City Rating: Dubai
Population: 2’800’000
Date of visit: April 2017
Attractions & sights: 4/5
Nightlife: ?/5
Safety: 5/5
Infrastructure: 5/5
Low budget factor: 2/5
Total: 👍👍👍/5
The city in a nutshell:
Dubai is a city that is like a huge amusement park but has no character. Strictly speaking, the city has nothing to do with travelling, it’s simply a holiday destination that can be fun for a few days.
Where to stay:
Dubai Marina might be a good choice, as you can spend the evenings in one of the many bars or restaurants on the promenade. Dubai is not a city for pedestrians, you will spend a lot of time in taxis anyway. However, Dubai Marina might be the pedestrian friendliest part of the city.
The Good:
The city offers a lot of entertainment. Not only that the Emirate is home of numerous world-class hotels and restaurants, people also enjoy the beaches in this hot desert city. Many luxurious areas in the city give the tourists the opportunity to snap an instagram-worthy picture. Dubai is actually a good city to relax a few days and you won’t get bored.
Some of the most popular activities are going up Burj Khalifa, visiting amusement parks or skiing in a mall. A trip to Dubai desert is mandatory when in the Emirate.
Dubai has some of the largest shopping malls in the world, for example the Mall of the Emirates or Dubai Mall. You will find every international luxury brand in the Emirate and you could spend a week without seeing all the shops in the city.
Crime is also non-existent in Dubai. You can easily walk everywhere without getting hassled. The city is also one of the main transport hubs in Asia and a good place for a short stopover therefore.
The Bad & The Ugly:
Although Dubai is a city that can be fun, it is also a place with no character and the city could theoretically be anywhere in the world. 77% of the population are expats, only 23% are Emirati. When you’re in a mall for example, you will not feel that you are in an Arab country at the moment.
Furthermore, distances between places are huge so that walking is not an option. It’s not a pedestrian friendly city anyway and strolling doesn’t seem to be popular among the Emirati. In addition, sand particles in the sky make the city ‘dusty’ so that you cannot expect a blue sky. The city looked as grey as Shanghai or Mumbai when I was there.
It’s also an expensive city. The only thing that was cheap was the food in restaurants.
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