Three Day Dubai Itinerary

Dubai is bold, audacious and dazzling.

A city of superlatives and contrasts, this once-sleepy village in the United Arab Emirates defies stereotypes, pushes boundaries and redefines geography. It is the type of place where tradition and modernity –while seemingly at odds–live side by side.

Dubai is a city that sprung from the desert sands. Over the span of a lifetime, it has become one of the Middle East’s most diverse and dazzling megacities.

DUBAI ITINERARY DAY 1: A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

My friends and I decided to explore this unforgotten part of Dubai on our first morning in the city. We wandered around the neighborhoods and souks of Deira, took a boat taxi down Dubai Creek to the traditional Batskiya neighborhood, and forgot for a moment that we were in a city that is famed for its modernity and extravagant displays of wealth.

Dubai Creek is a waterway that runs through downtown Dubai. Speckling the waterway, traditional Arabian dhows float in and out, exporting goods around the region. Dubai Creek is a picturesque part of town and offers an example of what the city might have looked like before the discovery of oil in the region.

Adjacent to Dubai’s traditional souks, are the well-preserved remnants of the historic Bastakiya houses. These houses are particular for their wind towers that created a natural form of air conditioning.

Today, the houses are primarily there to remind tourists of Dubai’s past.

After a morning of meandering around the and delving into the past of the old city, we decided to fast forward in time and visit the Dubai of the future.

Dubai’s two main malls–the Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates–are an extravagant display of Emirati consumerism.

The malls are massive. Putting the Mall of America in Minneapolis to shame, the Dubai Mall contains hundreds of shops, an amusement park, movie theaters, an ice-skating rink and an aquarium in which shoppers can learn to scuba dive.

On our first day in Dubai, we chose to visit the infamous Mall of the Emirates that is home to Dubai’s indoor ski area.

The 22.500 square meter indoor ski area features an indoor mountain and five ski slopes. It boast’s the world’s first indoor black diamond run, and is perhaps the only place where you can hit the slopes despite 100+ degree outdoor temperatures.

Though my friends and I chose not to rent skis, we enjoyed watching the action from behind a glass partition.

On our second day in Dubai, my friends and I booked an overnight desert tour into the towering dunes of the United Arab Emirates.

In Dubai, it seems as though the sprawling urban landscape is never-ending. Yet, as soon as the city gives way to desert, rolling golden sands spread out as far as the eye can see. The desert dunes span the majority of the United Arab Emirates and, while not as imposing as the dunes of Sosussvlei in Namibia, the sand is a beautiful golden color and so fine that it has a velvety feel.

Our day trip to the Dubai desert began with a bit of dune bashing in a 4×4 vehicle. It was at once exhilarating and dizzying.

The excursion from Dubai, though wonderful, was not at all what I was expecting. We traversed the desert in a caravan of about thirty cars and arrived in a luxurious little desert camp that was set up for a few hundred tourists. The entire experience was a bit too staged for my taste, as there were different sections of the camp that claimed to offer a portrait of the true “Bedouin” experience.

Once the majority of the tourists had left in the evening, however, my friends and I had much of the camp to ourselves. We explored the dunes for a bit and laid out under the stars.

DUBAI ITINERARY DAY 3: STANDING ON TOP OF THE WORLD

After breakfast the following morning, we headed back to Dubai for a final day in the United Arab Emirates. We chose to spend our final day in Dubai soaking in the city’s modern atmosphere.

The Burj Khalifa is one of the top things to see in Dubai. Visiting the top of the building requires an appointment that is best booked in advance. We had an appointment to visit the top of the Burj at 2:30 in the afternoon, so we decided to kill a few hours by exploring more of the Dubai Mall in the morning.

The Dubai Mall may just be my favorite place in the world to people watch. It is one of the only places in the Dubai that has more Emiratis than immigrants and it was fascinating to see the ways in which they integrated high-end fashion with traditional dress. Emiratis are easily distinguished by their clothing. Men wear long white robes with a white head covering, while women don the black abaya and hijab. While wearing traditional dress is a personal choice, it has become a symbol of tradition in the rapidly changing Gulf culture.

Despite donning a traditional black abaya, Emirati women are so fashion-conscious and trendy that I felt more out of place for wearing a wrinkled shirt and tennis shoes, than I did for the fact that I was an American and revealing my arms.

After a few hours meandering around the Dubai Mall, we made our way toward the Burj Khalifa—the tallest building in the world.

The Burj Khalifa can be seen from 95km away. The most famous landmark in Dubai, it towers over the rest of the city and surrounding desert.

The elevator to the top of the building is one of the fastest in the world, climbing 200 floors in just over a minute. During the short journey, my ears were popping from the altitude. And as soon as I reached the top, I could feel the difference in wind speed.

It was a phenomenal feeling to be half a mile high and see the world below without even being in an airplane. I could see tiny toy cars zooming around the roads and highways, surrounding skyscrapers that hovered near the ground and small specks for people.

From the top of the Burj Khalifa, the artificiality of Dubai is more apparent than anywhere else. If it had been a clear day, we would have been able to see the World Islands in the distance, but the cloudy conditions forced us to use our imaginations a bit. Nonetheless, it was possible to see the never-ending sprawl of the city and even some of the desolate desert that it was built upon.

After visiting the Burj Khalifa, we walked a bit around the marina in the newest part of town. At night the city lights reflected off the water and created a lively, colorful atmosphere. Outdoor cafes played music and the corniche was teeming with people. It was a lovely conclusion to our time in Dubai.

There is no doubt in my mind that Dubai represents what the world will look like in fifty years. Oil brought the UAE to a level of development that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago. From land reclamation to the world’s tallest skyscrapers and from breakthroughs in fashion to unparalleled multiculturalism, Dubai is running in the fast lane toward redefining modernity.

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Tips for Visiting Dubai: 

• Weather in Dubai ranges from hot to hotter. To avoid the sweltering heat, the best time to visit Dubai is between October and March. However, if visiting Dubai during the summer months, check out this handy guide to summer in Dubai.
• I suggest you read Arzo’s blog post for more information on what to wear in Dubai as a female traveler.