Visiting "The Pearl of Gulf" was there in my travel wish list for pretty long time. On Apr-2019 got an opportunity to visit Arizona with my colleagues. Took this opportunity and went through Dubai, we took emirates everyone's favorite.
Itinerary:
Chennai - Dubai - Boston- Phoenix - New York - Dubai - Chennai (Emirates)
Visa:
For Indians getting UAE visa is very simple, since we hold USA visa we are eligible for On Arrival Visa. Indian B1/B2 Visa holders can apply visa online or port of entry (special counters are there) Note: Transit visa is valid only for 4 days.
If you are travelling through emirates then you can apply transit visa though emirates website.
Stay:
Dubai is the best place for tourist, if you are travelling as a group, for sure you will get best hotels at cheaper price. Dubai is very well connected by metro and it is advisable to stay near any metro station. We are 4 and we stayed in Hilton near to Airport metro. For 3 bed double room costed around USD 60 only. Dubai Mall is in the center of the city so plan your hotel in close proximity may be around 10 km from mall.
Hotel: www.dubaiairport.hamptonbyhilton.com using Booking.com
Food:
There are many good restaurants around Dubai, if you are Indian you don't need to search for any restaurant just step out on the road you will see lots of Indian restaurant particularly Kerala type. We are so lucky that Sangeetha and Ponnusamy Hotels (South Indian Tamil style) and one Kerala restaurant is few meters away from Hilton and the food was so delicious, we didn't feel that we are in different country.
Local Connectivity:
Metro (Best choice)
City Bus
Uber, Kareem and Dubai Taxi
If you want to roam around the city take Metro train it very well connected to many places. You can take route pass or just buy ticket based on your destination.
Language:
English and Arabic works everywhere however in Dubai almost 70 percentage of the people are Indians in that may be 60 percent are Malayalies. If you can speak Hindi or Malayalam you can go anywhere in UAE.
What to Do:
Dubai has lots of places to see of-course you can easily spend entire month for Dubai vacation however we were in transit visa so our itinerary was only for 4 days. We reached on Sunday morning and started back on Wednesday evening.
Day-1:
Hotel Check in time is 12:00 pm since we landed on Sunday morning 8:00 am, we are forced to wait in the reception since most of the rooms are occupied. We were in jet lag so took rest and evening we took metro and went to Dubai Mall. Its Big yes it is really BIG you can spend entire day inside the mall. From metro station you can directly walk into Dubai mall. There are few interesting things to do inside mall.
Burj Khalifa (You can book ticket online - Morning is cheaper and Evening is little expensive)
Aquarium (Book together with Burj Khalifa)
Fountain (Shows starts from 6 pm onward for every 30 minutes)
Dubai Mall
Day-2:
Morning we planned for city tour.
All the hotels has tourist desk and mostly the prices are reasonable however please check it online before booking. We took 1 sedan car for local sight seeing, since we are 4 people the price is very reasonable for us instead of taking city bus ride. We got a Pakistani driver cum Guide mostly the drivers are tourist friendly, however please be cautious everywhere. I will add few interesting places that we visited.
Gold Souk (Gold Market) - Must Visit (You will get pure gold but making charge is high)
Old Dubai (Spice Market) - You can buy some Dates (You need to bargain everywhere)
Creek - Boat ride just INR 20 for 5 min ride (Must Try)
Dubai Museum - Must visit to know tribe's life style and Dubai's transformation
Jumaira Beach - Nice beach please make sure you visit in the evening
Atlantis Hotel - Just see in front of road (You will riding under the sea tunnel to visit this hotel)
Evening, from the hotel we took metro train to visit Naif Souk local city market. You will get everything clothes, Spices, Electronics and more. Since Dubai is tax free country you will get electronics items at dam cheap price than India and USA. For instance we bought a DSLR in USA for INR 32K and the same model in Dubai is available at only 25K. Many indians purchase iPhone here.
Tip: For Indians gold is little cheaper in Dubai due to high Indian tax, however you can carry only 20 grams or else you will be ended up in paying more custom duty. It is prefer to buy gold in reputed shops like Malabar, Joy Alukas etc since they have branches in India and the gold is pure. For tourist Gold is Tax Free if you are buying in the city you can pay the tax and claim it in the airport counter by showing the bill.
Dubai Creek
Spice Market
Dates Different Type
Morning we booked online ticket for visiting Burj Khalifa and Aquarium. Its must visit if you want to see the world tallest building and world's high speed elevator. Aquarium is also good however please buy tickets together to avail discount.
Evening, we booked for desert safari (Must try don't miss it) Pickup/ Drop will done from the hotel in Land Rover 4 wheel drive. They picked us around 4 pm and took us to the middle of the desert for ATV ride. Adventurous person can give it a try or just skip it since it is little expensive and not part of your desert safari package. Once ATV is done they will take you to the desert ride.
Off Wheel Ride - Wow, all energetic people must try - Included in Package
Selfie with Falcon - @ 10 AED
Camel Ride - Funny Take off and Landing is scary - Included in Package
Lebanon Fire Dance - Included in Package
Belly Dance - Included in Package
Hooka - Included in Package
Dinner - Included in Package
Burj Khalifa
Desert Safari
Day-4:
After breakfast we checkout the hotel and kept our luggage in the hotel clock room. We booked package ticket for Dubai Parks. It has 4 different parks inside,
1.Motiongate
2.LegoLand
3.Lego Water park
4.Bollywood Park
We got only half day so we took 2 park package since we are Lego fans so visited Lego land and Motion gate park. I enjoyed a lot and i highly recommend this place if you are Hollywood animation movie fan. We reached back to hotel by 3 pm and left to airport.
Overall it was memorable pocket friendly trip for each person it took just 30K for 4 days.
Lego Land Minature
MotionGate
Thank You for Reading.
