The Decadent Dibber in Dubai. What we learned as first timers

[WileyCoyote]

At the time of planning our trip, there were very few threads or trippies on here. Since then, the very helpful all things Dubai thread is running and a couple of trippies have been addded. They are super helpful !

A few final thoughts as first timers in case they help anyone else

To Palm or not to Palm ? ... I initially felt it was a bit of a pain being on the Palm and that everything felt far away. Andy didn’t think that.
In fairness a taxi was always on hand and we were lucky that we didn’t hit any queues to get on or off the Palm. Comparing it to a Florida holiday it would be the same as staying at a villa resort or Universal and making the trip to Disney but less traffic jams.

Local taxis were always cheaper than the hotel car.
Local taxis were always available at the big malls and key tourist points. We didn’t need to bother with Uber.

Tipping isn’t as in your face as in the States. We tipped taxi drivers, tour guides and housekeeping ( on our last day). It didn’t seem to be expected

We took £500 in cash in AED equivalent and used that mainly for the taxis. We used the Revolut and Clarity card when out shopping with no problems

It is expensive ! Even with the sales around Black Friday, we thought it was very similar to UK prices for clothing and certainly not like the USA so not a big shopping destination for us.

Half board at the hotel really worked for us as did the club upgrade to include drinks. Drinking out would be expensive . It was just under £20 for my non alcoholic cocktail at the.Burj Al Arab and £8 for a bottle of still water at dinner time . Take some duty free with you ! From a cost view it was great knowing it was all pre paid. The hotel food was fabulous although buffets every night can be a bit overwhelming and I think next time I would convert the half board credit and try some of the other restaurants.

I did miss the variety of going out and trying different places to eat but can totally see half board on the Palm makes absolute sense

Friends had recommended the Waldorf and we were impressed with every aspect of it. Service and amenities were outstanding and we would very happily return. The staff in the club lounge were particularly outstanding in their attention to detail.

We did a few of the big attractions on our trip. They were great to experience ( maybe not all the pushy people at the Burj Khalifa) but I don’t feel the need to re visit any of them. We didnt get to see the marina, take a trip to Abu Dhabi or really explore the old Dubai area. We didn’t get to travel the metro to look around the Beachwalk area or see the Global Village. These are definitely things I would return to do. We had originally planned a fishing trip and the hop on hop off bus but in the end didn’t book either in advance. This was good as we would have had no time to chill out so for a short trip, planning some downtime was a good idea.

We both had very different holiday clothes for this trip. More formal and probably more like a cruise than Florida style trip.Dressing up for happy hour and dinner was very much the done thing at the hotel. People generally out and about wore smart casual and whilst you could wear shorts in the Mall, you would be in the minority.

It felt one of the cleanest , safest and most well planned places I have ever visited.

It takes luxury and opulence to another level

There are bargains to be had in high end watches, gold, silver and diamonds if you can deal with the hassle of haggling.

Check and double check on the rules regarding your medication before you leave. I had a thread running on this before I left.

You don’t need a visa in advance.

Be aware that there is security after you clear immigration as we were pulled over to have our cases screened before we exited the airport.

There is a large duty free store at the airport .. we didnt buy anything as had already picked up some stuff at Heathrow. It it looked well stocked. It’s all on the airport website.

It’s UK plug sockets so don’t forget that extension lead ...

We booked with Virgin Holidays and found it to be very well organised by them.

Happy planning