We flew with Emirates airline from Athens to Bangkok and we were allowed a free (up to 7 days) stopover in Dubai. We said to ourselves, why not? We spent two full days exploring this ultramodern city. I will say that everything in Dubai is over-the-top and it made for a very fun stopover.
The tallest building in the world, the ‘Burj Khalifa’ was right outside our hotel room window – what an amazing building!
A beautiful sight to see in the evening is the Dubai Fountains at the Dubai Mall (the largest mall in the world). They are similar to the ones at the Bellagio in Vegas but being that it’s Dubai, these ones are bigger. There’s a lightshow on the Burj Khalifa to watch as well.
Here’s a video we took of the fountains and lightshow:
We wanted to visit the Dubai Marina and it was easy to take the Metro there and then use the Tram. It’s a pretty area with many restaurants and a nice shopping center. From here we booked a boat tour of the Palm Islands and some of the beaches. Little did we know that we were in for a CRAZY speedboat ride that had us getting soaked but it was fun!
On our way back from the marina we stopped at Mall of the Emirates to have a peek at ‘Ski Dubai’, the indoor ski hill. I guess if you really want to ski then at least you can do it without flying somewhere cold!
We visited the Old Souk, a traditional market, but I was underwhelmed by the market. It definitely was not traditional and in my opinion more of a tourist trap. Unless you really want to buy spices to take home, I personally would give this a miss.
From the Old Souk we took a boat across Dubai Creek to visit the Gold Souk, now this is a market I would recommend seeing. I was fascinated by all the opulent jewellery and the designs were unlike any I had ever seen.
23 karat gold ring that weighs 63,856 kg
Gordon’s shopping for my Christmas present 😉
I’ll take this set 😉
The area along Dubai Creek was pretty to see and you can take the Abra’s (little boats) to get across.
We had a great time in Dubai and found the locals to be super friendly and very polite. We would return and next time maybe see the desert.
Where we stayed: The Rove Downtown 👍
Written by: Tammy Hermann…Live~Love~Travel
Wow this is beyond so beautiful and extra ordinary. A place to see
It’s a great city to spend a couple of days!