Como todo, depende de lo que busquéis en vuestro viaje. Si como nosotras queréis un poco de todo, turismo, playa, piscina y ocio, os recomiendo la zona de Downtown (es donde se encuentra el Burj Khalifa y donde nosotras decidimos buscar nuestro hotel), o como mucho la zona de Dubai Marina, que se encuentr a unos 15 minutos en coche de la primera). La zona antigua, el Dubai Creek o Deira están mucho más alejados de la ciudad, y son zonas menos turísticas; de igual modo la famosa palmera está a unos 35 minutos en coche del centro de la ciudad, por lo que no resulta demasiado práctico a no ser que sólo busquéis playas.
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!!
this post because it’s the first of all, so in the following I will redirect
you here for these issues.
-GENERAL QUESTIONS-
The official currency of Dubai is the United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED). At the
time of my trip, September 2017, the change was 1 AED = 0.23 EUROS. There you
can pay by credit card virtually any amount and in all establishments, but if
you decide that you prefer to bring some cash, my advice is to make the change
directly at the Dubai airport. So I did, you’re going to lose some money, but
it’s not too much, there are no commissions, that loss is due to the change of
currency.
I mean, my plane was making a stopover in London, and since I had a lot of time
I went to a foreign exchange establishment, there I was going to make the
change as follows: EURO-LIBRA-AED, when making two currency changes my money
devalued a lot more, so that is not at all profitable.
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.
Like everything, it depends on what you are looking for in your trip. If you
like a bit of everything, tourism, beach, pool and leisure, I recommend the
Downtown area (this is where the Burj Khalifa is and where we decided to look
for our hotel), or at most Dubai Marina area, which it is about 15 minutes
drive from the first. The old area, Dubai Creek or Deira are far further from
the city, and are less touristy areas; Likewise the famous palm tree is about
35 minutes drive from the city center, so it is not too practical unless you
just look for beaches.
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.
September is still a warm month, but more transitional. The
«transition» had 35 degrees of minimum and 42 of maximum, so if you
don’t want to become mortar skewers avoid the months of June, July and August.
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.
-SOUKS AND DUBAI CREEK-
We started our adventure in Emirates in old Dubai, we decided to visit the gold
souk and spice souk. Consulting by internet you can see that there are many
more, the fabrics, the perfumes,… Everything depends a little on what you
like and what you want to visit. We chose these two because they seemed the
most emblematic.
Their names speak for themselves, gold (and diamonds) and spices everywhere.
The great recommendation at the moment is this: be patience. You will not
be able to look at a single place, they want to sell, and they will always be
on top of you with offers. At this point it is indispensable that you always
keep in mind that in the souks you are haggling, and a lot.
In the souks of jewels you can try everything you want without any problem, in
the spices they will explain what each one consists of and let you taste a lot
of nuts and sweet (and there you will be sold, because they are all very good).
Here you will also find robes and handkerchiefs, is certainly the best place to
buy these things. To give you an idea, I bought a 100% silk scarf for 65 AED,
days later I saw that same scarf in the center and at the airport for 350 AED, I not need to say much more, right?
After walking through the souks we went to the pier, there are a lot of typical
boats called Abras. You have two options, you can take a «regular»
Abra, in them there are many people, the trip takes about 10 minutes and only
costs 1 AED per person. If you just want to take a moment to live the
experience is the most economic. The other option (which will be offered as
soon as you approach the pier) is to take a «private» Abra, for 100
AED (total price per boat, regardless of how many people you are), give you a
tour around Dubai Creek during a hour. We opted for the latter when the sun was
falling and it was beautiful. In addition to contemplating one of the largest
and most red suns I have ever seen, we were able to hear the prayer from our
Abra and gaze out across the illuminated Creek at nightfall. Almost forgot to
say, the price of Abra is also bargained, although here it is difficult to
lower more than 100 AED for an hour, we paid that and originally asked us 120
AED.
And I don’t think I forget anything for today! If you have any general
doubt,
or you want to know something in particular of the Souks or this ancient
area
you can leave a comment, send me an email or whatever you want! So that
you don’t write to me wondering what I will write in the following days,
I will tell
you a little of what I am going to talk about: Palm Jumeirah and Burj Al
Arab,
desert excursion, visit to Abu Dhabi, Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and the
Fountains.
For this first day I chose one of my most covered dresses, since we were going
to the old area. I also loved the print because it seems to me that it stuck
a lot with all the spice souks, the Adras… Yes it’s important that the
fabrics are cool, mine was super light and I was quite good. For the
comfortable and super-trend sandals, my Nomadic State. In none of these posts
will you see me with a purse, because when I go on tourism I always carry a
backpack, the same for every day, more than anything because if it would not be
impossible to carry all my deals… haha.
And that’s all for today! I hope you liked it and that my recommendations help
you!!
And if you want to see more unpublished photos of the trip don’t stop
following me in my instagram @CCPetiteRobe
Lots of kisses!!!

Muy útiles los datos. Besos
¡Hola guapa!
Me guardo este post como el siguiente que tienes de Dubai, es un viaje que estoy planeando hacer porque me han hablado maravillas y como todo… he leído gente que se ha gastado 1000€ allí como los que se han gastado 10.000, así que me quedo con tu experiencia y te agradezco mucho que la compartas. Todas las fotos son preciosas <3
Un besazo
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