GUÍA DE DUBAI – CUESTIONES GENERALES, DUBAI CREEK Y ZOCOS

I am already back from my trip to Dubai, it has been brief and intense, but I
feel like a lot to make a small guide of the places that I visited and give you some
advice from my experience, so, there we go!!

-GENERAL QUESTIONS-

2. Particularities of cash in Dubai.
The tip theme is not at all pushy. You can leave it as doing without, it is not
at all like in New York, here is really at the customer’s will.
Another curious thing is that sometimes you will see that (especially taxi
drivers/uber), they charge or lose a small amount of money. I explain, to
give an example: they are going to charge 53 AED and you pay with 55 AED,
because it’s very probable that they say to you that they don’t have change,
or that directly they give you nothing. On the contrary, if you are charged 51
AED and you pay with 55 AED, you may receive 5 AEDs. I deduce (and this is just
a thought of mine), which doesn’t move much cash change in the city, and even
less in such small amounts, is the most logical explanation that we find.

4. How to move in Dubai?
If I’m not mistaken there are three ways to get around the city: car, subway
and bus. I can only speak of my experience in the first one.
From the metro we spoke very well, they say it’s fast and very safe, although
for reasons of comfort we didn’t choose to pick it up.
The buses we saw were quite old, and from what we could read it took quite a
while to connect the different parts of the city. In this sense it may be interesting
to inform you of the services offered by your hotel, as in many accommodations,
guests are offered buses to major attractions such as Palm Jumeirah or Dubai
Mall.
With regard to cars you can choose to rent one or take a taxi or uber.
Taxis
are not too expensive, but they have an inconvenience, they don’t pact
the
price, meter and Dubai (and this is really important), is a city that is
continually under construction. All the time, look where you look, you
will
find buildings under construction, cut streets,… This causes taxi
drivers to
get lost sometimes (I know what I’m talking about, because it happened
more
than once in just four days), and here comes the second problem, the
roads of
the city look like spirals, you have the feeling of being constantly
spinning
because they have almost no crosses, so if you go from street you have
to go so far to turn around, and in the meantime the meter continues to
run… That is why my recommendation is there, although in some way you
can assume
some more AED, Uber gives you a fixed rate regardless of traffic, works,
and
the expertise of the drivers.
Ah, I forgot, for those that you are asking, the answer is no. You can’t move
around Dubai by walk. First you can’t do it because it isn’t a city prepared
for it, you will almost not see sidewalks (nor will you want to see them, the
heat doesn’t invite you to walk), and on the other hand the city measures end
to end 77km, so it’s not a good idea.

6. How to dress in Dubai being a woman.
It was something that I was a bit overwhelmed, I had read a lot on the subject,
and the truth is that I found forums for all tastes. In general, this is a city
that is quite accustomed to Western tourism, in this sense we didn’t have to
use the veil at any time other than to enter the mosque (we’ll talk about this
on the day I publish that post). And as for the clothes I didn’t buy
anything special to travel there, but it’s true that I tried to conform to
their culture, first of all out of respect, and also because I didn’t want to
draw too much attention. In any case, if you want to go with a micro shorts and
a crop top nobody will stop you, but as you can imagine they will look at you a
lot.

7. Is it safe for a single woman to travel to Dubai?
I traveled with my friend Cris and we had absolutely no problems, but like
everything, it depends on the common sense and each person. If you don’t go
looking for problems you don’t have to find them.

8. Is Dubai expensive?
If you want luxury, Dubai may be the most expensive city in the
universe. But don’t worry, the good thing about being such a big city is
that there is
everything. You will find innumerable restaurants at prices like those
of Spain
and much cheaper.

And I think that with these general notes I can go into matter, in this first
post I will tell you about our first day visit, the gold and special souks and
Dubai Creek.