pen8uin

Hi,

We are stopping over in Dubai on the way to Melbourne.

Can anyone who has stopped over or been there on holiday reccommend a hotel for 2 nights and any suggestions of what to do in that time, we have 2 full days? (Apart from lay on the beach and not think about anything to do with moving!)

Cheers

pen8uin

Izzy

Depends on your idea of fun really. Wild Wadi water park is a great way to spend a day in my opinion. Or there is the new snow dome ?

Barbitana

hi I've got lots of expriences of Dubai. You might with to drop me a line.
Good luck,

thebears

We stopped off at Dubai on the way through to Melbourne. But decided to treat it as a stopover break ie no shopping or excursions just complete chill out.

We flew in and stayed the night of arrival (8pm local)
Spent the next day by the pool and in the gym.
Early night and caught an 8am flight Day 3
Blew the budget on spa treatments and room service.

Arrived Singapore very refreshed and chilled.

pen8uin

That sounds like a good plan, for one day at least to just do nothing!

Do you remember where you stayed?

Thanks

pen8uin

OriginalSunshine

a good site is www.tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews

Suni&Jay

Snow Dome
Jeep Safari
Wadi Water Park
Chill out on beech
Shopping
Shopping
and Shopping

ginaf

We have stayed at Le Royal Meridien a few times and love it. It has it's own private stretch of Jumeirah beach, has gorgeous swimming pools and the restaurants are lovely. I can't think of anything bad to say about it.

I like the shopping as well. You can take a trip in a dhow boat, go to the souk and haggle or have a camel ride on the beach. The new ski place is meant to be awesome.

thebears

Al Bustan Rotana Hotel about 3 mins from the airport - and no couldnt remember hearing any planes or being disturbed (even during the day).

JaneandJim

When I asked this question on here a few weeks ago, nobody replied!

If you're flying with Emirates, you can get good hotel rates by booking your hotel with them. Unfortunately they're only booking until October just now, which isn't far enough in advance for me, but might be OK for you.

Apparantly there is a lot of building going on in Jumeirah just now, but we're going for the shopping anyways so want to be nearer the malls. As already mentioned, the Tripadvisor website gives reviews of the hotels but there are so many that I just ended up more confused.

I asked the question on the Middle East forum and was told that the Novotel and the Ibis were good value but we're looking to treat ourselves to somewhere swisher.

Jane

MJC

Stay at one of the Jumeriah Beach hotels - there's loads.

Day 1, sit next to the pool AM, it then get's a bit hot so head for some winter skiiing at ski Dubai - the worlds largest indoor ski-slope sledging and snowballing are both available. Evening go to Madinat Jumeriah, loads of decent bars and restaurants

Day 2, sit on Jumeriah beach and admire the Burj, PM, take a shopping trip to the old souks in Deira (Spice,Gold etc) then from about 5pm go 4x4ing in the desert with arabian adventures, they do a nice trip, bit of dune bashing, bit of culture, bedoin camp and supper.

Day 3 leave for airport.

There's also Wild Wadi Water park, but it doesn't open until 11am and it's bloody hot here in the afternoon - real sunburn weather (56degrees anyone, and the tarmac hits 70+) so for day 2, do the souks in the morning and wild wadi in the afternoon - also if you stay at the Jumeriah group hotels, www.jumeriah.com your visit to wild wadi is free - saves about 20quid each.

48 hours in Dubai - anyone got any better ideas?

www.skidubai.com
www.arabianadventures.com
www.wildwadi.com

(BTW, go with Arabian Adventures, they've got decent cars and are insured, there are a lot of cowboys out there... You've been warned)

About US$1000 should cover it (excluding gold for your missus)

pen8uin

Thankyou so much for all the replies! Really helpful with hotels and things to do, really looking forward to it!
We fly a month tomorrow - wahey!
Cheers
pen8uin

thebears

Funny that with the desert so close by

Mctree

Might be a bit hot for the beach at this time of year.

The Souks are worth a look for some authentic Arabic tat (Gold Souk in Deira, Karama Souk), best to do them at night when it's cooler. Wild Wadi is a lot fun, take some shoes that you don't mind getting wet, as walking around the water park will burn your feet off

Flying out to Dubai tonight for a few days (en route to Sydney), friends in Dubai tell me it's around 43c at the moment