Dubai experience
ALiEN2108
Been in Dubai now 4 times over a couple of years
Jul 15, 2006
based on 16 votes
Thigs to do and see in Dubai and neighbouring emirates
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Explore locations featured in this Traveler List:
Dubai
- Category: Recent trip
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1. Sundowner Dune dinner/Desert Safari
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| Desert safari is ofcourse MUST TO thing in UAE. Book yours through hotel reception and you'll enjoy full afternoon of fun! Nothing compares to unique experience of bashing through dunes and enjoying real arabic night in the middle of the desert! Not for people with weak stomach thought hehe, you have been warned :) |
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2. Jumeira Mosque
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Jumeira mosque is the only mosque where non-muslims are allowed in and guided tour is available!
Unique opportunity to peek in islam religion!
Tours are at 10am every Sunday and Thursday mornings. Be shure to check it out! |
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3. The Dubai Heritage Village
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| Heritage Village is great place to go for a dinner. Kan Zaman restauran overlooking the creek is great refugee even in hot summer because of climatized space. Great food, great service with great view! |
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4. Dubai museums
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| Visiting Dubai City Museum, Heritage Village and other museums is a great oportunity to see Dubai from other perspective. What it was and what it became in just some decades. It's best to go there quickly afternoon when the heat outside is still quite high and enjoy climatized rooms of museums! |
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5. Deira City Center Shopping Mall
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| This has always been the central point of all regular shopping needs! Best place to go after busy day and enjoy coffe, something to eat on food court, buy supplies for following day and hang around shops! |
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6. Spice Souq
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Spice souq is a great place to hunt for arabic souvenirs. Get sheeshas, sheesha tobacco (Al Fakher is the best trust me), arabic coffe, spices (damn those dried lemons are GREAT for soups!)...Great experience! Be prepare to haggle HARD! You can easily pay more as in shopping centers if you don't know the prices!
Spice souq can be found right by electronic and gold souq in Al Ras by Deira Old Souq Abra station. |
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7. Gold souq
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If you like gold/ diamonds/ you - name - it - precious - metal be shure to check gold souq. They probably have enough gold there to make another Eiffel tower hehe. Not to mention any kind of precious watches (TAG, Rolex, Longines, Breitling...). Dubai is a good place to buy since you can be 99% shure you buy what they say. It they say it's 18k gold, it's 18k since goverment controls are VERY STRICT!
How to bargain? Check daily price of gold in newspaper/ TV/ Internet (official price of gold in Dubai http://dgcx.ae/). Usually gold price is stated in ounces. 1 ounce = 31.10g. Then get the weight of thing you want to buy, recalculate and see if the difference is worth you the design. Also keep in mind 24k gold is ofcourse the most expensive one (but very soft also, so usually not used for rings...). Same goes for other precious metals and diamonds. |
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8. Electronic Souq
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Dubai is great place to find all kind of electronic gadgets you desire. Wheather you need an iPod, mobile phone, camera, telephone, camcorder, laptop....THEY GOT IT :)
But before you buy DO FOLLOWING STEPS:
- Before you go shopping frenzy, know which model you are after
- Check prices on internet to see what is the price on the market
- Always check prices in reputable stores too! It hapened to me mobile was cheaper in Carrefour in Deira City Centre as in electronic souq.
- Bargain hard! Don't buy from first one. Try to find where the "pain" price for sellers is
- Sellers do not object at all to testing equipment. So be shure to test it on site
I have bought many things over years on electronic souq and I never had any problems with quality.
Electronic souq can be found in Deira district at Al-Sabkha Road. Best way is to park (or get a taxi) to Sabkha Abra Station on Baniyas Road and just walk to opposite way of abra station and youÄll find yourself in middle of electronic souq in seconds ;)
Spices/Gold souq is minutes away on foot. |
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Arabic perfumes are very concentrated compared to what you are used to! Never smell it in bottle since it will be too strong! Always test it on your skin! They have tipical smell you start to notice the minute you land on Airport. This is the smell of kind of wood the use called "Oud". The real stuff the locals use is probably to strong for our noses, but lighter variations are AMAZING! This stuff will last you a loooooong time since you only apply small quantity due to the fact this is not "alcohol" version of Eau de Toillete we can buy in Europe/States....
And it is cheap to if you bargain enough :) Ofcourse there are VERY expensive ones too which I was always able to smell no matter which prices they had (like 1000$ a bottle), difference to Europe here, where they lock up this kind of stuff in vitrines.
There are many many shops of arabic parfumes around, my preffered one was always "Arabian Oud" found in Deira City Centre.
Be shure to also pickup some Oud in wood form for using as your "house" parfume. If you like the smell, it can do wonders to help you create the authentic arabian feel in your house.
TIP: After smelling some perfumes, smell some grinded coffe to neutralize the smell again! But shopkeeper's will help you on that along with some nice coffe to drink :) |
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10. Rent a car
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Renting a car is a good way to get around in UAE! It is damn cheap and gasoline costs almost nothing. And you can drive through all emirates in a day! And visit all amazing remote places for great photo oportunities!
Be shure to check all known rent companies as prices vary. Compare prices with insurance included (be shure to take one, you never know...). Book online in advance for best rates!
I come from a small city (120.000 people) so I don't have any "urban guerilla" driving experiences and I never had any problems driving around UAE and I drove all around UAE.
TIPS:
- Eyes on the road, check left/right before chaning lines
- Predict the traffic, since they don't use blinkers a lot
- Follow speed limits, since radars are around
- NO ALCOHOL when driving! SEVERE PUNISHMENTS!
- In circular crossroads you HAVE TO LEAVE it if you are on most outter lane. Never try to not to leave it on most outter lane since you will be rammed by car on left lane usually also leaving. Use blinkers so others will know what your intetions are. If you are leaving right one, if not left one. |
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11. Visit neighbouring Emirates!
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| It is really worth visiting neighbouring emirates! Going to Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah...is realyy experiencing thing to do since you can see many different things on the way. Best to do it with rent-a-car or booking a trip with some travel agency. |
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