Dubai is a perfect amalgamation of what all a city can offer !!! - glitzy skyscrapers,golden sands of the desert, exotic beaches and amazing adventure parks. I was here for 5 days and I just loved exploring the city on my own. Sharing an account of my entire experience. My husband and I got our Indigo flights booked from bangalore to dubai. We got our hotel booking and visa arranged by Ria travels. They gave us competitive prices for the hotel as compared to any online booking portal . We stayed at 2 hotels in Dubai - Novotel Suites,Mall of Emirates for 3 days and Gateway hotel,Bur Dubai for 2 days.
After landing at the airport, we bought 2 silver NOL metro tickets. They costed 25 dhs each in which 19 dhs is the loaded value that you get. We reached our hotel by metro and it was super comforatble. The views of skyscrapers from the metro were realy good.After checking in to Novotel Suites,mall of emirates , we headed to Bikanerwala,which was walking distance from the hotel, for lunch. After lunch we took a taxi to Miracle Gardens . These gardens were very beautiful. The best part was emirates flight ,all decked up with flowers. We had already purchased Hop-on Hop off Big bus tour unlimited attraction tickets. The Dubai night tour was included in the ticket. After miracle gardens, we went back to Mall of Emirates from where we took our Big bus night tour. The weather was cold and windy so it is advised to carry jackets if you are visiting in february.Its Dubai winters at this time.The night tour showed panaromic views of Dubai including the Burj Khalifa,Palm Atlantis, Canyan Towers,Burj Al Arab etc.
Cost for day 1:-
Lunch at Bikanerwala-40dhs
Taxi from Novotel Suites to Miracle Gardens -40 dhs
Entry ticket to Miracle Gardens-40 dhs per person
Snacks at McDonalds,Mall of Emirates -20 dhs
Day 2 - Dubai Theme Parks
After having a sumptous breakfast buffet, we took a metro till UAE exhange metro station. From there we took a taxi to Dubai ThemeA Parks and Resorts. We had already purchased the 3-in-1 park ticket under a promotional offer, which allows entry to Dubai Motiongate,Dubai Legoland and the best one-Dubai Bollywood parks.Most of the rides were unoperational in Motiongate so we proceeded to Legoland. Everything inside Legoland is built out of Legos. As soon as you enter Legoland, you feel you have entered a world of legos. We quickly finished with both Motionagte and Legoland and proceeded towards Bollywood Parks where we wanted to spend the maximum time. We wanted the bollywood parks a must attraction for anyone visiting Dubai.I loved the Krish ride and "Zindagi na milegi dobara" experience. Also the"Jaan-e-Jigar" at Rajmahal was simply stupendous. We returned to our hotel in the evening after having spenta fruitful day. Since it became very cold that day (temperatures dropped to 11-13 deg c), we had to buy woolen caps and stoles from the nearbuy supermarket Carrefour what was in Mall of emirates.
Day 3
We had this day reserved for Burj Khalifa in the first half and desert safari in the second half.We had a reservation for Burj Khalifa "At the top" admission at 9.30 am in the morning. Enjoyed some spectacular views from the top and checked out few stores in the dubai mall. After that we went back to our hotel as our pickup for desert safari was scheduled from the hotel at around 2.30 pm.We got our desert safari booked by Rayna Tours and they did a pretty good job. We got a good experience of dune bashing,camel ride , tanoura show,fire show,belly dance show and nice dinner in the middle of the desert. After our desert safari ended, we headed towards Burj khalifa again to witness the Dubai Fountains and light show . The Dubai Fountains were really amazing and is a must watch.
Today we had planned to do a city sightseeing and opted for the big bus tours for this. This is a very good way of exploring the entire city. We boarded the bus from mall of emirates and opted for the beach tour line.We did a dhow cruise at marina bay followed by spending some leisure time at Jumeriah Beach soaking up the sun and then strolled in Souk Madinat Jumeriah - one of its kind. You can enjoy nice views of burj al arab from here. After that next stop was Palm Atlantis. There we saw the Lost chambers and Ambassador Lagoon , enjoyed splendid view of the Gulf Waters. After that we went for the palm crescent drive during sunset. This was truly a surreal experience where you keep wondering looking at the engineering marvels such as this artifically made island in the shape of the palm leaf. After this, we bid adieu to the new and modern dubai since next day was reserved for the traditional Dubai experience-Bur Dubai
Day 5
We had already checked in to Gateway Hotel,Bur Dubai , in late evening of day 4. We started off with a lovely dolphin show at Dubai Dolphinarium. After that we had lunch at Marwari Vegetarian close to our hotel. After enjoying the lunch we headed through the streets of Meena Bazaar towards taking the Abra boat ride . At a price of just 1dhs per person, we were taken across to the Gold Souk and Spice Souk Area. Both of these souks are worth visiting even if you don't plan to buy any gold. You can always purchase some souveniers frpm here . We bought some saffron, dates,prunes,beautifully crafted customized sand art bottles, souvenier "I love Dubai" magents etc. Although Dubai Museum was also in my "To-do" list but I was not able to cover the same as I spent more time in strolling through the souks.