Dubai Hints & Tips! (Merged)

khizman

Moose wrote:

Many thanks for your apology khizman

To Fatboyonadiet, as for Oasis beach, we went there once because when we stayed at the Palm (was the Dubai Park then) it's not near the beach and you were able to use the beach front off Oasis Beach Hotel...anyway, very nice hotel. Reasonable prices for food if I remember rightly, it may have changed by now though so don't qoute me on that!

H

Your sig shows you cook well,
why not get an apartment and cook instead

Moose_2

Strange you should say that, we were looking yesterday at a self catering holiday in Dubai, but it was for september and too expensive. We get cheap flights so we might be able to find cheap appartments? Definately going to look into it.
H

khizman

Moose wrote:

Strange you should say that, we were looking yesterday at a self catering holiday in Dubai, but it was for september and too expensive. We get cheap flights so we might be able to find cheap appartments? Definately going to look into it.
H

Yeah i stayed in December a couple of years ago in Le Meridien Nasser sq apartments,
they charged Around 40-50 a night for a 2 bedroom apartment.
It was good as it was in the middle of the action!

Moose_2

khizman wrote:

It was good as it was in the middle of the action!

It has to be child friendly, ie....away from city and near beach.
I've been thinking (a bit dangerous I know), Prehaps a hotel is best for us. The point of a holiday is so I don't have to cook for a week! Kids love the pool and beach and I like the fact that some of the hotels have the kids pool covered and a club for them to meet others.

What's (in your opinion and anybody else who reads this post) the best hotel to stay in Dubai? All experiences good and bad please.

H

khizman

Moose wrote:

It has to be child friendly, ie....away from city and near beach.
I've been thinking (a bit dangerous I know), Prehaps a hotel is best for us. The point of a holiday is so I don't have to cook for a week! Kids love the pool and beach and I like the fact that some of the hotels have the kids pool covered and a club for them to meet others.

What's (in your opinion and anybody else who reads this post) the best hotel to stay in Dubai? All experiences good and bad please.

H

Who said you have to cook?
We only stay in apartments because you get LOADS of space for the same price as a hotel. There are zillions of places to eat in Nasser Sq.
I am not sure about kid friendly though, i dont think there were any facilities in the apartment block.

bigup

Hello folks!

Just got back from Dubai last night....Excellent holiday really enjoyed it and definately will be back again. People are friendly, place is clean, fun and excellent for shopping. Stayed at the Jumeirah beach hotel which was very nice and clean, but unexpectedly busy (didnt think it would be at this time of the year) but it was fully occupied.

I dont know why people moan about the temperature (it was around 40 - 45 degrees when we were there and its absolutely fine you dont even notice it when your walking around in town (ok you sweat and get hot..but thats to be expected). You do notice it on the beach if you sit there like a lemon soaking up all the sun. But drink lots of water and your fine. The sky was not clear though as the humidity in the summer blocks out the nice blue sky so it doesnt look quite as nice as in the books or TV!!

The hotel is being renovated but you dont really hear or see any works going on at the hotel. The work is only between 10-6 and we were on the 10th floor so couldnt really hear any work going on. I believe the work was on the top floor where they are moving one of their executive suites. Shouldnt be too bad if you get a room in the middle of the hotel. Lovely views (all sea view).

Would recommend using the free hotel shuttle to travel to town. We always took the 4 o clock shuttle bus, which gave us time for the beach in the mornings. Travelling to town from jumeirah beach hotel is about 30 dhs by taxi (approx 6.3 dirhams to a £). We used taxis a lot to get around town as its reasonably cheap, and taxis to get back to hotel.

Eating at the hotel is waaaay expensive, we had free meals on the hotel (given to us becuase we had to wait so long for the room when we first arrived) so a serving of food costs around 50dhs each, but drinks are around 24dhs (radiculous) even water costs a bomb (when u can buy it for a dh outside). The hotel gave free water in the rooms. Buy the rest of your drinks from town!

Food in town is cheap, we ate at khizmans choice of Karachi darbar (excellent food, probably the best place we ate at) it might not look like a fancy restaurant but the food was tasty (thanks khiz!!). All the main McD's, burger king, KFC, Pizza hut are all available. They can all be found spread out across dubai, or all are located next to emirates towers in town.

For shopping Karama is a must and also deira near the gold souks. Shops galore selling everything you need. And change money in deira if you can as thats where we found the best rates. Airport rates were poor compared to what we found in the town.

Telephoning - Hotels charge a hefty amount, about 16dhs a minute to call international (quite expensive). And there are no phone call centres which you can pop into. they do have phone boxes in town (not sure of the rates). i did take my mobile but forgot to get it set to international roaming (doh)!.

Try the desert safari, its about 220 dhs each. (although we paid amount of 1400 dhs for our own private car as we didnt want to have the whole meal and belly dance etc, just the drive). But the sand adventure was good and because it was a private drive the driver did hes own (not in the manual stunts) which made us a bit more hot under the collar!! good experience though and then on to a camel farm and then sunset to finish. (full tour includes the meals etc). worth doing.

And finally visiting the mighty burj was a nice treat, we got driven down in a BMW (free from our hotel) but we had to dress smartly (i even had to buy a pair of shoes from town to get in lol) as they dont let in shorts/slippers/tshirts etc.

Overall a very nice holiday!!

itn

ive just booked dubai 7 nights for £449, staying 3* ramee appartments and flying with gulf air with an hour stop in the bahrain. Transfers are also included and safari, wild wadi and doho ride and meal booked for £75.

i cant wait to go, i stayed there last year with the wife on our honeymoon, this time its a lads holidays.

itn

Moose_2

Hi Bigup,
We were hoping to stay At Jumeriah Beach in November, do you know when work will be finished?
And do you get free entry to Wild Wadi if you stay there?

Thanks

H

bigup

Hi Moose, i believe the work will be finished by september (that is what the agent told me when i booked) so you may be ok. But as i said before , you cant see the work, there may be a bit of noise on the higher floors as the relocation of the Club Executive lounge is happening on the 24th floor.

what you could do is email them to find out more. Their email is:

info@thejumeirahbeachhotel.com

And yes it is free access to the Wild wadi. They even drive you there if your lazy even though its like 1 minute away lol, but you can just walk through the pool area and get in.

commjo

Shadow wrote:

This all said, best holiday ever for friendliness, cleanliness etc etc, superb beaches and extremely relaxing.If you stay at the Jumeirah Beach upgrade to "Premium Leisure Club" as you get breakfast (all you can eat) overlooking Wild Wadi and afternoon tea and a later tea with all you can drink champagne/beers/cocktails thrown in. You'll definitely get your money's worth out of this and if you have kids, a free tea for them at 4pm. WE CAN'T WAIT TO RETURN!!! Have a great time everyone who's going, am envious - lol!!!!

How much is the Premium Leisure Club, and where do you upgrade -via the travel agent, or at the hotel?

Many thanks