Can’t believe that only two and a half weeks ago I was sitting at work and looking forward to my trip… 10 amazing days in Dubai! I said goodbye to an endless winter and headed right into the heart of summer, where the sunshine never ends. Now, looking back at my trip, I can say it was one of the most pleasant travel experiences in my life. Dubai is a beautiful, warm, sunny, and friendly city where people are welcoming and ready to help.
As a girl who lives in a windy and rainy city, I tried to get as much sun as I could by spending most of my time on the beach or wandering around. Dubai in March / April is warm, around +30C during the day and +20C during night – perfect weather conditions for me 🙂
Jumeira beach is by far my favorite beach in Dubai, with its white and soft sand, clear waters, and plenty of space for everyone. It stretches along the coast of the Persian gulf, which, for most of the time was calm (except for my last day there when I finally got a chance to have fun in the waves).
The only day when the beach was more or less crowded was Friday as it’s a weekly holiday for Muslims. The hotel where I stayed didn’t have a pool, so when I was packing for my trip I wasn’t sure if it would be okay to wear bikinis on public beaches since the UAE is a Muslim country. But once I got to the beach all my concerns faded away as locals don’t actually care about your swimsuit. There are also beach instructions that I recommend you to be familiar with, but pretty much all of the things listed there are common sense. If you are traveling there with your partner like I did, try to avoid overt expressions of affection. Nobody’s going to chop your hands off for holding them, people are kind and understanding there, but it’s good to be respectful to the local culture. Right next to Jumeira beach there is Kite beach where you can enjoy kite surfing and rent sun beds or umbrellas (50 AED for an umbrella, I totally spaced out on the price of sun beds, but I think it was around 20 AED).
Walking along the jogging track on the beach you may find a whole bunch of different fast food places: from German bratwursts to Italian pizzas, along with Indian cuisine and American burgers. Personally I was happily surprised with Jamba Juice, whose employee turned my boyfriend’s name from “Owen” into “Owan” 🙂
The jogging track divides the beaches on the coast and the city’s private villas. All of the villas are surrounded by fences. As one local told me it’s not for safety, but because people there enjoy their privacy. All of the windows are covered with curtains and sometimes I even got a feeling that nobody lives there – no toys or children playing outside, no benches with old people. I have gotten used to living in a city full of loud noises, voices, music coming out of windows – Dubai has absolutely different types of homes, quiet and peaceful.
Speaking about safety, during these 10 days nobody tried to rob or trick us, once a person asked us for change but he wore a suit so it was a bit weird.
On our first day we decided to take a walk from the beach to our hotel, and it was an unforgettable experience! Not only because of the beautiful surrounding we witnessed, but also because it took us four hours! FOUR HOURS! Dubai is a car friendly city, with a minimal amount of pedestrian zones and road crossings. Sometimes you have to walk along the highway for 30 mins until you see a cross-walk or a pedestrian bridge. Therefore I’d recommend the use of transport. Most of the hotels have a taxi counter where you can order taxi at anytime, but from my experience Über was the cheaper option. Also Dubai has a convenient metro system. Once you get to a metro station you’ll see a map where the city is divided into zones. A travel pass inside one zone will cost you 6 AED one way, plus the price for the ticket (Nol Red Ticket) which is 2 AED. You can read more about it on the Dubai Metro unoficial webpage which has a confusing title “Whot is NOL card”. Be careful and don’t enter the women and children only areas on the trains, the fine is 100 AED! Relevant information about penalties on public transport in Dubai can be found here.
That’s all for now. Let me know if there’s anything else you would like to know and I’ll talk more about it in my next post about Dubai. Stay tuned!
☞ Every train, every bus stop, every pedestrian tunnel has air conditioning, so you can always take a break from the sun there 🙂
Reach For The Unknown 