine – we all want different things from travel. I know people that love Dubai, and there are some people who like to come here regularly, there are even people who love it enough that they have bought an apartment here, but think I’ll only come back if it’s for a short stopover while I’m flying Emirates like this.
However, it’s been somewhere that I’ve been curious about seeing after transiting through the airport a few times, so I think that it was the right choice to include it at the end of this holiday to finally tick it off of my bucket list.