INSIDE GUIDE
Dubai expert Callan Emery shares his top tips for a weekend of exploring in the city he sometimes calls home
SO you’ve landed at Dubai International, cleared immigration and customs (make sure there are no Israeli stamps in your passport and no medication with codeine in your luggage) and you’re waiting in the queue for the ubiquitous Dubai taxi. You will surely be exhilarated. Yes, the skyscrapers squeezed between the endless dunes of the Empty Quarter (the world’s largest sand desert) and the deep blue of the Persian Gulf are breathtaking. But they are not the only thing Dubai has to offer.
DAY 1 1. Get to the heart of the city
Dubai’s small historical centre is at the mouth of the creek that divides Deira on one side from Bur Dubai on the other. Take an abra (water taxi) from Bur Dubai’s abra station and chug across the creek to wander into the souks where Arabs, Pakistanis, Indians, Iranians, Syrians, Egyptians, Sudanese and Moroccan traders bustle through narrow alleys filled with the sweet smell of Frankincense wafting from their stores. Visit the Spice Souk, which melds into the Wholesale Souk, where you can find everything from pots and pans to hairbands and kitsch neon photo frames.
Look carefully and you will also find little treasures such as beaded Aladdin slippers, pashminas and exotic cloth. Get lost in these alleyways and you will eventually wind up at Dubai’s famous Gold Souk, which must be one of the most ostentatious bazaars on Earth.
2. Lunch like a local
Once you’ve taken an abra back across the creek, wander through the vaulted wooden alley that houses the Fabric Souk before heading to the historic Bayt al-Wakeel restaurant. Choose a table on the wooden deck that juts out over the creek and watch rickety dhows and plush yachts gliding by as you lunch on authentic Arabic mezze. Wash it all down with a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.
A short walk from the souk is the Dubai Museum (uaeinteract.com) in an old fort, plus a range of funky art galleries housed in the old buildings of the Bastakia Quarter, complete with shaded courtyards and traditional wind towers.
3. Head for the snow …
The Mall of the Emirates (themalloftheemirates.com) is home to Ski Dubai (skidxb.com), a 25-storey high, 400m-long ski slope with snow as good as the real stuff, a chair lift, quarter pipe and jumps. Sign up for a one-hour beginner’s lesson for DHS185 (R720), where you’ll learn the skiing basics (book in advance). If you already know your pistes from your poles, then DHS200 (about R780) will buy you a two-hour ski pass including skis and suit.
4. … or take a leap of faith
If you prefer your thrills in the sun rather than the snow, then you can push yourself over the edge of the 30m near-vertical Leap of Faith at Sol Kerzner’s desert playground — Aquaventure Waterpark at Atlantis (atlantisthepalm.com). It is located at the tip of the Palm Jumeirah — the iconic manmade island in the shape of a palm tree.
5. Sip sundowners with a view
Once you’ve warmed up or dried off, head to Neos at the top of The Address, a Downtown hotel (theaddress.com), for chic sundowners. From this sky bar on the 63rd floor, watch the sun set over the Gulf with the city dwarfed below. From here, you’ll get a clear impression of the scale of the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa, which is virtually next door. Down below, you’ll also see Dubai Mall (thedubaimall.com), the biggest shopping centre in the world. For book-lovers, Kinokuniya (kinokuniya.com) will surely do the trick.
6. Get real at Ravis
A 15-minute taxi drive away is Ravis, a Pakistani restaurant, which those in the know declare one of the best inexpensive dining options in town, despite its humble setting.
The 24-hour workers’ restaurant is in the heart of Satwa, the dusty, crumbling Pakistani and Iranian quarter, and one of the city’s older residential and commercial areas. Pull up a chair at one of the tables on the busy pavement and feast on butter chicken and naan washed down with a lassi for less than DHS20 (R80).
7. Chill out at the Buddha Bar
For late-night drinks, head to the Buddha Bar at the Grosvenor Hotel. With its triple-volume ceiling, oversized chandeliers, plush red-velvet drapes and chilled sounds, the Buddha Ba (buddha-bar.com) epitomises laid-back chic.
This club is a magnet for Dubai’s beautiful people and retains the Parisian charm of its French namesake.
DAY 2 8.Clean up your act at the hammam
After breakfast, scrub away the previous night’s excess at the One&Only Royal Mirage Resort and Spa’s hammam (oneandonlyresorts.com). A marble spiral staircase, decorated with Arabic tiles, will lead you down to the Moroccan bath.
The marble slab — where you’ll be lathered up, scrubbed down and wrapped in eucalyptus-scented mud, massaged and slathered in honey — is set beneath a twinkling dome that lets in circles of light. The Royal Treatment will leave you feeling like a sheikh or sheikha.
9. See Dubai from the sky
To truly appreciate this city’s rapid expansion, take to the sky aboard the seaplane (seawings.ae), which leaves from the Jebel Ali Resort and Spa. The 40-minute tour costs DHS1 695 (R6 700) and provides excellent photo opportunities on a clear day.
10. Lunch on a shawarma
En route back to your hotel, ask your taxi driver to stop at the famed Chalet restaurant on Jumeirah Beach Road next to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel to pick up a lunchtime takeaway shawarma. Try the freshly squeezed mango juice, or a local favourite — a zingy lime-and-mint cocktail.
11. Make a dash for the dunes
A desert safari — there are several operators, but Travco (travco.com) has the best rates at DHS280 (R1 100) — gives you a complete taste of Arabia in one package. The sunset safari starts with a pick-up from your hotel at 3.15pm. You’ll be driven out to Big Red — one of the Emirates’s tallest dunes, where you’ll meet up with the rest of the 4x4s in your convoy.
First off is a dune-bashing, thrill ride over the dunes. Keep your seatbelt fastened. You will stop for sunset at the top of a dune to experience the mesmerising, eerie quiet and changing hues of the Empty Quarter — or Rub’ al Khali — that extends thousands of kilometres across the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea.
After sunset, you’ll be driven down to a tented Bedouin-style desert camp where you can quickly tick off all your Arabian experiences by surfing down the dunes on a sand board, riding a camel, getting a henna tattoo, smoking an apple-flavoured shisha pipe (the Arabic hubbly-bubbly water pipe), tucking into an Arabian braai and shaking your hips with the resident belly-dancer. It may sound touristy, but it’s good fun.
The party’s over by 8.30pm — you can arrange for your driver to drop you at your hotel or at the airport.