Dubai Attractions

          Dubai in my opinion, is by far, one of the most attractive, low budget , foreign destination to visit from a tourist perspective in general and from an Indian tourist perspective in particular. Multiple reasons including:

• Proximity to India(3-4 hours flight from Delhi/Bangalore/Mumbai/Kochi within ~20K INR)
• Language comfort (Hindi, English, Tamil, Malyalam, Telgu, Urdu - almost all the languages are mostly understood here)
• Indian cuisine availability (both veg and non veg options are available)
• Temperature (pretty much like north India, 18'C in winters to 48'C in summers)
• Currency conversion (its not too much off radar 1AED ~ 19INR). 

Hence my current blog is based on my local experience of staying in this place for almost an year. It is written with a view to assist people for planning their travel itinerary for Dubai from a #desiangle:) 

I have jotted down almost all the places which are popular or known here along with their categorisation based on my experience of visiting them.  Please refer to My list of local attractions giving you a holistic view of these attractions/activities. Attractions are classified as

•  Must/Should/Could
• "Must See" -  those which I would suggest you, not to miss at all due to their unique nature
• "Should See" - those which are desirable but if you have lack of time/money, you can opt to leave
• "Could See" - those which you should go only if you have time
• Theme 
• Family - which you can go with everyone in family including elders and kids
• Bachelors - preferable to go with friends or in gals/guys groups more because of their adventure driven nature or too much of walk etc
• Couple - preferable to be with your partners or spouse due to their romantic theme 
• kids - attractions which would attracts kids the most
• Category
• Categorised as malls, seashore or beach activities/attractions, places known for their architecture, attractions based on themes like adventure parks etc
• Unique attractions refer to experiences which are more of less, unique in itself to this area
• Cost
• Cost is categorised into various buckets, but please be advised that this includes only the tickets/admission cost. This excludes cost of transport or peripheral ones like shopping, eating etc

Basis the above classification and list of important attractions as shared in the list, here are my 2 cents for people planning their visit to this place for tourism. 

# 4 Days Trip

• Apply filter 4DayTrip on the excel attached which basically includes all the must have attractions within Dubai within 200AED per person budget

# 7 Days Trip 

• Apply filter 7DayTrip on the excel attached which basically includes all the must have attractions within/outside Dubai within 400AED per person budget

# 15 Days & Beyond Trip 

• Apply filter 15DayTrip on the excel attached which basically includes all the attractions within/outside Dubai

You may then further decide, to opt in or opt out, based on your interest of theme, category, budget and travel considerations. I will also include separate detailed descriptions of each of these attractions in my subsequent blogs. Also, if you are the one, who is doing detail research before opting for Dubai as a tourist destination, I would suggest you to quickly glance through my earlier blog on Life of a resident in Dubai. This will help develop perspective for this place. 

Quick recap of facts for this place - Dubai is a cosmopolitan city with 85% of population being expats from countries round the world. Dubai is the capital of Emirates of Dubai, which is one of the seven emirates that together constitute  United Arab Emirates (UAE) . Abu Dhabi is the capital of federal structure of UAE. Official language is Arabic and currency Dirham. (1AED~ 19 INR). Hindi, English and Urdu are commonly spoken here. Shopping can be done in USD or AED. People are sensitive to culture and kingdom, and punishments are very strict here. 

Also for the sake of your comfort, here are list of  Do's/Dont's while in Dubai

Do's

1. All the tickets are available online and multiple agents available to help. Look for good deals and bargain well with agents
2. Buy a metro card (called as NoL card, opt for Silver card, min charge 25AED), if you wish to use public transport. NoL card can be used in trams, metros and RTA taxis
3. Parking is a big problem here, so avoid self rental cars as you may end up wasting time and money to manage parking. Uber and Careem are local taxi players and RTA(camel color vehicles) are the Govt cabs. Download uber and careem app. 
4. Download googlemaps. ae app for using google maps in offline mode.
5. Local sims are very costly here. My advise would be to activate international roaming from India and use it (specially Vodaphone or Airtel 3days or 7days plan with unlimited data)
6. Though all the malls have AC and are very attractive, you will have to walk a lot in most of the places specially if you are relying on public transport. Develop some stamina before coming here. 
7. Wear comfortable shoes and carry water bottles to avoid dehydration in hot humid weather
8. Public display of affection is discouraged, so respect sentiment of fellow people around you
9. Alcohol is very costly here so prefer buying duty free while entering here in case you may want to have it 
10. Ensure that you have an insurance certificate with you when you are here specially for parents & kids.  A friend of mine had to spend almost 50 Lakhs here as his father suffered an accidental stroke here.
11. While shopping, carry your passport to avail 5% VAT refund
12. While shopping from souqs (local markets here), use your bargaining skills

Dont's

1. Rules and punishments are very strict here, so don't dare to break them
2. Its very safe to travel here, so need not bother about theft, harassment, cheating etc You may safely go to beaches or night clubs alone or in groups
3. Weather from April until Sep will be terribly hot and humid, temp close to 48'C to 50'C. Avoid going out during the day in summers
4. Doctors and medical services are very costly. Avoid falling ill.
5. Speaking ill of Govt in any form is a strictly punishable offence, so avoid open rhetorics on politics, religion, liberalism etc
6. Language and food will be available per your liking at reasonable prices, so avoid stocking up and piling up eatables from India
7. Avoid buying diamonds from here as you may not be able to resale it in India

I will be writing subsequent detailed blogs on the 4days, 7days and 15days itinerary for this place, so you may avail the information. 

For any detailed questions/assistance required, you may email me directly for your queries. Some of the random pics/ experiences will be available on my FB/Instagram accounts.