During our stay in Dubai, we decided to take a half-day tour of the city with a local guide. We love to travel and explore on our own, but sometimes we also decide to take a guided tour, especially if we don’t have much time or, like in this case, if we want to have a quick overview of the city where we are staying, which we will discover in detail in the following days.
To be honest, the choice to travel to Dubai was not mine, but my wife really wanted to see it. I was a bit sceptical about what we would do there. Today, I can tell you that I would go back there immediately, and not just for a few days, but for much longer and I wouldn’t be bored there. Well, now you know who has the final word at our home 🙃
Whatever is the reason, that you decide on a guided tour, the added value is always the insight perspective of the destination given by the local guide. Who can tell you more about everyday life than a local?
We opted for a half-day tour in a small group. Travelling around in a small minibus was pleasant, and the group members were agreeable. This kind of tour gives you only a quick overview of the city, with short stops at some of the most popular sightseeing locations and you should know in advance that the stops will be short and there won’t be much time for visits, shopping, etc. As I said, it is ok for an orientation in the city, but we visited some of the locations once again and in our own peace.
In this post, I will present you some of the places that I definitely recommend visiting while in Dubai, but of course there are many more that we were not able to visit due to luck of time.
Our first stop was at the incredible Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world with its 829.8 meters. It is the most elegant and impressive building that I’ve ever seen. Our hotel was just a few minutes’ walk from Burj Khalifa, and we had great views of this building during our whole stay. The building itself and the whole area around it, with the fountain (and the evening show), the Dubai Mall, and the Dubai Mall Aquarium are pleasant to wonder around. I will tell you more about it in one of my next posts. On the city tour, we just stopped at one of the teras near Burj Khalifa for a quick photo and then we continued to our next stop, the Dubai frame.
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The Dubai Frame is located in Zabeel Park. It holds the record for the largest frame in the world. It didn’t take us long time to realise that in Dubai it was all about world records: the highest building, the biggest frame, the tallest hotel, the most prestigious hotel, the biggest aquarium, the most innovative museum, the biggest artificial island complex, and many more.
The Dubai Frame (which is 150 meters high and 95 meters wide) is at the same time an observatory, a museum, and a monument. It is a beautiful structure, the facade is ornated and shines like gold under the hot desert sun. I
The building also presents a link, or doors between “the old” and “the new” Dubai. From the top, visitors can observe the modern Dubai on one side and older parts of the city on the other.
Our next stop was Zabeel Palace, which is the official residence of the Chairman of Dubai Municipality. We approached the palace, but just to a certain point, and were able to see the palace only from a certain distance due to security reasons.
The major attraction for my son, but also for other members of our group was the car that was parked in front of the palace. Well, the main attraction was the car plate with number 7. Car plates with low numbers are the most expensive ones in Dubai, because only the most important and powerful man can have the plates with low numbers, and they are synonyms for prestige and status.
We continued our drive to “the old Dubai” and the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, the birthplace of Dubai. The architecture changed completely. From high and modern buildings and skyscrapers, we were transported to the traditional Arabic quarter, with a strong allure of the 19th century.
We stopped at Al Fahidi Fort, the oldest existing building in the city, dating back to 1787. Once it was a monarch's base, a fortified residence, a weapons arsenal, and a prison. In 1971 (the same year the United Arab Emirates was formed), it was opened as a museum, showing Dubi's history and heritage. During our visit, the museum was closed.
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Then we jumped on the typical boat, the water bus line named Abbra, and crossed Dubai Creek. We reached the Souks.
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We walked along the spice souk and the golden souk. Both were incredible, both amazing. The spice souk is full of colors and fragrances.
The Gold souk was calmer, with only one colors, the shiny gold. The vendors on the spice soul were very talkable and very persuading, while the golden souk was calmer also because it was made of shops, and all the vendors were waiting inside their shops.
My wife and I thought about buying the "small" gold ring on below photo, but we changed our minds because we would need to pay extra weight for the return flight 🤣😂🤣
We moved to the south of the city and first stopped at The Al Farooq Omar Bin Al Khattab Mosque And Centre. The building is a replica of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, known as the Blue Mosque. There is also a resemblance due to the thousands of Iznek tiles that color its interior walls and arches.
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A beautiful religious place, full of spirituality and peace. We have to dress ourselves properly, and our son found it very interesting since we were all wearing traditional clothes that are much different from what we are used to.
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The clock was ticking and we had to jump back on the bus to drive to Jumeirah Beach, from where we were able to see the Burj Al Arab, the one and only 7-star hotel. The hotel is made in the shape of a sail and located on an artificial island.
The last stop of the tour was to Palm Jumeirah. An artificial complex of islands in the shape of a plam tree. Honestly, the palm shape is visible only from high above (like a plane), and when you are there, you don’t know that you are on the palm. But the area is very pleasant to walk around, with some nice restaurants and bars offering great views, also to the Atlantis hotels (Atlantis and Atlantis Royal).
It was such a nice location that we returned the next day, and I promise I will tell you more about that in the next posts.
The tour ended on The Palm, and we were supposed to get back to our starting point. But the three of us took the metro and travelled down to Dubai Marina.
It was a late afternoon, and it was getting dark slowly, but we enjoyed the walk along the waterfront, admiring the silhouettes of elegant buildings and the reflections of the sunset in the numerous glass windows, while listening to the buzzy atmosphere on the numerous cruise boats that were offering canal cruises with dinner onboard.
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Unfortunately for us, the day slowly turned into a late evening, and with the metro we travelled back to Dubai Mall for a nice and tasty dinner at their fabulous food court, which was, luckily for us, only a short walk from our hotel.
Thanks for reading,
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Best regards,
