Welcome To Dubai: The City In A Desert
Hot. Humid. Unbearable weather. Beautiful buildings. Great architecture….
These are just a couple of words I can use to describe my first trip to Dubai. But overall, do you want to know what I really think? Overrated.
Yeah. I think Dubai is a bit overrated. But it’s overrated for different reasons.
Social media will make you think Dubai is a glorious place where you’ll enjoy yourself all the time.
The truth is, it’s not as enjoyable. (Well, unless you have oodles of money)
The average daily temperature is 40 degrees Celsius. Walking outside feels like living in a sauna.
It’s unpleasant. Staying indoors always felt like the best option while staying there.
But once you get over the weather, you will have to marvel at what Dubai is: A beautifully planned and design city which you can’t believe exists.
Dubai is basically a city in the desert. It’s kind of astonishing. It’s well designed. Roads are properly planned. The buildings and architecture are gorgeous and there are lots of things to do as far as tourism destinations.
The branding for the city of Dubai is very on point.
Here are some of the places I visited as well as my overall impressions of the city.
Dubai Museum
It’s always good to know the history of a particular area you visit. A visit to the Dubai Museum helped with some historical background. Although it was a short excursion, the Dubai museum was actually unique and interesting.
Pictures from the Dubai Museum trip: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4uPFQvoiciyvUDCo8
Burj Khalifa
Currently one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Burj Khalifa is a great display of architecture and design. I was really looking forward to seeing it.
Was it cool? Yep. Riding up the elevator at a rapid pace towards the 126th floor and feeling the air pressure make your ears pop was kind of exhilarating.
And from the view from the 126th floor? Amazing.
But here’s something: After 15 minutes, it kind of loses its vanity. Apart from getting so high up and getting great wide views of the city, the excitement kind of dissipates.
Here’s a fun little fact:
Saudia Arabia is currently on course to build a building taller than the Burj Khalifa. The building is called Jeddah Tower.
But not to be outdone, Dubai is already making plans to build a structure which is taller than the Jeddah Tower.
All this for what? Tourism money.
When you think about it, Dubai doesn’t have much to offer except great buildings and tourist destinations. (Seriously, the weather is a buzzkill).
And next year, they’re going to have an international expo and are already building funky new cool buildings.
Here’s some great views from the Burj Khalifa: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jpauej2aRcLqjmDh8
Sight Seeing
Driving through the city, you will see gorgeous buildings and great architecture.
A classic Dubai structure is the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, a hotel designed to look like the sail of a ship.
You also get to see the Palm Islands, an artificial island (what?!) which has a bunch of resorts and hotels. If you have the money, a trip to the Islands would be cool. But my money doesn’t stretch like that…..
Look, Dubai is expensive. Get it straight. If you’re one of those people looking to come to Dubai to “chill”, you better be coming with lots of money.
Flying to Dubai for tourism and a little bit of shopping makes the most sense. All those pictures of Instagram with people chilling at some of hotels and locations? They probably spent a pretty penny just to show off.
As for tourists like me, we get to go to places like Theme Parks.
A theme park? In this heat? Yep. There are theme parks here. It was definitely an interesting experience but not really the “best” especially when you had to work in the heat. (Have I emphasized the hot weather yet?)
Did I really enjoy myself in Dubai at all? Apart from the architecture, there wasn’t much to really do, to be honest. But…
Then we went to the water park.
Hands down, the most fun experience I’ve ever had! And I don’t even like water like that. If you have a chance to go to a water park/resort, do it! It’s totally fun.
Lasting Impressions
If I had a choice to go back to Dubai, I wouldn’t. Not that it was bad. Maybe Singapore had definitely left a better impression on me and I’m subconsciously making a comparison.
I was told that even though the weather can be harsh in Dubai, it apparently gets colder once summer is over.
So basically from hot and scorching to Winter-like conditions….
Overall, I can tell that Dubai is great to look at. Not the best places for casually strolls and admiring it at street level though. But the tourist attractions are definitely cool. I didn’t even talk about the “Desert Safari” we went on. But it’s hard to write exciting paragraphs about driving on sand dunes….
Go to Dubai for the fun stuff. If you have money to spend, check out the Islands and the great hotels.
And go to the water park!
