Traveljunkiee

Hey planing to relocate to Dubai... so looking at Dubai marina and downtown as of now... which is better a place to live in..?? also how is the traffic like...??

scrubbedexpat141

Downtown.

Marina is full of *****.

Bahtatboy

Partly depends where you'll work. Car access to/from the Marina can be awful, but can be fine (I lived in Sulafa Tower, rarely more than 5 mins to/from SZR). I liked the buzz in the Marina. Wherever you decide on, if you're going to commute by car make sure you check what the traffic's like at the times you'll be commuting. You won't be a happy bunny if you have to queue for an hour every evening to exit SZR.

Scamp, there are ****s in many parts of Dubai

Millhouse

I would always elect to live near my work if possible. Never understood people working in DIFC and living in the marina, or (less often) living in downtown and working in JLT.

Both places are basically ok.

scrubbedexpat141

Indeed. You're talking to one.

I lived in Business Bay and worked in JLT. It was fine and meant the good lady didn't have too far to go to Mirdif for work.

That being said, my 84 step commute now is glorious. Totally glorious.

Traveljunkiee

Aaahh so the traffic is the only problem? i m sorry I m just a bit lost 😳

Bahtatboy

I really only looked at Marina and Disco Gardens because I wanted to be Abu Dhabi-side of Dubai (for travelling to AD most days). Disco Gardens seemed too much like a slightly-run-down holiday camp, and the traffic in/out looked awful. I enjoyed living in the Marina area for 1 1/2 years: clean and modern, a few good bars / restaurants, and the apartment block I chose ticked all my boxes. I dare say if I'd been working in Dubai rather than AD I'd have looked elsewhere, but some of the downtown areas seemed far too ethnic.

bestvue

Traffic in Dubai can be very fast and very bad, you drive by normal traffic rules but the nationality of other drivers will play a big part. Best to live as near as possible to your work.
The other consideration is cost of accommodation. Some where between the two will be a solution.

littlejimmy

Hope it's OK to hijack this thread...I'm coming back to Dubai in a few weeks to work on a project on the Palm, and I will be mainly site-based. My company's office is in DIP, so there will be occasional visits there. It's been suggested that I look for somewhere around Tecom. Any other suggestions? I want to minimise car usage/driving. Don't think the Metro goes onto the Palm yet...

bestvue

Tecom's nice. Not exactly down town but has lots of outlets and is quite a new area with lots of open space.

TheShed

Depends where on the Palm you’re site is, but have you considered living on here? Me and Mrs Shed love it here and we have lived everywhere in Dubai. You’d be surprised how low the prices are now.

littlejimmy

Had a quick look on propertyfinder.ae and couldn't find anything going for my criteria (under 10k/month, 1 bedroom). I've also been told build quality is bad on the Palm (by one person, to be fair). I'm not ruling it out, like.

Sabi Star

The Greens and the Views?

TheShed

Check Airbnb, tons of units on shoreline on there. We have a pretty decent 2 bed plus maid with a big balcony and great views for 140pa so I’m sure the one beds will be a fair bit less. We expect to get ours significantly cheaper this year.

Build quality can be iffy in some of the units and bear in mind a lot of the units are now gett8ng on a bit by Dubai standards.

StuK

The best two pieces of advice I got were as follows;

1 - Use the tram and train when you first move here.
2 - Stay in Airb&b for 10 days when you arrive, then view properties when you get here.

I did exactly this, and love my experience and where I've ended up.

If you want any specific help, please get in touch - I'd be happy to help