We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel, located on Sheik Zayed Road right opposite the World Trade and Convention Centre,  and whilst both myself and my husband have travelled extensively both on business and for leisure and have stayed at some superb properties in the past, we cannot speak highly enough about this property.  The staff where wonderful – very friendly and knowledgeable and special mention must go to one of the doormen who was so keen to let us know where we should visit and even knew the cost and approx time of taxi rides that he came into the Hotel Lobby every time he saw us to check we where OK!  Also when leaving the ‘sunrise pool’ (the Hotel has two swimming pools) after a couple of days the pool attendant simply asked us “same time tomorrow” and from then on our preferred sun beds where all set up with towels, a table, a bottle of water each and even an ashtray!  We really felt like a couple of celebrities!!!

Everyone is aware that sterling is very weak at the moment and when we where last in the UAE the exchange rate was approx AED 7 to the pound, this has now dropped to around 5, however there are still many ways to get value for money and my own top tips would be:

Don’t want to pay Hotel prices (approx £20) for breakfast?  Then within 5 minutes walk of the Fairmont you will find the Mille Miglia Café where you can get a full breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, hash browns, tea/coffee and fresh juice for around £7.50.  The Café is laid out like a library and when you ask for the Menu you will get a well-thumbed paperback book with a menu stuck inside!  Also it does look rather strange to be sitting at your table and to see the waitress crossing the road with your breakfast which they get from their main restaurant! But it is a relaxed way to start your day.

Dajen Restaurant – Lebanese/Arabic Fast Food on Sheik Zayed Road – hummus, mutable, babaghanoush and other mezze dishes, kebabs and grills at a great price – it cost us about £7 each for a tasty meal including fresh fruit juice, however do not expect salubrious surroundings or to linger over your meal, it’s similar to going into a Burger King or MacDonald’s, except you do get your food brought to your table!

Jashan Indian Restaurant – Sheik Zayed Road – good menu in English with photos and descriptions, good service and a great price, we had a chicken dish, a lamb dish, a vegetarian main, nan break and a large bottle of water and the total bill was under £20 including tip!!

My top tip…..don’t miss the Ravi Palace close to Satwa Roundabout.  This is authentic Pakistani cuisine and you will find every nationality dining here, we saw Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Brits, Australians, Eastern Europeans and many others all enjoying the experience.  Don’t expect luxury, in fact if you sit outside as we did, you get a slightly sticky plastic tablecloth (a very good reason not to put your elbows on the table!), plastic plates and your bottle of water comes with polystyrene cups!  The food however is great, very spicy (I have never experienced motor ponir with chunks of chilli before!) and you will probably have to guess at what you are actually ordering, maybe that is why everything was so spice – but it’s well worth being brave and giving this a go, especially when for the two of us we paid approx £11 including tip and ordered more than we could actually eat (you get 4 nan breads for a £1) and neither of us suffered any after effects the following day!!

Having saved all that money on ‘local’ dining one ‘must do’ is to go to the Vu Bar on the 51st floor at the Emirates Towers – it will cost you approx £9.00 for a Gin & Tonic, but the view is spectacular.

Do be prepared that alcohol is expensive as it is all imported and only available in Hotels and that a Costa Coffee will cost you around £3, and that building work is still going on, but having not taken our holidays in Dubai for over 10 years we thought that it would have been spoilt but we where pleasantly surprised.

Dubai is already well known for shopping and the malls are not just a shopping experience – at the Mall of the Emirates you can shop, eat or even go tobogganing or skiing at “Ski Dubai”.  Being December it had a lovely Christmas feel to it with all the lights and trees.

The brand new Dubai Mall had only just opened when we visited, and approx ½ of the expected 1,200 shops where open at that time, I can imagine that when it is all finished that even the most dedicated shopper may have to admit defeat and make more than one visit!.  The complex also includes an ice rink and a stunning Aquarium which has a massive glass wall out to the shopping centre.

This new Mall is at the foot of the new Burj Dubai which will be the tallest building in the world on completion – with the skyline of Dubai being full of large skyscrapers from Sheik Zayed Road you do not realise the sheer magnitude of this new construction.  Go down to old Jumeirah and the public beach by the Marine Beach Hotel and you will see just how high this is going to be – it was dusk when I took the photo to the left, but it will still give you an idea of what it is really like.

 My final ‘tip’ is that a week is just not long enough to go to all the places you would like, so I guess it’s now a case of planning another trip back and hoping that exchange rates improve to make the ‘designer’ shopping affordable again!

Recommended links:
Tourism in Dubai
Dubai on Wikipedia
The Dubai Guide

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Pacsafe MetroSafe 100 – Anti-Theft Shoulder Bag
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