A trip to Dubai
A guide to a week stay in Dubai. If you want more information on where to stay, what it was like, the instagrammable spots and advice on a trip to Dubai scroll down!
Where to stay
For the week we stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn Dubai, Al Jadaf Culture Village at £420 for 5 nights for 3 adults. This hotel had a pool, breakfast included and was situated in a pretty decent location. As most of the restaurants and beach clubs seemed to be scattered all over Dubai, this was somewhat in the middle of everything.
We travelled quite a lot to the Dubai Marina, so if I was to come back again I’d probably stay around this area, as this is where we spent the most time. The hotel was lovely, we just spent too long in Ubers!
What to do
5 Beach clubs
(1) Drift beach club- Ladies day: Every Monday and Tuesday for Dhs100 (£20) which is inclusive of rosé on arrival. Come before 12pm otherwise they might give your sun lounger away!
(2) White beach- Ladies day: Tuesday from 12pm to 4pm, unlimited drinks and complimentary snacks for Dhs150 (£30).
Drift Beach Club
(3) Five Palm Jumeriah beach club- Ladies day: Thursday it’s called the “Secret Parties’ Praia Ladies’ Day” between 12pm to 4pm, offering lunch and unlimited drinks for Dhs150 (£30). This doesn’t include a sun lounger- our seats were in the outside restaurant but you can still go to the pool.
(4) Andreeas beach club- Ladies day: Thursday and Saturday, 12pm to 6pm, 6 hours of free flowing frozen beverages and light bites. Includes pink gin, tropical punch, wines or beers.
(5) Niki Beach club- Ladies day: Tuesday from 11-6pm, 4 complimentary beverages, a two-course lunch and a daybed with pool access at Dhs250 (£50). Or, on other days it’s Dhs300 per person for a single bed with 1 soft drink and towel on weekends (Friday and Saturday.) Dhs150 (£30) on weekdays.
Niki Beach Club
Restaurants
(1) Maiden Shanghai- This Chinese restaurant has amazing views of Dubai, with outside seating. Pricey food but a favourite dinner spot in Dubai amongst our group.
(2) Bla Blah- American, Italian and Japanese cuisine. A perfect dinner spot before a night out, with singers and reasonably priced drinks!
(3) Nammos – My favourite restaurant in Dubai. Currently inspired by Dior- therefore a majority of the decor is Dior! You arrive at the restaurant on a golf caddy (or cute little car). The cheapest pasta dish is around £20 but it’s absolutely massive and they serve delicious complimentary bread and dips!
Nammos Dubai
(4) Asia Asia- Beautiful views of the Dubai Marina. Here they have a ladies night on Tuesday between 6pm and 1am which offers a three-course set menu with 3 alcoholic drinks for Dhs200 (£40)
(5) Abd el Wahab- In Dubai Mall, a cheap Lebanese spot my friend found last year with delicious food. If you sit outside you can watch the fountain show.
(6) Opa – This is an incredibly fun place for dinner. Greek inspired, they have entertainment for the evening including dancers and plate smashing— Opa! All tables are given some plates to smash and you can even pay for more if you’re having a *smashing* time. They also put shot glasses on your head to pour your drinks— quite an entertaining night!
Opa Dubai
Yacht
Hire a yacht for a couple of hours: We opted for the private yacht instead of the yachts with buffet dinner or breakfast. These were a similar price but you (obviously) had to share the yacht with other people, and you had to wear masks. We were able to bring our own food and drink on this yacht and play our own music. This cost £254 and can be split between up to 10 people.
Desert
Book a desert experience with a camel ride: This included sand dune drive, camel ride (short option) and a BBQ dinner. They came to pick us up from the hotel and dropped us back. It took around 40 minutes to get to the desert. The total duration of the event is usually 6 hours. We didn’t want to stay later for the bbq as the sand dune drive, camel ride didn’t take up much time and we didn’t want to wait around. The area for dinner also didn’t look that great. So make sure to tell your driver you want to leave early if so.
What it was like
I absolutely loved the trip to Dubai. As a group of six girls, we actually felt incredibly safe here. We were pleased to have come in November when the weather averaged 35 degrees during our trip. We should have added more cultural activities to our list and visited the old town or the mosque in Abu Dhabi. However, we spent a lot of our time at beach clubs. The best mode of transport here were the taxis – so we did spend a lot of time travelling across Dubai. The prices were similar to going out in London and the ladies days really did help.
Any advice
Get taxis not Ubers: Ubers are strangely a lot more expensive than the taxis. While Ubers are more convenient I’d definitely suggest getting taxis around Dubai- a lot have card machines now!
Ladies’ day: As the name suggests, ladies’ days offer discounts specifically for woman at certain locations in Dubai, on different days. For instance, many beach clubs have ladies’ days on differing days and some restaurants. It’s well worth scouting the offers out and pre booking as you can get a lot for your money. For example, Andreeas beach club offered six hours of free flowing alcoholic beverages!
For more breakdowns like a trip to Dubai look here!
Wow, this looks like it was an incredibly fun trip! I absolutely love to travel, I’m definitely adding Dubai to my bucket list! Thanks for sharing!
Very lovely hotel and pool, looks so relaxing..
Brilliant
I`ve been to the middle east several times in the past, it`s lovely and all that but I find outdoors too hot for me and I’m the kind of person who likes visiting any city I visit like the locals, travel the back roads and that was hard due to the heat.
lovely photos! I havent been to Dubai and Im glad to know that its a safe place to travel
Dubai is on my bucket list! It looks like you ladies had a great time! I love all your photos 😊
I can’t get enough of travel blogs! I never really considered Dubai before but I love your experience there.
Sounds like an extremely amazing trip!
Love this! Such a great guide and what beautiful scenes! Pinning this to save. Thanks for sharing.
– Titra