Dubai is a city worth seeing
We heard a lot about the UAE and about Dubai, we decided to visit this country and see what can be done in a short time with a country that until recently was a desert.
My review is more focused on parents vacationing with children.
Thanks to our travel agent for recommending the wonderful Marmara Hotel in Al Basha (Emirates Mall station). This is truly a wonderful place. The hotel is managed by Tunay and Elena, who speak Russian, which was especially helpful in situations where it was necessary to resolve any issues. The hotel really creates a feeling of home comfort and coziness. Upon arrival at the hotel, each of us was brought juice, after offering wet wipes. It was so sweet and so fitting. After a day on the road, it was "just what the doctor ordered. " We had a double room with a kitchen and two bathrooms. For 10 days, I was surprised how we still lived with one bathroom)). The kitchen has everything you need for everyday life.
There is a washing machine with a dryer, at first I decided that drying was not needed in this climate, but then I used it regularly. Humid climate, things do not dry at night, and in the morning I did not want to leave them under the hot sun. In the room, an extra bed for a child was already waiting for us. On the table is a plate of fruit. In the bathroom there was a set that I have never seen anywhere else in a hotel, there was everything - a toothbrush with paste, a razor with shaving cream, a stick for the ears and a cotton pad - everything that you might need in case you forgot something. then at home and to the store you can get by.
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Shampoo, shower gel, hair conditioner and body lotion were replenished every day. The hotel has many benefits, ranging from free Wi-Fi in the rooms and quite good to a well-provided transfer to the beach, Mall, Ferrari Park and Outlet, which saved a lot of time, effort and money.
I really liked the approach of the hotel management. All wishes were fulfilled from adding products to breakfast, to additional pickup time. They never left anyone unattended, if it was necessary to go, Tunay himself got behind the wheel and gave a ride. When we gathered at the Outlet, several families gathered, booked a special bus, which saved everyone a lot of money (one-way taxi about 70 dir). I even liked the beach they took to, it was right next to the sail. The beach is clean, but there is no way to buy drinks, coffee, but whoever wants additional comfort can go to Dubai Marina on their own. Breakfast is the same as in all hotels. We were a little lacking, because it is established in the family that breakfast should be a full and main meal, but this is a problem for all hotels. However, I highly recommend trying the "sea offer" from the hotel. Well, very tasty! ! !
Delicious shrimps, wonderful squids in crispy batter, not in dough, like everywhere else.
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I can immediately recommend the must-buy Entertainer Dubai 2014 voucher book. Sold in a bookstore in any Mall. The book costs 395 dir or $108. Personally, our book saved us 1995 dir, i. e. net 1600 dir. I think you will not regret it, because we did not use the vouchers for the Ferrari Park.
Now I will try to tell you in order what you saw, what you liked, and what you didn’t.
All the time we traveled we used the subway. We bought everything with a silver card. You will have to pay 20 dir for it and you will already have 14 dir on your account. To navigate the prices, we drove to the end of the red line and were charged 6.80 dir. On average, trips are 5-6 dir. There are usually quite a lot of people in the subway. Although I read that they don’t give up a seat on the subway, my 6-year-old child was given up 3 times. The metro is quite slow, the stations are frequent.
Only at the airport there are 3 stations corresponding to each terminal. I can advise female representatives to travel in the women's carriage, though only "women's time". There is something about it when there are empty seats, and men stand behind the yellow line))
On the agenda we had a visit to Miracle gaden and Global village. These two places are not far from each other, so you should not break them. A taxi from the hotel cost about 40 dir. to the garden. The ticket costs 30 dir per person. I read somewhere that children under 3 years old are free, but our kinder was older, so I won’t specify. You are given 2 tickets, but no one explained that there are 2 pavilions. Therefore, we did not find the second, but the beauty of the first was enough for us. Whenever you read about an upcoming trip, you already draw some kind of picture in your head, which is confirmed by photographs. The garden is very beautiful, bright colors everywhere and the smell of petunias.
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Honestly, I was waiting for different flowers, I don’t know why, but basically, all the compositions are from petunia. The colors are varied, I even saw almost black. There are houses made of flowers, towers, pyramids, cars. Very amused alley of umbrellas. Not everywhere you can walk on the lawns, but don't worry, the guard will inform you with a whistle. If you get into forbidden territory.
After visiting the garden, we went to the Global village, a taxi to the village from the garden cost 25 dirhams. The village is certainly a unique place and worth a visit. The ticket cost about 15 dir, a voucher helped us here. Also, please note that a voucher is given for a discount on meals. Out of habit, I threw everything into my bag and only at home I saw that for every 60 dir for food, a discount of 10 dir is given. 34 pavilions in which, as best they could, they presented their country. Some with gold, some with wood, spices, dates, leather, furs.
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Well, China, as you understand, could sell anything, its goods all over the world. You will need to walk a lot. The most amazing thing for me personally was honey. If you think that this cannot surprise you, you are wrong. They gave us some unique honey to try, a 2 liter canister cost more than 2 thousand rubles. dir. I don’t know how much cocaine costs, but it seemed to me that honey was more expensive)) But it was something fabulous. Taste, I'm not afraid to use the word, divine. The aftertaste was still very long.
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What else surprised me was the wide variety of dates, I have never seen such sizes.
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In some pavilions they let you taste different products, we even found a honey cake)). We did not do much shopping there, we only bought a wooden figurine for a relative in the Africa pavilion. Do not forget to bargain, this is a prerequisite for sales in the east.
The park also has attractions, but the cost of each is 25 dir, for this you also need to buy a jacket for 2 dir. Children under 120 cm ride with adults, so we had to pay double the price here, but the child's patience had to be rewarded.
The road home will be more expensive for you, because the roads in Dubai are wonderful, but there are not forks at every kilometer and sometimes you need to drive about 20 km to turn around. Keep this in mind when driving independently and an inattentive taxi driver. At the expense of taxi drivers - a separate issue. I would not recommend getting into a taxi if the driver does not understand where you are going. You will find the way at your own expense.
The next day we visited a wonderful center for children. It’s a long way to go, but if your child is 5-7 years old, I highly recommend Mirdif city center. To get to it, you need to go to the final station of the red branch - Rashidiya. Exit the station and take a taxi. Taxi will cost about 15 dir.
What is unique about this center.
1. iFly Dubai - wind tunnel. Since we are not planning to jump with a parachute yet, my husband dreamed of trying this miracle. The flight costs 220 dir, vouchers came in handy here. Everyone flew, because there was one child, my men took extra time. This is a sea of emotions and impressions. Everyone I saw there left happy and satisfied. At the end it is possible for 199 dir. buy a flash drive with all the photos. We agreed with the guys from Brazil and bought a flash drive for our entire “international family”. Photos are worth keeping these emotions as a keepsake.
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2. Little explorers - a place for children from the age of one, probably. There the kid can experiment with air, light, water, electricity. Learn how what works. My husband and I got lost. The son did not immediately co-orientate, the lack of knowledge of the language still affected. Then we couldn't pull it out.
They even have a children's crane, they can make a house out of styrofoam bricks.
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3. Sky trail. I did not find a review about this wonderful attraction, for my son and I it turned out to be the most unforgettable. Rope obstacle course under the roof of the center. At first, my son did not understand where he would have to fly and got scared, but while I put on all the safety equipment, he went halfway. It was cool! Highly recommend!
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4. Light park. Stumbled upon this place by accident and didn't regret it. Beautifully decorated trees, light bushes and a light horse, I don’t remember the second living creature and didn’t find it in the photographs. Nice, worth a look.
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Nasser square. . We did not particularly plan shopping, but we did not plan to leave without a fur coat. It is easy to get there by metro, you just need to transfer to the green line and get to Boniyas Square.
I think that many have already read that it is worth fighting off the barkers, we tried, I don’t know if it worked out or not, but we bought a fur coat. In principle, they did not take money with them. In case to think, but choosing what you liked, we decided to buy. For our "comfort" and getting money, we were taken to the hotel with a purchase. I also chose a fur coat for my mother, but because she doubted, they didn’t take it right away. After "customs gave the go-ahead", we called the store and the fur coat was brought to the hotel. We didn't have to go to the store ourselves.
If you do not go far from the topic of shopping, I will unsubscribe right away. In time, we didn’t get to the time of discounts and it simply didn’t make sense to make purchases in the mall, because everything was much more expensive than ours. But we still planned to go to the Outlet. Another huge thank you to our Marmara hotel for providing us with a transfer, because a taxi in both directions is about 140 dir. I did not quite understand this store, because.
my husband bought a shirt there, which cost the same in the Emirates mall. I found my thing, which cost 70 dir more there than in our city. The only thing I bought there was Chibo knitwear for children, I know this brand, I tried it, I liked it. Therefore, decide for yourself whether it is worth going there. If you dare. Do not immediately take a discount voucher for an additional percentage of discounts. It is not valid in all stores and it is very likely that it will not be useful in your store.
Fish market. I read a lot about it, but since I really love seafood, I could not refuse to visit such an abundance. You can get there by metro. Palm Deira Station on the Green Line. I’ll tell you right away that you can’t take raw fish in the subway.
The market is located next to the station, you will not be able to miss it, the smell will be felt) Near the fruit market. Sea fish, of course, I have not seen such crabs, shrimps.
The name of many fish and the appearance were not even familiar to me. We bought ourselves shrimp, lobster and octopus. I read a lot and knew that everything could be cooked on the spot, but ...Cleaning these products is 8 dir per kg. Cooking 8 dir per kg. In the final amount, I did not quite understand the difference between buying products in the same hypermarkets, where they clean for free. As for cooking, thanks again to Marmara for the kitchen)) But back to the market, all my surprises from the new products quickly deteriorated after the preparation of our prey. The Indians cook or who they are, I didn’t specify, everything was cooked not on the grill, as requested, but deep-fried with such wild spices that if you are not an oriental person, then you will not only not be able to eat it, but you won’t even endure it. Whether it makes sense to cook and buy products on the market, take it yourself, but if you live nearby, go in, you can see.
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There was a LuLu Hypermarket near our hotel. There we bought sets of sweets for presents (we don’t give magnets in principle), it seemed to me that they were cheaper there than in the Emirates Mall market. On the second floor, the departments of clothes and toys are not branded.
Dubai mall. This is of course a full day visit. I visited KidZania (son's tickets from fathers came out about 235 dir), but this is only for children who speak English, if not, then don't waste your money. The animators try to explain everything, but you can’t explain everything on your fingers.
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Prices in all malls are almost the same. If you plan to take cosmetics, take it in the Mall, because it was more expensive in dute free. Compared with Dior products, the difference for pencils was 13 dirhams.
You can't miss the aquarium. Although you can limit yourself to viewing from the side))
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Ferrai world and Sheikh Zayed Mosque were a must visit for us.
There were several options - to get on our own (by a forest-field), buy a trip through a travel agent (about $ 150) or go through a hotel transfer, but with the obligatory purchase of a ticket for 240 dir (there were doubts, because we had a voucher and could save 50 %). Travel agent with such a price fell away. You can get there yourself, but you need to get to station 39 (Ibn Batuta Mall, it seems), then from the bus station bus 101 or 105 to Abu Dhabi, and from there by taxi, in total and in time it is long (a taxi between the mosque and the park is about 45 dir ). Again, THANK YOU to the hotel for the opportunity to have an easy and pleasant stay, we went by bus. The journey takes about an hour. On the bus, we were immediately offered that we could get to the mosque for only 20 dirhams per person, if we managed in the park in 4 hours. I already knew that this time is usually enough with the head. The park is excellent.
We immediately went to the Rossu track (I highly recommend that you first find out if it is open on the day of your visit, so as not to run into prevention). The track is worth a visit, it's an unforgettable experience. After the track, everything rests, maybe you should first go to a non-extreme, and then to a rossa to feel the difference. Gorgeous park.
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At 4 pm we were picked up by a bus and we went to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. Here it is better not to waste time on taking Abaya, because in order to rent it you need to give your passport or rights on bail, and then return to the other end of the bus to return. Women must be covered with arms, legs and head. The mosque is very beautiful. We watched Discovery and knew a lot of information about the construction and how everything was done, and this added even more significance to what we saw.
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There are no words, only emotions! ! !
You can't sit down in the mosque, you can't hug.
When we came back, we took people from the Yas water park, asked them for feedback. Two families said that it was not worth going that far for this couple. The main mountain did not work, and the rest were not so impressive, but this is not my opinion, I cannot be responsible for these words.
The day was full of emotions, I highly recommend!
And what about without fountains and Burj Khalifa?
I read on the net that it is better to watch the fountains on weekends, because after the show there is also a light show.
We booked a table for 18.00 in a cafe near the fountain, because at this time there is nowhere even to stand there. It is better to look at the fountains already in the dark. The performance goes on every 30 minutes, so you can always watch.
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As for the fountains, for some reason I expected them to be colored. Yes, it’s beautiful, but somehow it didn’t stick.
They only hit when I was looking at them from above from the Burj Khalifa observation deck, but here it was already a completely different matter.
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I tried to buy tickets in advance from the Internet, but given the situation in the country or glitches beyond our control, our cards were not accepted for payment. We bought tickets already in the Mall itself, but on the 12th, we were able to buy only on the 22nd. Fortunately for me, in the evening. That's very beautiful. When you look from above at all this man-made beauty, you look at this scale, it is impressive. There are interesting devices on the observation deck of Burj Khalifa that show one view, but how it looks during the day, at night and how it looked earlier is wonderful. We were on the site for about 1.5 hours, no one kicks us out.
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As for the light show, it’s beautiful, worth a look, but you need to be on the Khalifa side, the exit is the closest to the rise. All the animation and the idea is visible there. http://img-fotki. yandex. ru/get/9170/140365996.96/0_147134_e48f4a14_L.jpg
We ended the evening in an excellent Red lobster restaurant, where, thanks to vouchers, we got 4 lobsters for 149 dir and they were very tasty. In fact, 4 people would easily eat 2 servings. Plus a compliment from the restaurant on the salad.
One evening at us was impromptu not prepared. For which they did not pay much.
Dubai Marina Walk. Beautiful promenade, take the metro to Dubai Marina. Amazing views. We took a walk on the Dow with Captain Jack (60 dir adult ticket, 30 children). Used the voucher again. The ticket was taken at 18.00. A very good time when the sun sets and skyscrapers in such a beautiful color are presented. The walk takes an hour, first the boat goes to the sea, then rolls along the entire embankment, where all the imagination of local architects is visible.
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Then we wanted to ride the monorail. We took a taxi, and the taxi driver had no idea where to take us. We learned about this almost 500 meters from Atlantis.
Fortunately, the taxi driver turned out to be decent and did not charge us for the meter, but about as much as we ran over / It is better to ride the monorail in the daytime, because after sunset you will not see a palm tree. She's not lit at all. We were warned about this at the entrance, but there was nothing to do. A round trip ticket cost 25 dir. , one way 15 (voucher works). The train runs every 20 minutes. To say that I was delighted - no, you can ride, but if you yourself can get to Atlantis, do not waste time and money.
Atlantis is huge, we found an aquarium there and it was spectacular.
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My husband, who went to the aquarium in Dubai Mall, liked it even more. Inside the aquarium, the skeleton of the plane was lost)) so that you understand the size. We regretted that we had little time and could not go inside the aquarium and did not get into the water park. After all, what should be left for later?
We visited one water park Wild Wadi.
It was easy for us to get there, because the water park is located on the way to the beach. The entrance ticket costs 240 dir (again, we were able to save money with a voucher). It opens at 10 o'clock. It is better to come by this time to take sunbeds, otherwise there will be nowhere to sit. Around 12 o'clock queues begin everywhere. If you want to try surfing, it's better to start with it, because then there is a queue and a long wait. An awesome attraction for those who want to understand what kind of animal this board is and how to tame it. In fact, there are few slides, there is one extreme, but in fact, the first seconds are scary, when the playground leaves under your feet, then it’s hard to breathe from the spray, but you don’t have time to understand how it all ended. So do not be afraid of her, she only looks scary.
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Then 2 slides with family pillows, up to 5 people descended on them. The slides are allowed from 110 cm. I really liked the idea of automatically lifting the pillows, you don’t need to drag them on yourself.
And the longest attraction slide is the river. Very cool idea and execution. The most luxurious children's complex with slides, the slides are steep, but not dangerous. My child could not be pulled out of there.
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Don't forget sunscreen, you can burn easily.
I hope that my review will help someone plan their vacation and make it possible to spend time easily and unforgettable!
