Dubai Travel Forum

Hi all Vts, i am flying in to dubai with my wife in first week in september on our way to paris from australia (14 Hr Flight arriving 1100hrs),we are booked into Arabian Courtyard Hotel & spa for two nights, could someone advise the best way to get to hotel from airport term 3, is this hotel ok and close to areas that would be good to visit, any suggestions re what to visit with the short time we have available(1 full day), are short tours available to see some of what dubai has to offer,finally will i need to change money from either aussie Dollars or euros before leaving airport to hotel,thanks for any info you can provide

Hello from Dubai!

A) Just be aware that during your visit it will be the Holy Month of Ramadhan. There are restrictions on eating/drinking/smoking in public, restaurants/cafes in shopping malls will be closed until after sunset, but hotels will keep at least 1 curtained-off restaurant open.

B) There are plenty of taxis outside the hotel. Base charge is 25 Dirhams for a taxi from the airport, and calculate perhaps another 15-20 Dirhams to your hotel.

C) Your hotel is a nice 4-star right in the heart of "old Dubai" (Bur Dubai). You'll basically be located right opposite the Dubai Museum, with the nearby Textile Souk (bazaar), the Dubai Creek with it's many boats and cruises, and just a short trip across the water with an "Abra" (water taxi, 1 Dirham to cross per person) takes you to the Gold Souk and also the Spice Souk. It's a lovely area for walking-around, actually one of my favourite areas in Dubai. However, as it will still be rather hot (and extremely humid!) in September, it's probably best to save walking around until evening time.

Location: http://www.arabiancourtyard.com/location.aspx

D) During the day, your best choice for a tour around Dubai would probably be the BIG BUS Tour. Details here (copy & paste this link)

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/185444/

D) Yes, you'll need to change money before leaving the airport (for the taxi driver, for example, unless you can ask your hotel how much they would charge for an airport pick-up).

Hope this helps!
Jess :-)

G'day Noel.

I agree with Jess, the weather means the best plan would be to take the Big Bus hop-on hop off tour during the day. They have two tours, one around the original city and the other around New Dubai, which is where the huge new developments are. I suggest you take the latter because you can easily wander around the main and most interesting part of the old city in the evening. As Jess said, that's the area around the Creek - I have details in my 'Must See' Travelogue if you want to check it out before your visit.

The museum is in an old fort and the large underground section is air-conditioned so if the heat & humisity gets to you have a wander around in there.

Taxi from the airport is the easiest way to get to your hotel. They're well regulated, metered, air-conditioned, uniformed drivers etc. Just follow the signs to the taxi rank, and ignore any tout who whispers "taxi sir?" to you on the way, we do have a few pirate taxis.

There are money exchanges in the terminal so changing your dollars will be easy.

Just to reinforce the point Jess made about Ramadan. Eating, drinking, smoking in public is strictly forbidden during daylight hours. There will be a few coffee shops open but they're not easy to find. Hotels will have restaurants open for their guests.

In the second week of September the Metro will start and I guess you could use metro to travel to your hotel:-)

He'll miss the grand opening of the Metro by a few days Amir :-(

True dear friend Colin, I am considering to accept the red carpet invitation or not, what about you :-)

I'm still waiting to receive my VIP invitation Amir - it must be delayed in the post.

haha ! You guys are funny :-)

Well, looks like summer has officially arrived in Dubai today... the radio has just reported an expected high of 51 degrees (!) today, and my mother just called me: she's in her car on Sheikh Zayed Road and the outside temperature is currently reading 49 degrees.
Phew.

Fortunately though Jess the humidity is down today - yesterday it was awful even though the temp was cooler.

Yes, you're right, the humidity over the past 3 days was just miserable.

But alas, I'm flying towards the UK "heat wave" tomorrow, so I hope the rest of you won't have to suffer too much over the next 3 weeks :-)

We're going to the UK on Sunday Jess and I've been checking the forecast. They have the heat alert panic warnings (because it may go up to 32C in the south-east) but by Sunday when we arrive it says it'll be about 17C max with rain
:-((

Jess and Colin,
Wish you both safe trips and hope to see you when you are back.
Jess, Congrats!! You deserve the best :-)

Hi and thanks Amir :-)

Colin, we've had 28 degrees and glorious blue skies up here in Inverness... surviving the "heat wave" just fine, it's perfect!