Отдых в Дубае Vacation in Dubai

We went to Dubai in February 2011. I must say right away. that before the trip I read a lot of reviews, including about the hotel. There were both positive and negative reviews, but all the reviews were true, although my friends claimed that the reviews were written either by representatives of tour operators, or travel agencies, or hotels. 1. Hotel Versales. There are no Russian speakers at the reception in the lobby. But in principle, if you know at least the minimum vocabulary in English, there will be no particular difficulties. We were settled on the topmost, 7th floor, where there are mostly only Russians, although I must say that there were 25 percent of Russians in the hotel. The room was normal, yes, the windows did not open and were not quite ideal, but in principle it was not interfered with our rest, we didn’t need to open the windows, our room had a separate adjustable air conditioner, personal, and not one per floor, as they say in other hotel reviews, but to be honest, we turned it off almost on the day of arrival, the room was quite cool , not hot, and at night even under the covers sometimes froze, sometimes I had to cover myself with a bedspread. Immediately asked for a bed one or two. In the room, the refrigerator was immediately filled with cola, mineral water, beer, and there was a basket of chocolate paste on the table. Nuts, sweets, something else, it's all clear, extra. services. We didn’t use anything, we only used it as a refrigerator for storing food, while during checkout no one came to check our stock, apparently they had already checked it. Nobody said a word to us, I am writing this to the fact that many dissatisfied compatriots complain that they were unreasonably attributed to what they had drunk and eaten. Upon check-in, we were immediately given a memo when the bus goes to the beach, the schedule for breakfast and lunch, while they immediately took away our passports, with the replica “no problem”, they didn’t swear and download rights, especially in English we didn’t know how to express ourselves , while I already foresaw this in advance, having read reviews on other hotels, in 3-star hotels, this is a common practice, they did not offer money for a deposit, they immediately took their passports. The next day, when our guide approached, they asked to return the passports, to which Asya said that the passports would be returned, but in return they would be offered to make a deposit, we said that we did not mind, but not $ 100, but after her conversation, the passports were returned without any questions. I will make a reservation right away. That when buying a tour, we immediately looked for food: breakfast-dinner, Natalie tours assured us that the hotel had a choice of lunch or dinner, however, when checking in, again at the reception, the girl said that breakfast and lunch were told to the guide the next day this is a misunderstanding, again she clarified, it turned out that you can still choose, but lunch is a buffet, and for dinner you need to order several dishes in advance, we, after thinking, did not bother, left lunch. But the conclusion: keep your eyes open at the reception. At the same time, the downside was that the agent Natalie Tours met with us already in the second half of the day following our arrival, when we were already at random in the hotel and talking on the beach with the Russians had a rough idea of ​ ​ how to get around the city by taxi, metro, which excursions are better to go, etc. , how to call, etc. . , took a map to the reception, and also thanks to the numerous reviews on the websites of our compatriots, we went to the country, already having a more detailed idea about it. The food at the hotel is monotonous, but healthy: vegetables, chicken, meat, fish in batter, salads, potatoes... like our average Russian canteen, the table does not break, but you won’t stay hungry and certainly won’t get poisoned, as was the case with me in Egypt. Cooked delicious, homemade. There were few and unripe fruits, there were only melons and watermelons, sometimes oranges and grapes. The pastries are the same every morning: one kind of buns and croissants, for lunch, too, the same jelly dessert. Well, sorry, 3 stars… We didn't see anyone buying alcohol for breakfast or lunch. I saw one cockroach in the restaurant, it was not in the room. No music in the evenings and at night rattled throughout the hotel, although we sometimes came after midnight, but the only thing is that you can really hear the construction outside the windows, don’t think that this is a construction site near the hotel, it’s just that construction is going on everywhere, even at night, it’s busy during the day, you don’t pay attention like that, but silence at night, you can hear everything. And no mullah with a morning prayer in his sleep woke up, it was quite calm. The room is spacious. Almost the entire wall of the window, the curtains are thick blue, in the photo, when I watched the presentation of the hotel, the rooms seemed very gloomy to me, it turned out not, very nice, clean, we had a huge mirror and a large plasma, the First worked from the Russian channels, but not in that sequence there were programs, like ours and not all. And so, there were 15 channels. There is a safe in the room for free, they kept documents and money in it, but to be honest, the first two days we generally lost sight of the safe, we thought it didn’t work, because it was presented to us. With a free safe at the reception only, nobody stole anything. Moreover, on the second day they hurried to the beach and left documents and dollars on the table somewhere around 100, everything remained intact. It was only evident that the dust was being wiped off the table. The boys cleaned very well, first of all they vacuumed (noted), change of bed and towels every day, on the first day we took one towel to the beach, so they put us another one, in the end it turned out to be one extra. But no one took him after. One glass was broken, no bill was presented to us. At first, every day they put a new shampoo, gels, soap, until we had accumulated three sets, after that they stopped. Since tipping is not a duty here, but just gratitude, we decided to look at the quality of cleaning and did not tip at all for the first days, then they began, the quality of cleaning did not change from this, they were cleaned just as well. No Egyptian obsession, very nice. Near the hotel there are several grocery stores where you can buy something to chew on, cheese, fruits, vegetables, juices, etc. . there is no sausage at all, as the guide told us, they almost never sell it anywhere in Deira, they have not tried the local dairy products, and the bread and buns are very tasty, the prices are low. The schedule for the beach is not very convenient, leaving at 0930 is convenient, but at 1300 they are already being picked up. since it is not so hot in February, I wanted to be on the beach longer, so sometimes we got back by taxi, about 25 dirhams. In general, keep in mind that in Deira, all the same, all hotels are urban and travel costs are inevitable, better than a taxi or metro. I read a lot about taxi drivers, including negative ones. But I will give only one example. On the last day, we had to vacate the room at 1.00, we decided to leave the beach at 1.00 to still pack our bags, drive for about 20 minutes, but the driver, firstly, did not know the city very well, took us some other way, to As a result, we drove longer, then they began to get confused in the vicinity of the hotel, he began to ask passers-by how to get there, because even according to the scheme from the hotel it was difficult to figure it out, as a result, we began to swear among ourselves. That we had to leave earlier, we are late, etc. , he apparently understood our cries in a different way, that we are unhappy with the fact that he deliberately winds circles near the hotel, but cannot bring it, in the end he just turned off the meter, after a minute 8 found our hotel. That is, I don’t think it was on purpose, although I might have shaken it, who knows... The beach, Al Mamzar Park is very personal, there is a green area and the beach itself, although at the entrance to the beach, where there are most people, it is not very clean, in the sand - cigarette butts, garbage, next to the palm trees are very cute. The water was 20 degrees, but we swam, sometimes a cool breeze (even a very cold breeze) blew, we were full 8 days, one day it rained in the evening, one was just cloudy and chilly, it cleared up in the evening. I took protective cream with me. On the first day I used it, it was gone, there was simply no need, although my skin is capricious. I really liked that, unlike Egypt at this time, where in winter the air temperature drops decently, here it is only 3-4 degrees, it is very warm, in the evening you can walk like during the day, with bare arms and legs. We went on 2 excursions: a sightseeing tour of Dubai and the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean is an excursion simply takes the name, and there is no particularly water world, you lie on the beach on the Indian Ocean for several hours in hotels of a higher class, plus a buffet lunch, plus at first you just drive through the emirates. I liked the sightseeing tour of Dubai very much, although this is what is called a “gallop across Europe”, at first the idea developed, and after that we ourselves arrived at the Dubai Mall on our own, watched singing fountains, a giant aquarium, etc. . Advice to those who don’t know, tickets to the Burj Khalifa observation deck on the day of inspection cost 400 dirhams, buy 100 dirhams in advance, but it’s better to buy it right away, we arrived 3 days before departure, there were no tickets for these dates. We went on excursions with Aladdin, there is also Arabian Knights, I read that Arabian Knights are better, then I compared their programs, the excursions are very similar, they differ in some nuances, the prices are the same, it seemed better, Arabienne Knights, but we bought from Aladdin, because they are on beach every day, we saw the Arabian Knights, on the 4th day, when we had already bought excursions from Aladdin. Aladdin's guides are very good, Russian women, they told us quite fascinatingly. I will not list the sights that are worth visiting, because there is a lot of information on the Internet, I write that you won’t read it there. I also want to note, since our hotel is in Deira, we just walked around the city a lot in the evenings and at night, very calm and good. We got into the shopping period of the festival, of course discounts, this is very loudly said, but in general there is something to buy at the sale, we mastered only Deira City Center and Al Guair. She answered all our questions that the day after tomorrow, in the afternoon, meet your guide. The guide, of course, arrived on time, but firstly, we needed help on the first day, the day of settlement, because we do not speak English. Moreover, I wanted to know about the country, its features, what is possible, what is not, how to move around, etc. We did not receive this information either from the agency when we bought the tour (we referred to the guide upon arrival), or upon arrival. Reading reviews before going. I met a lot of similar complaints about Natalie Tours, because I read a lot and studied about the country myself, right down to route maps. This helped, as well as communication with our compatriots on the beach and at the hotel. By the way, on the website of Natalie Tours there is a memo to those traveling to the UAE, it is indicated that it is handed to tourists and introduced to her, nothing like that, I repeat once again no information about the country, except for an advertisement for a fur coat store Planet of Fur and excursions we were not provided. The guide, who approached us at the hotel, answered all the questions somehow vaguely, and I repeat once again, when we met with her, we already had the basic information, and after the poke method, her visit was useless. Before leaving, they put information under the door about when the departure is and that’s it, you go downstairs with bags and the concierge understands that you have a departure and calls the driver. We went several times to Egypt with Tez tour and Pegas tourist, a completely different attitude, we nursed like babies, we received all the information about the country from them and accompanied them all the way back and forth, then we really felt the care for tourists. But maybe we were just unlucky with the guides... or we are so picky. give us information about the country, tell us, show us. . . The UAE is a wonderful country. I advise everyone to visit and once again thank you for everything for the truthful reviews, those who write them for the benefit of their neighbor, and not by order. Sorry for the mistakes, the lack of a punctuation mark somewhere, I wrote quickly, not for the sake of a literary work, for the sake of content.