Эмираты - верните меня обратно! Emirates - take me back!

Good day to all!
So first things first. We wanted to go with my wife for the New Year in Egypt (to be inexpensive). We looked at the prices - taking into account the New Year's banquet, it turned out to be some kind of nonsense, especially when you consider that my wife and I do not drink, and this banquet is like a hare's fifth leg to us ...In Turkey, the sea is cold, Thailand is far away (the flight is expensive) ...Steel study tours in the UAE. I took out everything that was business cards of tour operators and gave them tasks: “Dubai for the New Year AND SHOBS WAS CHEAP! ! ! » In principle, the next day, all the husks were immediately eliminated - most of them sent all sorts of nonsense or expensive. Most of all I liked the offers from the agency "Luck Tour" (Kramatorsk) and from the agency from Odessa (I don’t know the name - the phone was given by friends from Nikolaev). They sent the best deals and among other things they sent the same tour at the same price, which we then chose.
By the way, none of the operators found this tour, even after we came and called the hotel, date, etc. It was the city hotel Cassels Al Barsha Hotel 3 *** (4 ***** by our standards). The ticket cost $1670 for two Bed&Breakfest together with visas, i. e. $1500 without visas! ! ! We looked on Google map - the hotel is not far from the sail hotel (Burj Al Arab) and the palm tree (Jumeirah Palm), plus for this money there were only 3 ***, and this one was listed as 4 ****, and one more At the moment there is free Wi-Fi, which is far from everywhere. There is also a rooftop pool, jacuzzi, gym, sauna and all this for free. Since Kramatorsk was 800 km closer to me (I'm from the Lugansk region), I called them first and asked what I needed to reserve a tour. I was told that an advance payment of 3000-4000 UAH is enough (all other operators demanded 80-90% of the advance payment for their offers). I sent them money on the card and asked 50 questions about the trip, because I had not been abroad before.

They sent me a confirmation that the hotel was booked, and what I liked the most - they answered ALL my questions in a very qualified and high-quality manner. Moreover, if the girl did not know some moments, after a while the director called me back and answered ALL questions. As for me, this is a very professional attitude to the client, which many businessmen lack so much! In principle, we decided ALL organizational issues over the phone and I didn’t have to come to them (savings: 300 km + half a day)! True, there were two tense moments:
1. My wife's surname is not the same as mine, and we were worried whether they would give her a visa, because not all girls under 30 are allowed into the Emirates. Everything turned out to be normal, just in advance no one could say for sure whether they would give a visa or not. Just in case, we translated the marriage certificate into English, but this turned out to be superfluous.
2.
The flight was planned from Donetsk, but something didn’t work out there, and after two days of fuss we were offered to fly from Dnepropetrovsk + $ 50 compensation, while we arrived half a day later (at 22.00 instead of 15.00). Since there was nowhere to go, we agreed.
At the airport in Dnipro, as promised, we were given tickets, insurance, $50 compensation, etc. - in general, all obligations were fulfilled.
Flight on a Boeing 737 (4 hours 20 minutes) - everything is standard - no remarks, arrived on time.
And here it is Dubai airport! The size, probably, of a small city, everything glows, everything is beautiful - go nuts! Palm trees 30 meters inside the building, etc. Immediately with the whole herd for an eye scan (relevant for both men and women), and there is a crowd of 300 people! In principle, 20 minutes passed, everything is ok. Then passport control - 40 minutes, then for luggage, and quickly look for EXIT. The time was late, and we were worried that our guide would not dump along with the transfer! By the way, if anything at the airport, the dollar exchange rate is 3.55-3.
6 dirhams, and in the city the maximum is 3.65 (in Deira City Center), so you can also change part of the money at the airport for immediate expenses.

We leave the airport and …. . it feels like we immediately went to the salon Lexus! I didn’t even realize at first that we were already on the street. There is parking right away, everything is lit up, all the cars are new and clean! Very impressive. Find your representative. He doesn't speak Russian. I remember English intensely and explain to him who we are and what we need. He grabs his bags and runs to introduce us to the guide. Here in more detail: the guide (name is Larisa) from the company Rida Int, when asked how to call up, she immediately said that she would not call the simfortour card (it’s expensive for her, you need it, you call; ) our hardening is felt; . Anyway, the driver took us to the car (the new Kia Carnaval is a feeling that it is a maximum of a month old), along the way he told us what and where (our taxi drivers would learn from him) It turns out that our hotel is very close to the Moll of Emirates shopping center.
30 minutes drive and here it is - our hotel. The doorman opens the door, inside everything matches the pictures on the Internet, 15 minutes at the reception - and we are in our room. Here, too, everything matches the pictures. Hmm, but in Kyiv for this money you can only rent a room in Tourist or Slavutych (here we understand that Ukraine is very more expensive in places than the UAE). All sleep…
We wake up from the knock of the cleaner, we understand that according to them it is already 10 am and we run for breakfast. Well, the cost, in principle, is normal for this money. The food is both ours and “theirs”4; . You can eat, on the third day you already understand it. By the way, a supermarket is 5 meters from the hotel, the prices are the same as ours, you can pay in dollars.
A pleasant surprise - the metro is 30 meters from the hotel - it's very convenient! By the way, there is a Gold class - this is the first car. It is more expensive, but you can look at the city through the windshield, and not through the side window, as in a regular car.
On the first day we decide to find a super freebie here and buy a camera.
We went to Nassa Square, found the Gargash Center, killed half a day there, bargained three times for half an hour, bought a camera, then looked through the Internet - in our “outlet” it is 15 UAH more expensive, here ....

In fact, with regard to technology, here is my non-objective conclusion: cameras - prices + -100 UAH from ours, laptops - the same, only if they have Russian letters - they are painted through a stencil, so to speak "special for Russian", mobiles are cheaper than our "gray" ones by 100-200 UAH, only they have neither Russian keys, nor the Russian language, plus then they must be entered into the declaration at customs, in short, garbage. Well, with the camera in order, let's go look for fur coats. It's right next to it. We go to the store: “Do you speak English? ”, and in response to us: “yes, why do you speak Russian. ” 4; Here our conclusion is as follows: if you look at a fur coat more expensive than $ 2000, then there is a sense, if it is cheaper, then ...for an amateur. We liked a normal store to the left of "Planeta Mexa" about 400 meters towards Nassa Square. There is the owner Artur and one of the sellers of Dilyar.
Their quality seems to match the prices, and they even give a guarantee for 10 years (you will definitely come with a warranty case in 9.5 years; ).
By the way, if you want to eat - the Golden Fork cafe network - prices are the same as in our cafe (be sure to take fresh) 12 dirhams (x2.2 = 26.4 UAH) - in our good restaurants, fresh is worse! ! ! We also noticed that all their drinking water, even the cheapest (1.5 l-3 UAH) has a pH of 7.0 or more, and we have such water that costs 14 UAH 0.5 l (Evian, etc. )! ! ! When we returned home, we took water from the reverse osmosis filter, threw coral powder into it and still the water is worse than their cheapest one ! ! !
Now about the beach. All the time (two times) we were at Jumeirah Beach Park No. 3. Entrance 5 dirhams. Towels can be taken from the hotel. By taxi from the hotel 30 dirhams. In principle, a normal beach, everything is civilized. By the way, there is a cafe on the beach, so you can eat there: two salads with tuna (by the way, the quality is better than we have in expensive cafes), french fries, coffee - all this is 70-80 UAH! ! ! 20 meters from the sea!
And in Yalta, a cup of coffee in a cafe on the embankment costs 50 UAH! ! !
There is one caveat: the taxi has a shift change (one hour) either from 15.30 or from 16.30 and it is really very difficult to leave the beach at this time! ! ! Check this point on the spot, so as not to stand in line for a taxi. By the way, you can leave by bus (the same card is valid there as in the subway), you just need to know where he is going.
There is also a beach called Al Mamzar, but it is in a different place. We weren't there, but the other guys said they liked it better than Jumeirah.

Now for the guide. If possible, especially if, God forbid, you come across Larisa, do not take excursions from guides. They are definitely more expensive than dollars by 20-40! They call you on the very first day and begin to breed, while you are still “not local”. I knew that they were more expensive, I deliberately took a jeep safari from Larisa, because.
she promised the driver Ibragim, whom I read about on the Internet (you can find it yourself, they write a lot about him here), as a result, the left driver from another agency arrived in a dumped Kruzak an hour later than promised. To a call with a question: “What a scammer, where is Ibrahim? ” Larisa replied that she didn’t know anything, she asked Ibrahim, so everything is ok! ! ! So don't be fooled by the fact that the agency is responsible for you, etc. But fortunately the carrier turned out to be normal and the safari went off with a bang! I recommend it to everyone - awesome stuff. For $40, we (in Ukraine) won’t be able to fly like this on a “cruiser”
The next moment is malls (hypermarkets). I recommend to allocate at least 2-3 days for this business. It's worth it. Prices - at first everything is expensive, after two hours you start to find a freebie. Example: Columbia jacket 600-1000 UAH (we have 1400-2200 UAH). Pierre Cardin and Dolce Gabana - the combination of price quality - just super! We have it all more expensive than 2 times at least and worse in quality!
There are diamonds for $650.000-$750.000 (I was not mistaken with zeros) beautiful! But it’s better to take perfumes in duty-free (saving 30%), since prices in malls are the same as ours.
From excursions, I recommend immediately taking the Big Bas Tour. This is a double-decker bus that will take you around the city (you can buy it in the malls on the first floor at the entrance), this will give you an idea of ​ ​ the city, plus a tour in 8 languages ​ ​ (Russian is available). Get off at any stop, walk, take the next bus, etc.

We were taken to the airport less pompously. A bus like “Bogdan” arrived, only with air conditioning, we loaded ourselves together and someone said: “Goodbye Dubai! » On the way to the airport, we stopped at two hotels and picked up someone's luggage.

And now a very important point! WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WRAPPING BAGS WITH FILM AND, IF POSSIBLE, DO NOT PUT NEW ITEMS IN THE Luggage. Better carry them in your hand luggage.
The fact is that we only put old things in our bag and wrapped it in film, but most people did not wrap it, plus they put all the purchases in luggage. As a result, when we arrived in Donetsk, half of the plane's luggage was gone, moreover, mainly from those who did not wrap it in film and put new things in the luggage! Draw your own conclusions. As they say "wellcome to Ukraine"!
All successful travels, bright, joyful impressions!
There will be questions
Best regards, Sergei.