Back in April, my friend sent me this message on Instagram. And two weeks later, after rushed planning, I was on my way to finally cover these two cities. We cramped so much into this 10-day trip with so little planning that the satisfaction and exhaustion were well worth the effort. Here’s what we did, how things were planned, tips, and essentially me documenting my journey to help others plan their time in the City of Gold.

First things first, the visa

Applying for a tourist visa in Dubai is a cakewalk. The entire process is online, and it was my first time applying for it through the MakeMyTrip visa platform. It was approved in 4 business days (not counting Friday) and cost 6477 INR (Breakup –> Embassy: 5850, MMT: 628)

I received a 60-day validity, 30-day stay single entry tourist visa for travel in UAE.

Peak On-Season overlap while travelling

I could possibly say we went in the most on-season time ever in Dubai. Here’s why. On the dates when we traveled, Dubai was under an on-season finish after Covid because, after April, the city starts to boil and become humid. So the tourists thin down, and the prices become cheaper. Expo2020 was also ending on March 31st, 2022. And, to make matters worse, we also overlapped with a dozen major events in the city, including a major cryptocurrency conference called EthDubai. Safe to say, our budgets got absolutely wrecked.

We spent triple the money on worse accommodation options, expensive flights due to the expo ending, and not well-priced tour plans. Not to mention the 24 million visits that the Expo received over 6 months, with a significant majority over last month.

So yeah, things weren’t ideal with this visit.

Next, the flights.

To save money on flights, we opted to land in Abu Dhabi because it’s cheaper, and we had to do Abu Dhabi anyway. We decided to take our flight to India from Sharjah for our return. This adds an additional cost of traveling from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and then later from Dubai to Sharjah, but in our case, the calculations turned out to be cheaper than direct flights from New Delhi to Dubai.

Many fellow travelers take the same route and I highly recommend it.

Getting that hard cash.

For most of my travels, I rely on BookMyForex. They deliver currency notes at home for fair rates and can also be used to recharge forex cards. If the blog helps you, then here’s my referral link.

For everything else, I use my Niyo Global card. Really like it. I wanted to buy an iPad and gold from Dubai so I recharged my ICICI forex card for the same reason. After this trip, I discontinued using it and defaulted to Niyo for all international card transactions.

Plan your purchases

The city of gold has a lot to offer and there are quite a lot of things to buy. I topped up my forex card with dirhams to buy gold and the new iPad that came out from Dubai. Since both items are cheaper to purchase from Dubai than in India. On top of that, you get a VAT discount, which really helps make the decision to buy more. The planning really comes into play when you have to pack all your purchases into that bag of yours. So make sure you have plenty of space to store all the perfumes, bags, belts, and electronics safely.

Everything set, tell me what you did.

The first 2 days and 2 nights were spent in Abu Dhabi. The city was great, and so was the nightlife. We lived in the town rather than near the airport. We chose to do the Grand Mosque and The Lourve in Abu Dhabi. We usually walked, took cabs, or once used the bus to go around. Besides getting stuck in the lift once, it was a fantastic experience. I would recommend spending more time in Abu Dhabi than in Dubai if you have been to the UAE more than once.

The rest of the days were spent in Dubai. Here’s what I did.

1. Atlantis Water Park and the Palm Jumeriah
2. Desert Safari
3. Perfume x Gold Souk and Abra rides
4. Expo 2020
5. Burj Khalifa and the malls
6. Skydive Dubai and the many beaches
7. Dubai cruise/yacht experience and nightlife

Things we missed doing or didn’t do.

1. Museum of the Future
2. Dubai Global Village (we were denied entry due to Family day)
3. Dubai Frame, Glow garden, Outlet mall.
4. Go Karting or Minigolf is something people could try doing.

The metro pass is 22 AED for a day which was useful when we went to the Expo, malls in Dubai, or the many souks in Dubai. The city’s transportation system is something we didn’t want to figure out, so we made it easy for ourselves by heavily relying on Klook in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We booked almost everything with hotel transfers, and Klook comes in the clutch by providing cheap tickets to every activity. I can’t recommend it enough for tourists.

The Skydive

The skydive over Palm Jumeirah was out of this world. My mind has recorded every moment of that experience so bizarrely that it transports me to the skydive within a split second. I feel the air rushing as I get thrown out of the plane and fall towards the Earth at 9.8 meters second square. I remember it all.

Extremely worth the 49k that it cost, and thanks to my sister for suggesting it. The dive was pre-booked, and the service was expertly provided. From pre-booking to arrival to safety procedures, I was well informed and, quite frankly, at peace. The toughest part about the Skydive was the payment which, after multiple failures, could only proceed when we used Firefox for some reason. Other than that, I will write more about my experience later in another post.

The Expo was amazing.

Apart from Skydiving, I feel Expo 2020 was one of the best things we were able to catch during our time in Dubai. Expo 2020 Dubai is a World Expo that will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is a mega international event in terms of scale, duration, and visitor count. Expo Dubai is the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region and the first to be hosted by an Arab country. It happens every 5 years. Apart from the millions in attendance, the city of Dubai created a futuristic new city for the Expo, 80 per cent of which will be reused by people settling here.

Getting around places: Hail a Hala Taxi.

We used cabs for travel and the metro for the rest. Surprisingly, cab drivers speak fluent Hindi, and English is the primary language for everything else. Hala taxis were cheap, comfortable with the AC turned up to max and no bargaining over fares. Payment can be made easily using a card, and drivers don’t go below 100 kilometres per hour if they can help it. Metro can only take you to so many places in Dubai, and everything else can be done using a cab.

Get me those tips

1. Calling a cab on the street is cheaper than calling a cab from Careem.
2. You will be paying for everything using a card. Cash is seldom used.
3. Get a reusable water bottle, a cap, or any head covering you got if you need to walk. Buying water is expensive. I asked for a glass of water and I was provided with a 42 dirham bottle of water in a pub. About as expensive as a bottle of beer.
4. Take an abra ride through the old souk if you can. I really liked that for just one dirham.
5. Book Museum of the Future tickets in advance; they get sold out quick.
6. Being a tourist in UAE has its benefits; always look for a VAT refund if you can.
7. Shop online instead. This is a weird take but extremely helpful. Everything affordable Dubai has to offer can be bought from the online e-commerce site called Noon. Spend half a day, shopping at Noon and the rest of the time you can spend at the many malls in Dubai.
8. Book events and tours from Klook about 2 days in advance and always post a review to get cashback credits.
9. Enjoy the city, pay respect to the locals and stay out of trouble. We didn’t see a single policeman in 10 days, and there is a reason for it.
10. Don’t be the person to go on top of the Burj Khalifa. Yes, the view would be amazing but you miss out on the opportunity to see the building among all the other buildings. And, I know just the spot something like…

Insurance

I keep it super simple and got my insurance from Care Insurance. I usually don’t buy travel insurance while booking flight tickets as I like to keep those two things separate. Getting insurance from Care is extremely fast & cheap. I greatly prioritize peace of mind in my decision-making for travel insurance.

Touchwood, I have never been in a position to file a claim, which would be the true test of how good Care insurance promises to be. Hopefully, I never do.

Okay, so what did it cost!

This much. The numbers are approximate and contain expenses for both Abu Dhabi & Dubai. Calculating food costs is a bit confusing in my case since I spend on nightlife a lot more, and some days I eat casual instant noodles, and it’s quite hard to figure out the food bit in this pie graph. Rest assured, the total is accurate. As I pull up all my statements and add them up. I feel it was quite costly, IMHO.

With limited planning, and the number of things I was able to cover, I have no regrets, but a return trip would rather have me spending time in the comfortable luxury of Abu Dhabi and only coming to Dubai for a weekend, if not at all.

My take on this trip.

I won’t be coming back as a tourist. It’s a city only meant to be seen once and lived multiple times. Just like in Bangkok, New York, or London, one can afford to be a tourist only once or twice. Every other trip you would rather have something specific to do, like someone’s bachelor party, a shopping trip, or just a luxury vacation with the family since it’s an easy destination to hop over.

The cities themselves are all glamorous and have no individual character. Dubai left no impression on me except for a beautiful, expensive, tax-haven bubble set up in the middle of the desert. It’s for everyone who can afford it, like most international mega-cities, and money can be spent limitlessly.

A fun place overall, but if our timing had been better, then we could have enjoyed it even more.

More insights

I keep a daily log of my travels and document my adventures on a daily basis using Instagram. You can check out the highlights for Dubai to learn more from my experiences. While writing this, I am completing Day 28 of my Thailand workcation. So I try to stay busy while travelling. Thanks!

Hope this helps you in the future. I wish you well, traveller. Till then, live in the mix.