Memorable Trip To Dubai & Abu Dhabi

During the month of February 2020 we visited Dubai and Abu Dhabi, below is my summary of 5 days that we spent in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

This was our first trip to Dubai, there were million questions that were racing through our mind before we started our journey. Although, there is lot of scattered information available on the internet but I missed a information like below which would have helped me a lot while planning for this trip.

I am sure like me there will be many who will find below information useful as it will help them plan the trip really well.

UAE Currency – United Arab Emirates Dirham  (Symbol – AED)

Feb 17th, 2020:

We landed in Abu Dhabi via Etihad airways, and their bus shuttle took us to Dubai airport pickup location where our hotel taxi person was waiting for us.

We stayed in Hotel Mercure,  we really enjoyed our stay. It’s a beautiful hotel, breakfast was included in our stay, it was indeed a grand breakfast every morning. It was one of the trigger for us to wake up early 🙂

We took Etihad airways flight from Toronto to Abu Dhabi.

From Abu Dhabi airport to our hotel in Dubai:

• Visa clearance was piece of cake, the airport staff was very friendly and cooperative
• Free Wi-Fi at the airport, was big plus as my cell phone career doesn’t offer roaming to UAE :(.
• Then took the Etihad shuttle bus to go to Dubai, this shuttle was prearranged by my travel agent.  The bus also offers free Wi-Fi:), every Etihad shuttle bus offers free Wi-Fi. So, no need to panic in case you didn’t get sim at the airport.
• The Etihad shuttle bus stops right in front of Abu Dhabi airport, it’s not a big airport so locating bus was very easy.
• Once we got out of airport, we just moved our luggage trolleys towards the bus, and then Etihad team took care of us.
• No need to panic at any point of time, remember you are in the safest country that is famous for their hospitality.
• The bus dropped us at one of their stop in Dubai where we were picked by taxi arranged by our travel agent. The taxi dropped us at our Hotel Mercure.
• During check-in I had to deposit 500 Dirhams as security which was refunded during checkout, this is normal process for every good hotel. Guess what, I was short on Dirhams when I landed, but that’s a good thing as I got better conversion rate from USD to Dirham 🙂 . I only carried 350 Dirhams with me when we left Canada because we knew we will get better rates for USD in Dubai, so this is a good tip for you all. 
• Mercure is a beautiful hotel, we loved it. The room was very spacious and well maintained. We were on 22nd floor, the view was fantastic.
• You can imagine how well we slept that night as we were tired of long journey followed by 1-hour bus ride. Kids also liked the place.

Feb 18th, 2020:

The Mercure hotel is conveniently located near a 2 minutes’ walk from the Dubai metro station called Dubai Internet City. Although, our trip was booked by a travel agency ETN Travel, but our first pickup was around 7 PM in the evening for Marina Dhow Cruise with Dinner Buffet. So, during the day we explored the Dubai city via Metro, the daily metro pass per member is around 20 Dirham (AED), trust me it’s worth the bucks. We went to many different locations, it was just like hop off and on throughout Dubai. We came back to the hotel around 5 PM. Dubai Metro is world class, very well maintained. The metro stations are grand, very beautiful. I was travelling with my family which includes my wife and two kids 10 and 6, at no point of time we felt unsafe anywhere in Dubai. It’s such a wonderful city, people are so welcoming. Being first time in Dubai we were little hesitant to go out ourselves, but the metro journey made us very comfortable. 

Around 7 PM we were picked from our hotel for the Marina Dhow Cruise. The cruise ok, but food was bit spicy. We enjoyed the building architecture around the marina, specially building lights and aesthetics were eye catching. Try to book upper deck if you get a choice.

After the cruise was over, we reached home around 11:30 PM, got some good sound sleep. We loved the package we took, we don’t have to worry about pick up and drop off, all were taken care of.

Feb 19, 2020:

Today we covered Dubai city tour and Desert Safari.

We were picked from Hotel around 8:30 am for Dubai city tour, I must tell you that we didn’t waste a single minute in Dubai to be very frank. You can see our pickup time, and before that we used to spend some good 30  to 40 minutes for the grand breakfast offered by the hotel 🙂 .

Most of the attractions that we covered as part of Dubai city tour are available on above link, I will add some of my points below:

• We almost covered both old and new Dubai
• Dubai is divided in two parts
  • Bur Dubai
  • Deira
• We saw Dubai museum
• Took Ferry to go to Bur Dubai
• Then off to Burj Al Arab and the beach
• Went to see the palm Jumeirah resort and the beach
• Took the monorail that took us to Atlantis Hotel and the beach, it was also a breath-taking experience. It just costed us 20 AED per person, but worth the bucks. Do take it.

• Then we were dropped to the hotel around 1:30 PM.

I want to say that our guide was really good, he was very knowledgeable and took care of us really well.

Desert Safari:

Around 2:30 pm we were picked from our hotel for Desert Safari, our guide was Arslan, very good and humble tour guide.

• The desert safari experience was awesome, awesome and AWESOME
• We drove the sand bikes, it was great experience, must do activity.
• The we took off to the actual real desert safari, it was mind boggling experience, never experienced something like this before.
• The drivers of these 4X4 Land Rovers are amazing, hats off to them the way they drive the 4×4 in the sand dunes.
• And finally, we went to the desert camp where we enjoyed the food, dance and music. Bought couple of souvenirs
• Our driver Arslan was really good, he made our trip more memorable with his services, God bless him!

Desert Safari was like we went on to a different planet, what an experience which we will cherish for years to come.

Feb 20, 2020:

Today again we were picked from our hotel around 8:30am sharp to be taken to the tour bus for Abu Dhabi trip. We were transferred from taxi to the bus, our tour guide was Vishal Saluja.

Vishal is a great tour guide, very informative and resourceful. He explained the details about Dubai really well while our bus was travelling through the Dubai roads. It was a long Journey to reach Abu Dhabi, took us almost hour and half.

• Our first destination in Abu Dhabi was Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It’s a beautiful mosque with a unique architecture. It’s indeed one of the biggest tourist attraction of UAE.
• Our tour guide gave us exact instructions timewise, that helped us to cover the entire mosque, and we were able to get some great pictures as we managed our time really well.
• After covering the mosque, our tour guide took us to couple of more scenic points in Abu Dhabi.
• Our next stop was at Abu Dhabi dates market, this market has huge variety of dates. It’s at Zayed Port, Near Mina Market in Abu Dhabi.
• Don’t forget to buy dates from here, world’s best dates. Do some research which dates you should buy as they have tons of variety of dates.
• After dates market our next stop was Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. We reached there around 3:30 PM. It’s a big theme park. If you are big rides and Ferrari fan, then this place is for you. I will list of the roller coasters as per priority:
  • For Adults:
    • Formula Rosa
    • Turbo Track
    • Fiarano GT challenge
  • For family and kids:
    • Viageo Italia
    • Speed of magic

• There are some good options to eat there within Ferrari world, so don’t carry much food with you.
• My kids wanted to buy couple of souvenirs but unfortunately, I was out of Dirham. Luckily, I had USDs with me that I exchanged at the shop, I got almost 3.47 Dirhams for each USD, which is not bad, but I still recommend purchasing  Dirhams in advance.

We were kind of drained by the time we wrapped up Ferrari world. But then my tour guide told me you guys have to cover Burj Khalifa also that too today as tomorrow March 21 we will be leaving Dubai 🙁 . You can imagine our situation by that time, I requested my tour guide if we can move Burj Khalifa visit to tomorrow, but he said your tickets are pre booked for today only. As I said earlier, Vishal is a smart guide he told us just relax in the bus as it will take us at least an hour or more to reach Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa is situated within Dubai Mall, from Ferrari World so you will be refreshed by the time you visit Burj Khalifa.

Guess what, he was absolutely right. We get into the bus, took good sleep for an hour and then we dropped at the entrance of Dubai Mall. Our guide made sure we got all the instructions in detail before we got out of the bus.

We got out of the bus, entered into the world’s biggest mall “Dubai Mall“. Wife wanted to have a cup of coffee or tea to start with, so we made a quick stop at B2B Burgers. It’s s small shop but had awesome chai tea and coffee. We also ordered French Fries, you must try that, loved it. It was almost 8:30 PM, we asked the sever for the direction for Burj Khalifa , although you don’t need to ask for directions as there is enough signage within the mall to direct you to Burj Khalifa.

We were surprised to see that mall was packed even at 8:30 PM, then we recalled Dubai is famous for night life. Me, my wife and out two munchkins were browsing through the mall, wanted to stop at every store as each and every store offers unique and antique items, but we were bit short on time. So passed through all the stores and reached to the ticket entrance of Burj Khalifa.

Since our tickets were pre purchased for us by our travel agent so clearing the ticket counter was quick, followed by a quick security check and we were all set to get into the elevator to reach 124th floor of the World famous Burj Khalifa The elevators weren’t see through like the way we have in Canadian CN tower, but what amazed us was the speed of the elevator, it travels 8 meters up each second, yes 8 meters each second. Hardly within a minute we were at 124th floor. The elevator was very very clean, it has digital screens that keeps you entertained.

We reached at 124th floor, it was almost around 9:30 PM, the night view of the city was breath taking, it was beautiful with clear sky, awesome visibility. I must say it was a perfect day to be at the top of Burj Khalifa, God has always been kind of us. We captured every view in our camera. Then around 10:00 PM the musical fountain works started, we were fortunate to witness that from the top of Burj Khalifa, it was an eye-opening experience. My kids loved the overall experience of Burj Khalifa, my 6 years told daughter said Papa we should stay here forever 🙂

Once done, our taxi was waiting for us in the P Grand Parking lot of the Dubai Mall, it was around 10:45 PM when we were picked, we reached our hotel around 11:15 PM. Got some good sleep.

Feb 21, 2020 (Out Last Day in Dubai):

Again, we kept the momentum continued, woke up early around 6:30 AM as today was our last day in Dubai, we have our flight at 2 AM (Feb 22, 2020) from Abu Dhabi airport. Enjoyed the wonderful breakfast buffet at hotel, the last time 🙁 , but we will visit this place soon in future.

Our pick up was scheduled at 7PM for Abu Dhabi airport, that means we have full day to explore Dubai Mall. We took the Dubai Metro, this time we only took ticket than a day pass as we have just one destination of Dubai Mall. It costed us around 8 Dirhams per person. We reached mall around 12:30 PM.

First thing did was we went for food as were super hungry, all four of us have different choices as the food court was big really big. Kids took McDonalds, where I took Thai and wife went for shawarma. All choices were fantastic. Food wise Dubai has been the best of the best than other countries we have visited so far. Every night we ordered Hyderabadi Biryani in our hotel, even when we had dinner outside, we will still order it once we reach hotel. My kids like biryani, and our hotels’  Hyderabadi Biryani became their favorite, that was the main reason we order it almost every night.

After lunch we explored the mall, did some shipping. The mall is so big that it needs a full blog on it,  for now you can search online more about it. While roaming through the mall we saw the big screens of Dubai Aquarium, it has world’s largest OLED screen. Initially, we thought of by passing it as the ticket was bit pricy around 275 Dirhams per person, but then we thought it’s just once in a lifetime thing so went ahead with it. The price of the tickets was worth the experience, there are so many things to explore inside the aquarium, you will go on  boat ride, will feed the fish and many more things to explore and learn there. Pack some snacks it takes around at least one hour to two based on how interested you are in exploring stuff in detail.

We were almost done for the day after Dubai Aquarium, were really tired. Then we took the metro back to our hotel, we relaxed a bit in the lobby while we were waiting for our taxi. The taxi came around 7:30 PM, he drooped us at one of the Etihad bus pickup location. Bus came around 8:30 PM, we took good rest while bus took us from Dubai to Abu Dhabi Airport. Then finally we boarded our flight to go home.

That’s pretty much from my side. Once again my sincere thanks to ETN Travel for this wonderful trip, because of you we were able to enjoy both Dubai and Abu Dhabi to the fullest. Thanks for all the bookings and arrangements.

Feel free to reach out to me via comments in case you have any question or concern about your upcoming trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, I will be more than happy to assist you.

Until then take care, stay safe in this testing time of COVID-19.