During our stay in Dubai, we decided to take a half-day tour of the city with a local guide. We love to travel and explore on our own, but sometimes we also decide to take a guided tour, especially if we don’t have much time or, like in this case, if we want to have a quick overview of the city where we are staying, which we will discover in detail in the following days.
To be honest, the choice to travel to Dubai was not mine, but my wife really wanted to see it. I was a bit sceptical about what we would do there. Today, I can tell you that I would go back there immediately, and not just for a few days, but for much longer and I wouldn’t be bored there. Well, now you know who has the final word at our home 🙃
Whatever is the reason, that you decide on a guided tour, the added value is always the insight perspective of the destination given by the local guide. Who can tell you more about everyday life than a local?
We opted for a half-day tour in a small group. Travelling around in a small minibus was pleasant, and the group members were agreeable. This kind of tour gives you only a quick overview of the city, with short stops at some of the most popular sightseeing locations and you should know in advance that the stops will be short and there won’t be much time for visits, shopping, etc. As I said, it is ok for an orientation in the city, but we visited some of the locations once again and in our own peace.
In this post, I will present you some of the places that I definitely recommend visiting while in Dubai, but of course there are many more that we were not able to visit due to luck of time.
Our first stop was at the incredible Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world with its 829.8 meters. It is the most elegant and impressive building that I’ve ever seen. Our hotel was just a few minutes’ walk from Burj Khalifa, and we had great views of this building during our whole stay. The building itself and the whole area around it, with the fountain (and the evening show), the Dubai Mall, and the Dubai Mall Aquarium are pleasant to wonder around. I will tell you more about it in one of my next posts. On the city tour, we just stopped at one of the teras near Burj Khalifa for a quick photo and then we continued to our next stop, the Dubai frame.
 |  |
|---|
The Dubai Frame is located in Zabeel Park. It holds the record for the largest frame in the world. It didn’t take us long time to realise that in Dubai it was all about world records: the highest building, the biggest frame, the tallest hotel, the most prestigious hotel, the biggest aquarium, the most innovative museum, the biggest artificial island complex, and many more.
The Dubai Frame (which is 150 meters high and 95 meters wide) is at the same time an observatory, a museum, and a monument. It is a beautiful structure, the facade is ornated and shines like gold under the hot desert sun. I
The building also presents a link, or doors between “the old” and “the new” Dubai. From the top, visitors can observe the modern Dubai on one side and older parts of the city on the other.
Our next stop was Zabeel Palace, which is the official residence of the Chairman of Dubai Municipality. We approached the palace, but just to a certain point, and were able to see the palace only from a certain distance due to security reasons.
The major attraction for my son, but also for other members of our group was the car that was parked in front of the palace. Well, the main attraction was the car plate with number 7. Car plates with low numbers are the most expensive ones in Dubai, because only the most important and powerful man can have the plates with low numbers, and they are synonyms for prestige and status.
We continued our drive to “the old Dubai” and the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, the birthplace of Dubai. The architecture changed completely. From high and modern buildings and skyscrapers, we were transported to the traditional Arabic quarter, with a strong allure of the 19th century.
We stopped at Al Fahidi Fort, the oldest existing building in the city, dating back to 1787. Once it was a monarch's base, a fortified residence, a weapons arsenal, and a prison. In 1971 (the same year the United Arab Emirates was formed), it was opened as a museum, showing Dubi's history and heritage. During our visit, the museum was closed.
 |  |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
Then we jumped on the typical boat, the water bus line named Abbra, and crossed Dubai Creek. We reached the Souks.
 |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
We walked along the spice souk and the golden souk. Both were incredible, both amazing. The spice souk is full of colors and fragrances.
The Gold souk was calmer, with only one colors, the shiny gold. The vendors on the spice soul were very talkable and very persuading, while the golden souk was calmer also because it was made of shops, and all the vendors were waiting inside their shops.
My wife and I thought about buying the "small" gold ring on below photo, but we changed our minds because we would need to pay extra weight for the return flight 🤣😂🤣
We moved to the south of the city and first stopped at The Al Farooq Omar Bin Al Khattab Mosque And Centre. The building is a replica of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, known as the Blue Mosque. There is also a resemblance due to the thousands of Iznek tiles that color its interior walls and arches.
 |  |
|---|
A beautiful religious place, full of spirituality and peace. We have to dress ourselves properly, and our son found it very interesting since we were all wearing traditional clothes that are much different from what we are used to.
 |  |
|---|
The clock was ticking and we had to jump back on the bus to drive to Jumeirah Beach, from where we were able to see the Burj Al Arab, the one and only 7-star hotel. The hotel is made in the shape of a sail and located on an artificial island.
The last stop of the tour was to Palm Jumeirah. An artificial complex of islands in the shape of a plam tree. Honestly, the palm shape is visible only from high above (like a plane), and when you are there, you don’t know that you are on the palm. But the area is very pleasant to walk around, with some nice restaurants and bars offering great views, also to the Atlantis hotels (Atlantis and Atlantis Royal).
It was such a nice location that we returned the next day, and I promise I will tell you more about that in the next posts.
The tour ended on The Palm, and we were supposed to get back to our starting point. But the three of us took the metro and travelled down to Dubai Marina.
It was a late afternoon, and it was getting dark slowly, but we enjoyed the walk along the waterfront, admiring the silhouettes of elegant buildings and the reflections of the sunset in the numerous glass windows, while listening to the buzzy atmosphere on the numerous cruise boats that were offering canal cruises with dinner onboard.
 |  |
|---|
Unfortunately for us, the day slowly turned into a late evening, and with the metro we travelled back to Dubai Mall for a nice and tasty dinner at their fabulous food court, which was, luckily for us, only a short walk from our hotel.
Thanks for reading,
feel free to leave a comment, I will be glad to reply to.
Best regards, @miljo76
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
👍 ❤️ Upvoted ❤️ 👍
Thank you!
@miljo76,
You are most welcome.
I'll keep up the good work.
a very nice place.
It's true, I liked it a lot! Thank you for stopping by!
As far as I know, throughout the Middle East, Dubai is one of the place that attracts tourists because of its unique and tall buildings. There's a lot of beautiful place to visit too.
However, as I can see in your photos, there are more foreign visitors than locals. Perhaps it's because some are tourists, while others are an expats there for work.
It must feels like a country of diverse cultures and nationalities because many who work there are from outside the country.
Dubai is definitely worth a visit! It is a land of superlatives in a nutshell. Our guide told us that 80% of the population are foreigners who work here. The mix of cultures is evident at every turn, as you have noticed. In some aspects, Eastern culture dominates, in others, Western influences. But the best thing is that you have cuisine from all over the world to choose from 😜
!discovery 42
Thanks a lot @esther-emmanuel and @discovery-it team!
This post was shared and voted inside the discord by the curators team of discovery-it
Join our Community and follow our Curation Trail
Discovery-it is also a Witness, vote for us here
Delegate to us for passive income. Check our 80% fee-back Program
Great photos and story. There is a climate conference right now, isn't it?
!DHEDGE
Thanks @seckorama! It's true, there's a climate conference going on in Dubai these days... I'm guessing they're all arriving on private jets 🤔
This post has been selected for upvote from our token accounts by @seckorama! Based on your tags you received upvotes from the following account(s):
- @dhedge.bonus
- @dhedge.pob
- @dhedge.neoxag
- @dhedge.waiv
@seckorama has 14 vote calls left today.
Hold 10 or more DHEDGE to unlock daily dividends. Hold 100 or more DHEDGE to unlock thread votes. Calling in our curation accounts currently has a minimum holding requirement of 100 DHEDGE. The more DHEDGE you hold, the higher upvote you can call in. Buy DHEDGE on Tribaldex or earn some daily by joining one of our many delegation pools at app.dhedge.cc.
Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2079.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Thank you very much @lizanomadsoul and @pinmapple for the curation!!!
It's a wonderful city. There are many things that are worth photographing. Great bright sunny pictures!
Hi @avada,there were too many interesting things to photograph in such a limited time 🙃Thanks for dropping by!
Wooow! what a nice stroll and snaps! scrolling through your post seems like I've been strolling with you and your wife 😃
This was the purpose of the post😆 Joking aside, thank you, I'm glad you liked the post!
Very nice was this tour through many very famous sights in Dubai, and I will experience a holiday in Dubai in three weeks.
The trip was really great, it just went by too quickly. Great that you're going on holiday, I'm sure you'll have a phenomenal time! Don't forget your swimsuit 🙃 and of course write something about that!
Indeed, when you go to a place and feel really good time flies, I have to admit that I have few emotions, I made so many plans, I hope to succeed at least some of them.
I hope the weather is nice in december and I can wear my swimsuit.
Don't worry, everything will work out as planned, for sure! Just enjoy your time there,....
Thank you, and yes I will try to include as many activities as possible through Dubai, the country is very attractive.
Amazing photos!
Thank you and warm greetings!
Oh wow you were in Dubai, the photos are great! Actually, I always wanted to go there, but somehow couldn't. It looks fascinating though!!:)
Best regards from the cold germany;)
Thanks Katrin! Yeah, we were there this February, you know shopping, and those expensive things 🤣😂🤣Joking aside, I went without any particular expectations, and I must admit I was impressed. I highly recommend a visit, you can be around for days and at the end of the travel you realise that you could have stayed there for months. In our winter months there are spring temperatures, but in summer it warms up to well over 40 C. Now is a good time to book your flights 🙃 A warm greeting from a cold Slovenia!