Photo by Igor Malikin.
Today Dubai is the only emirate served by charter flights, which has a beneficial effect on ticket prices. The flight is relatively short. All other southern countries where people usually go in winter, such as Thailand or Malaysia, are about twice as far away. The emirate has the best hotels with a very high level of service.
Dubai offers excellent shopping opportunities: it has the country's best shopping malls. And the famous bazaars, from which our tourists bring home a variety of gold jewelry, are known all over the world. Where else can you see such a quantity of beautiful articles of precious metal hanging in rows along the shopping arcades?!
Good family holiday. A few years ago the emirate acquired the Wonderland park, building many slides, pools with artificial waves, children's towns, and for adults - bars and restaurants. And then children can be taken to the zoo, which Dubai also has.
The UAE can hardly be called a party country, but still Dubai offers more opportunities for entertainment than any other emirate.
Dubai is a real find for those who seek peace above all on vacation. For such tourists the conditions here are ideal: safety, no loud music in beachside cafés, perfectly clean beaches.
Complete safety, which allows you to wander at night through the darkest alleys and be sure that no one will lay a finger on you. There is no crime situation in the Emirates. The strict system of fines and punishments has done its job, and it is impossible to avoid punishment, because video cameras are installed in crowded places, and there are plainclothes policemen everywhere. You do not notice them, but they will instantly catch any prank.
And finally, another important reason is the relative tolerance regarding tourists' habits. The UAE has strict rules, and there are many regulations whose violation is punished very severely. In Dubai, however, compliance is not exactly overlooked, but treated more leniently. For example, local residents are very sensitive to public displays of affection between a man and a woman. In Sharjah, people are easily fined for kissing on the balcony of their own hotel room. The Dubai authorities will show understanding in this case.
The main drawback is the strict rules. Loyalty is loyalty, but everything has its limits, and the Dubai authorities turn a blind eye only for a while. You will definitely be fined if you walk down the street with a bottle of alcohol, pester local women (and keep in mind that a too intent gaze is already considered harassment), or throw litter right on the sidewalk. Ladies are not advised to wear revealing outfits. It is also not worth violently expressing your love in public. And if your tenderest feelings are for members of your own sex, then be extremely vigilant, otherwise you will spend your entire vacation in prison, for which, by the way, you have to pay.
Dubai cannot boast a vibrant nightlife; it is not a place for young people. So lovers of noisy parties that smoothly turn into brawls, followed by wandering the streets and singing at the top of their lungs, had better not come here. Loud behavior is fined and even jailed, especially during Ramadan. Of course, there are clubs here, and quite good ones, but still the local nightlife cannot compete with Turkish or Spanish.
Alcohol prices are too high, which cannot but upset the domestic tourist. Local authorities have allowed the sale of alcohol only in bars and restaurants. There are also shops selling spirits, but they are so far from crowded places and so skillfully disguised that you'd be hard pressed to find them. It is allowed to bring in two liters of wine and two liters of vodka.
As for the visa, you do not need to go for an interview at the embassy, standing in huge queues.
To obtain a visa, a photocopy of your passport is sufficient. So there is no need to give the precious document to a travel agency, which might lose it.
An unmarried woman under 30 practically cannot get a visa.
If a lady has refused to take her husband's surname, then when processing documents she must pay a deposit of $1,400, which will be returned to her as soon as she safely returns to her homeland.
The happy residents of Dubai, born in a dry subtropical climate, have little idea what rain is. And it is not surprising, because this natural phenomenon hits them for a maximum of 5-7 days a year, mainly in December-January.
It is warm here year-round, there is almost no rain, so you do not need to bring an umbrella, raincoat or other rain gear.
You can go to Dubai in the middle of winter, when endless snowy landscapes begin to cause melancholy. Unlike other inexpensive resort countries, such as Turkey, winter is the most favorable time for a vacation here. The sea is very warm, the water temperature does not drop below +20 degrees even in January.
However, despite the air conditioning, some still suffer from the heat. Especially in summer, when the air temperature reaches +50 degrees.
Tender and unseasoned tourists will clearly not be pleased by the sea in February, when the water is too cold. And residents of the North, accustomed to winds and frosts, will be upset by too warm water in July-August.
In Dubai you will find a good level of service in relation to low tour prices.
The 'trained' service staff, always polite and smiling. The reasons for the quality service are partly that the entire staff are newcomers from various, not the most affluent, countries. And if something is wrong, they are immediately stripped of their position and expelled from the country within 24 hours.
There is no such thing as theft, so safes are rather a decorative element. Not only will no chambermaid touch your documents or valuables left in a hurry on the nightstand, but on the contrary, she will neatly arrange everything.
Three-star hotels are usually located quite far from the sea. Every 20-30 minutes they send free buses to the beach. And if you don't want to wait or there simply wasn't enough room, you'll have to take a taxi, and that is not a cheap pleasure.
Expensive hotels are built next to the sea and have their own beaches intended exclusively for their own guests. Everyone else is forbidden entry.
Beaches close at about 19:00, and staying on them later is fraught with a fine.
In total, Dubai offers about 20-30 excursions, of which domestic tourists consistently choose three: sightseeing tours, sometimes smoothly flowing into night cruises on the Persian Gulf, visits to the aforementioned amusement park if with a child, or the Gold Market if with a husband, and desert safaris. Everything else is in demand only so-so. Among exotic and expensive entertainment, our compatriots prefer camel racing. They come here more for pleasure than for serious gambling, because to bet and win, you need to know camels well, and few Europeans can boast such knowledge.
Distances are relatively short, so there will be no tedious multi-hour drives from one part of the country to another. Excellent roads with smooth surfaces and, as a result, no shaking.
Excursions are conducted by Russian guides who know the material well. And they most likely will not try to drag you into the shops of their many relatives.
However, lovers of antiquity will be disappointed. The Emirates is a young state, so the oldest mosque has barely turned forty.
Tourists are not allowed into mosques for love nor money, and attempts to photograph worshippers are fined.
You cannot properly examine the very interesting and beautiful building of the Sheikh's Palace, because buses are forbidden to stop here. They simply drive past slowly. Filming the Palace is also prohibited.
Dubai is a great place, and it is worth going there at least once. Of course, you will have to keep yourself in check: not drink, not kiss, not hug. After all, here in the Emirates, even your compatriots will not always support you, because they come here for calm and measured rest. You can have fun, however, too - at festivals. Just keep in mind that our tourists and local residents mean different things by the word “have fun.”
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