Dubai

Global Village in Dubai We also visited the world market Global Village, part of the Dubai Shopping Festival. This is a huge shopping/theme park about an hour outside Dubai that can best be compared to the Epcot Center, but with much more of an emphasis on shopping. Each section of th

The Bur Dubai Souq, across from Deira and right next to the abra station (this is where the boats drop you off when you cross the creek) had some of the best deals we saw in Dubai. Lots of knockoff watches, handbags, as well as beautiful textiles, rugs at rock bottom prices (after hag

The Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai Another mall we checked out was the Ibn Battuta mall. This mall is at the far end of New Dubai, so was a little costly in a cab to get to. It was worth it however, and was for our money the most unique shopping mall we visited in Dubai. Every wing of the

Ski Dubai ski hill Ski Dubai and the Mall of the Emirates is another must-see in Dubai. Despite being Canadian, we’d never actually been downhill skiing, but why not start in Dubai? Attached to the shopping mall, Ski Dubai is a massive indoor structure, 60 stories high, with som

Madinat Jumeirah Souk in Dubai Right beside the Burj Al Arab is Souq Madinat Jumeirah. This is a high-end shopping mall/”souk”, which is the cleaned-up, high price version of the souks elsewhere in the city. This is more of a tourist trap than a legitimate place to get a g

Public Beach close to Burj Al Arab We opted instead for viewing the outside from the public beach, about a 20 minute walk away. The hotel is surrounded by beautiful beaches, but all the ones close by are exclusively for use by hotel guests. The public beach was a nice long stretch of

Burj Al Arab, too expensive for us One of the “must-see” for any visit to Dubai is the Burj al Arab, a beautiful tall modern hotel in the “New Downtown” of Dubai. It is a six star hotel and costs a ridiculous amount of money to stay there per day. Unfortunately

Getting across Dubai Creek by dhow From our hotel in Deira, we picked up our bags, crossed the Dubai Creek by dhow (10 cents), and from there it was about a 15 minute walk to the bus station. The bus station was easy to figure out (everyone speaks English, and everything is clearly la

The next morning we headed out to explore Deira. We started out wandering through the electronics market. Nothing very exciting – prices were similar to or worse than what we can get in the US. Electronics Souk, Deira, Dubai It wasn’t long before we moved on to the Gold Ma

Le Meridien Baniyas Square View We had arranged through Expedia.com our first night at Le Meridien Baniyas Square. Le Meridien is a fairly high end chain. They have several expensive hotels in Dubai, but they also have one cheap location (“Baniyas Square”) in the Deira dis