a Wolfs‘ Journey around the world … Dubai

"Jumeirah" Dubai!!!

Disclaimer: My travel blog, based on my own experiences and opinions. Trying to give you neutral and unbiased travel advise. All pictures are my own unless stated otherwise.

_{the Best way to capture the complete Dubai-Skyline is from a plane}

“Dubai, a city of contrasts, a city all about exaggeration, a place where everyone likes to show off, a city for the rich and famous, everything is superlative, everything needs to be bigger, better and higher” … or at least that’s what people say and when you read up on it. But is it all true?

Did you know that Jumeirah means WOW? Well, that’s one word to sum up the experience!

Many of you know by now that I was there last month and now I can give you a witness-account from my own perspective with my own experiences and with actual examples. Off course I’d like to hear about your experiences as well and see if you agree.

_{When we landed in Dubai we were greeted by a fleet of A380's}

We landed in Dubai after a night-flight with Emirates, due to the time difference it was 2 hours later over there, so as we landed at 6:30AM it was still 4:30AM for us. I was straight away impressed by the architecture of the airport and the friendliness of the people for us (a tired family travelling with kids) and we were given priority treatment almost everywhere we went. Initially I figured this might be a fluke, but it turned out that this was the case everywhere we went throughout the 2,5 days that we spent there.

We had booked tickets for the first day to go up the Burj Khalifa in combination with entrance to the Aquarium. I can highly recommend you to do this as it saves you some money and both attractions can be accessed through the same Mall. You have to pre-book the date and time you want to go up the Burj Khalifa, but once you’re up there you can stay as long as you want. Beware that entry to the aquarium is only valid on the same day, however as the 2 attractions are near each other that’s easy to combine.

_{the Current (left) and next (right) highest buildings in Dubai and the World}

The Burj Khlifa is currently the highest building in the world at 828 meters, however they’re already building the next building that is going to overtake the Burj Khalifa. When I first saw the model of the building in the Dubai Mall, I thought it was just some extravagant piece of art, until I was made aware that it’s the next highest building that’s currently in development.

A word of caution, if you take the ’normal’ package (124^th & 125^th floors) you end up in a huge queuing-system and you need to take your time to ensure you leave enough time if you want to be on top at a certain time as they also let groups go ahead of the queue and people who’ve booked a special package to the 148^th floor. If you purchase the ticket for the 148^th floor you have more privacy and time to look around, but I can’t imagine that the view is much better than on the 124^th floor.

We wanted to be up when the sun would set, which we managed just in time, but there were huge queues and people were trying to overtake you at any possible opportunity. The same goes for the way down, despite the fact that we were there with little children, it was the only place where we didn’t get any ’preferential’ treatment and as it was already late after a long day it was the only place where we really would’ve appreciated it.

I made the following video of how fast this lift is. Going up or going down literally takes 1 minute, the evidence is in the video below:

_{the Aquarium is in the mall as well}

Before we went up the Burj Khalifa we went to the aquarium, which is probably one of the most impressive ones I’ve seen this far. You start by walking through a glass-tunnel and the fish are swimming all around you. Some lazy sharks were even lying on top of it, so you got a really good view of their undersides.

We really liked the aquarium in Lisbon, you can find a few pictures of that one in my first ever travel post (which was about Lisbon) here on Steemit, but this one was even more impressive. I felt that our children had an easier view of the fish and other animals, the individual enclosures were really nicely decorated and maintained and there were plenty of animals per enclosure, but never crowded to obstruct their living spaces.

_{the Atlantis Hotel on the pinacle of the Palm}

The next day we discovered Dubai a bit further, we initially went to La Mer, which is a beach with a promenade, however as some of us weren’t dressed for this, we split up over there. Whilst my brother-in-law and his family spent the morning on the beach and picking up some Vitamin D, we decided to get a taxi and discover the city a bit more. First, the driver took us to the Palm.

Many of you have probably seen it on maps or on the internet, maybe even on TV, but to drive there yourself is something out of this world … and then you realise it’s all on a manmade-island. The Palm is huge and full with buildings and apartments and at its pinnacle is the famous Atlantis Hotel. ”Did you know all of its rooms have seaview”? 😉

From the Palm it was a short drive to the Dubai Marina, we opted to go there as it was a recommended place to go and have lunch. There are loads of restaurants over there and it’s a nice place to go for a stroll. However as we were there with the kids we couldn’t really discover it in depth. We had lunch at a Lebanese restaurant over there, which was alright, but of all the meals we’ve had in Dubai, that one has left the least impression with me. Another reason for that was the other 2 restaurants we visited that evening and the following evening.

_{Zuma Restaurant from inside, great atmosphere as well as fantastic food}

In the meantime our sunbathers had joined us again and we left them with my parents-in-law to discover the rest of the marina whilst we headed back to the hotel so the kids could get some well-deserved sleep. This is also the first time during this holiday when I hit the gym and had to acclimatise with the circumstances. For more details about my runs during the holiday I am going to refer you to this running post that I did after I returned from the holiday.

In the evening we met the rest of the group at the Zuma restaurant after we’d been making our way through one of the worst traffic-jams I’d ever encountered. Zuma is a Japanese restaurant and one of the best I’ve been to until now, however as it’s quite known and also recommended in certain guide books it’s best to reserve ahead and bring a large cheque-book, however it was fully worth it. We paid an average of $70 per person (including children) however I got to eat Japanese dishes that I’d never even dared trying in other restaurants or even seen on their menus … even the kids loved it.

_{a Picture taken whilst we were taking the Watertaxi}

The next day was the birthday of my mother-in-law, the sponsor of the holiday and the main reason why we were making this trip in the first place. As a surprise we had organised a guided tour with Dubai Private Tour, so we all had to be up early so that we could leave at 8:30AM.

The tour was very thorough and gave us a good view of Dubai, not just the impressive modern side, but also the older souks. Our hotel was situated opposite the Mall of the Emirates and we had a view of it from our spacious bedroom. This also meant that we were close to the Palm, so we started our tour there as my brother-in-law had missed that the day before.

From there they took us to a beach where we took some family pictures with the Burj al Arab hotel in the background. The Burj al Arab is the famous all-suite self named 7 star hotel in the shape of a sail. On the way to the Jumeirah Mosque we drove through the Jumeirah Al Qasr hotel, this hotel has its own canal and it serves its guests by boat. The driveway of the hotel is paved with golden horses. When we had left Dubai and were in the Maldives my brother-in-law got a picture sent to him by a friend who was staying in this hotel and met Roger Federer over there … how cool is that?!

_{the largest ring in the World … and not a security person in sight, that says something about how safe Dubai is!}

After the Jumeirah Mosque we had a drive through the old part of Dubai, then we had a short ride with a watertaxi and we finished this part off with a walk through the gold-souk (market). Our next and final stop was at the Burj Khalifa, but this time outside, so that we could take some pictures with this impressive building on the background. I can tell you one thing, trying to make a picture with that building in its entirety on it and having 10 people with 4 children to look at the camera simultaneously proved to be a massive challenge.

Afterwards we were dropped off at the hotel where we had lunch and a relaxing afternoon in our rooms, before we headed out for dinner to celebrate my MiL’s birthday.

We had learnt our lesson from the night before, so we left the hotel a bit earlier to make it in time for our dinner reservation. We had booked a table for our party at the Al-Dawaar rotating restaurant. This restaurant is situated on top of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dubai and over the space of an hour (I think it was) it rotates 360 degrees, so you get to see some nice views of Dubai as the sun is setting on this magnificent city.

_{the Al-Dawaar Restaurant, the dessert buffet and the view}

The restaurant itself is also very nice and the staff were very friendly and accommodating. It is a buffet restaurant, but all the items were fresh and replenished on a regular basis. In general the food you get on a buffet goes stale very quickly however that was not the case over here. I even tried a carvery, which was excellent.

A fantastic way to finish our stop-over in Dubai as we would head to the airport the next morning for our flight onwards to the Maldives.Our only regret is that we did not have enough time to go shopping there as they have fantastic stores, but there was no time to go into any.

_{Different sights of Dubai}

• Category:City-trip, beach, shopping, culture, stop-over, short break, sun and beach, almost anything really
• Recommended length of stay: depending on the purpose of your journey, but a minimum of 3 days to get to see the highlights. Don't underestimate the distances, Dubai is huge!
• Currency: AED
• Timezone: GMT +3
• Perfect for: shopping, stop-over to the far-east, a city trip
• Target group: anyone between the ages of 7 and 50. Dubai is to enjoy, there are many theme-parks and events

What I like about Dubai:

1. We were a party of 10 and the taxis there had no problems taking all of us at once … which was a cosy thing, but a lot of fun for all of us
2. Despite the huge distances, taxis and public transport are relatively cheap
3. Everywhere we went the people were very helpful and friendly, especially with children
4. You can spend days in the malls, this is where everyone goes in their spare time. They have ice-rinks in them, a ski-slope and the aquarium is also in one, to name but a few things that you can do there.
5. Everything is very clean and new, the buildings are magnificent and the one more impressive then the last one
6. There are flowers everywhere, very colourful. Despite the fact that they're part of the show it looks amazing

If you like this post, check out my other travel posts. I look forward to your comments. If you like this post, please give me a like and subscribe, there are more to come in the future:

• Lisbon (Part 1)
• South-Africa (Part 1)
• South-Africa (Part 2) the Garden Route
• James Bond in Motion
• Prague
• Tel-Aviv
• South-Africa (Part 3)
• Dominican Republic
• Lisbon (Part 2)
• Crete
• Washington
• Zürich

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Until the next one, happy travelling!

Doron 🐺