Traveling to the Middle East, I never expected to say that Dubai was probably the safest and cleanest city I’ve ever been to and there was more amazing things to see and do here than anywhere else I’ve ever traveled to. Here is a short highlight video that really shows off the trip:
4/1/19
We had a long day of flying connecting through Amsterdam and arrived at our AirBnB at 2:00am.
The first thing I did was checkout the view which was incredible!!! Seeing the Burj Khalifa at night is a jaw dropping site!
The next morning, I got up just after sunrise again to check out this view. During the day, you could even better appreciate the 30 acre lake they created at the foot of the tower.
After waking up, we walked over to a grocery store 5 minutes away and got some food to stock our refrigerator. It was then time to go for a walk and check out the area which of course led to some more images of the Burj Khalifa.
We were a little disappointed that we couldn’t actually go inside the tower unless we paid a lot of money to take an elevator to the viewing platform at the top.
We then walked around the Dubai Mall which had all sorts of interesting artwork and sculptures.
We were fighting a bit of jet lag so we went back to our apartment to relax for the afternoon, let the boys swim, etc.
During the day, it gets really hot and there aren’t a lot of people out, but at night, it’s hopping and was way busier!
We walked back to the mall to have dinner and watch the water show which starts at 6:00pm and runs every half hour.
At night, we went back up to our room and watched the water show from our balcony.
4/2/19
The next day we drove out to Abu Dhabi in the morning to check out the Grand Mosque which is absolutely breathtaking architecture.
Later that evening, I did some more images from our balcony at the apartment and then we headed back out to the mall and to see the water show again. This time we took one of the boat rides around the lake to really experience it up close.
4/3/19
Today we were transferring to another airBnB. Before checkout, went to the Miracle Garden which was a jaw dropping display of flowers.
In the afternoon, we made our way over to our second AirBnB which was right on the Jumeirah Beach Marina.
We went for our walk around the area, had dinner, and walked back along the beach at night.
4/4/19
This morning we went over to the beach which was an interesting experience. There were some women that were covered head to toe for their beach wear and right next to them would be a woman in a thong bikini.
And there were also camels…so that was different!
This evening we did a dessert safari trip. It had it’s pros and cons but it was definitely a unique and fun experience which included dune bashing in a 4×4 vehicle, quad biking in the sand, along with dinner and some shows including belly dancing and fire spinning.
4/5/19
Today we went to the Wild Wadi water park which was a great time. It was not nearly as crowded as we had expected. It was a small park and probably overpriced for what it was but we had a great time and it had amazing views of the Burj Al Arab which is another beautiful piece of architecture.
In the evening we went to Jumeirah Public Beach which was absolutely insanely crowded.
I had the chance to do some beautiful pics of the changing light with the Burj Al Arab.
The boys played soccer on the beach with some other kids.
After that we went to Souk Madinat Jumeirah which is an indoor/outdoor mall with lots of shopping and restaurants. It reminded a little bit of the San Antonio river walk. We had a wonderful Italian dinner with a warm breeze on the terrace. We talked a bit with our waiter who was from Uzbekistan. He said that the 95 degree days right now are perfect but in summer it will be 125 degrees. Ugh!!
4/6/19
This morning we went to the aquarium in Atlantis. It was enjoyable but very small compared to the Bahamas counterpart.
In the evening we went to Global Village which is a 364 acre park that represents different cultures from all over the world. It’s a melting pot of cultures in an open air mall blended with a theme park.
Each section of the globe included shopping and food from that region. There was a large carnival section, a stage where every 15 minutes they had dance performances from different countries, a live stunt show and so much more.
It was truly unique!!
4/7/19
Today was departure day and it was be a long day. Our flight wasn’t until 12:40am so we needed to occupy 14.5 hours. The boys took advantage of the pool with a late checkout time.
After that, we headed to the Emirates Mall and visited Ski Dubai. This was probably the only regret that I had from the trip because it was really expensive and since the boys hadn’t skied before, they would not have been able to pass the ski test required to actually go on the slope so there wasn’t much for us to do there. We still had fun on the toboggans and tubes and stuff.
In the evening we went to the Dubai Glow Garden which was the largest in the world. It was really pretty and fun to walk around at night. From there…off to the airport!!
On our way home, we had a long layover in Amsterdam so we decided to explore the city. Shortly after sunrise, we walked around downtown to see all the canals. We also made a stop at the home of the famous Anne Frank which was a great history lesson for the boys. One of my favorite things to see was all the bikes! BIKES EVERYWHERE!!
Next we took an Uber to go visit the Kuekenhof Tulip gardens which were blooming. Unfortunately we only had about half an hour left so it was WAY too short!!
We then went back to the airport and flew home to Detroit.
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