Classic Dubai with Gate 1 Travel

I have to laugh now when I told people that I was going to Dubai primarily to visit aquariums, which indeed I did (both the Dubai Aquarium and the Lost Chambers in Atlantis the Palm). However, I quickly discovered there was so much more to Dubai than just fish.

From Jan. 17-23 I traveled to Dubai on Gate 1’s 7-day Classic Dubai escorted tour http://www.gate1travel.com/dubai-travel/dubai-tours-7dcladxb12.aspx, which consisted of 21 people in the group (a larger size than I am used to traveling with, although not nearly as large as the 40 that I expected). The tour was just the right proportion of free time and organized group activity. The temperature at that time of year isn’t too hot – in fact it averaged only around 68 degrees in the day and one definitely needed a jacket at night.

On a free morning early in the trip I went to “At the Top”, the 124th floor observation deck of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) for a bird's eye view over Dubai and in the early evening saw the Dubai Fountain below it, which put on a spectacular multi-colored display of more than 1,000 unique expressions of water spray shot almost 500 feet into the air set to music (Arabic, Italian opera, and one other). As a group we visited the Dubai Museum in the Al Fahidi Fort, which was very interesting even for those who aren't museum types (in fact, I didn’t think that the 45 minutes that we were allotted for that stop was enough time to see it all). We also went to the spice and gold souks, saw the Burj Al-Arab (the highest and most expensive hotel in the world) from a distance on Jumeirah Public Beach, and had an Arabian dhow river cruise along Dubai Creek on the final evening (which included a tasty buffet dinner with many choices). For all group-included sightseeing (except the dhow cruise) as well as the optional tour to Sharjah we had a wonderful female guide named Sharnaaz (who was originally from South Africa, but has lived in Dubai for 16 years). She is the exclusive guide for all of Gate 1’s escorted group tours.

On the first day, after my morning arrival and check-in to the hotel, I immediately took the Metro to the Dubai Mall where I visited the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo for the rest of the day. It is one of the world’s largest aquariums, with the world’s largest viewing panel (the latter of which can be seen for free in the mall itself for those who choose not to pay admission to the aquarium). I also walked around the Dubai Mall (as I did on two subsequent occasions) with its 1200+ retail shops, Olympic-sized ice-skating rink, and a large cinema with multiple choice of movies. Although many of the shops and restaurants are the same chains that one sees in Minnesota’s Mall of America and other large malls, what was most interesting at this mall was seeing large numbers of women, often in groups of 3 or more, wearing black-clad abayas and frequently niqabs (the piece of cloth that covers the face except for the eyes) walking around and enjoying themselves with their family or friends. Many of the women’s traditional black garments were quite ornate with sequins or rhinestones on them and it was almost a visual feast to observe the variety and degree of diversity amongst them, even though the basic color and shape of the garment was the same. The local flavor provided by the presence of these black-clad ladies and their children was what distinguished the Dubai Mall (and the Mall of the Emirates) from western malls and made me feel like I was truly in an exotic place in spite of being in the midst of Starbucks (3 of them no less), Cold Stone Creamery, P.J. Chang’s, KFC, Subway, Burger King, McDonalds, and numerous other familiar names. In other words, ironically the Dubai Mall with its western-oriented shops was the perfect introduction to gaining an exposure to the people of the region (many of whom were from Saudi and other countries on the Arabian Peninsula with $$$$$$$$$$ to spend).

On another free day, five of us in the group (including myself) made arrangements through the hotel to hire a taxi driver for 4 or 5 hours to take us to attractions that were not included on the group tour. This cost us only 100 AED ($27.23) apiece, which was a win-win situation for both us and the taxi driver. We visited Atlantis the Palm (whose Lost Chambers turned out to be almost identical to The Ruins/The Dig at the Atlantis Paradise Island that I had visited a month earlier, but was great nonetheless), the Dubai Marina (wish we had the time to walk around it rather than just see it through a car window), and the Souk Madinat (where we had at least 45 minutes to explore its many shops and restaurants).

Dubai is only one of 7 Emirates which make up the United Arab Emirates. I visited three others with my group, including Sharjeh and Abu Dhabi. Sharjeh (which was one of the two optional tours that was offered) didn’t particularly do anything for me, but Abu Dhabi (which was included in the group tour) is the up and coming Dubai. It is at the stage that Dubai was 10 years ago and is proceeding much more cautiously so as not to make the same mistakes as Dubai (who thought that their economic boom would last forever until they financially overextended themselves and got caught up in the worldwide recession just like everyone else). In Abu Dhabi we visited the Grand Mosque where all the women in the group had to don black abayas and head scarves that were provided by the mosque. I brought my own scarf – appropriately or not, one with multi-colored clownfish on it that I had purchased at the Maui Ocean Aquarium. I would have liked to have more time to take pictures of the exterior of the mosque and to walk along Abu Dhabi’s oceanfront promenade known as the Corniche, but we were on a set time schedule and alas I will have to save that for another time.

As stated in my previous message, I chose not to do the other optional tour, the Desert Safari, but those in the group who did had a good time and no regrets. Some expressed concern beforehand that they would get sick on the 4x4 vehicle going up and down the dunes (because they knew of someone in the past who had), but to the best of my knowledge no one in our group got sick. To prevent that from happening our tour guide advised them beforehand not to eat anything past early afternoon until the desert safari’s included barbeque dinner.

My group was generally pleased with our hotel, the Royal Ascot. Although it wasn't located in one of Dubai’s most interesting areas (an understatement as it was in a business area consisting of one computer shop after another), it was only a 7 minute walk from the Metro station, from which one had access to almost all of Dubai (including the Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates). The Royal Ascot had a good buffet breakfast with a wide variety of choice, the bed was comfortable, the room was very clean and spacious with a kitchen area including a sink and refrigerator, and the hotel staff were very accommodating. The negatives were that the bathrooms were quite small (the bathroom door bumped up against the toilet) and there was a $20 per day charge in order to have in-room access to wi-fi. There was no free wi-fi in the lobby either. However, the rooftop pool area had free wi-fi, so I brought my netbook up there once or twice a day to access the internet. I knew beforehand from TripAdvisor reviews that rooms near, above, and below the hotel’s nightclubs and restaurants were very noisy, but the tour representative who accompanied me from the airport was well aware of that situation and I was assigned a quiet room (Room 450). TripAdvisor also contained complaints about tepid showers and indeed some of the people in my group experienced that, but I had no such problem. Between the Royal Ascot and the Ascot Hotel immediately adjacent to it, there were a total of 11 restaurants, coffee shops and bars that had a wide variety of Middle Eastern, Asian, and European cuisines. I ate dinner one night at the Japanese restaurant and the following night at the Lebanese restaurant, both of which were good. I heard or read that the hotel’s Russian restaurant was the best one of all, but I didn’t eat there. In the hotel room there were two bottles of complimentary water per day and there was a small grocery store on the way to the Metro station where one could buy more. I bought yogurt there on several occasions.

For the international round-trip flight, each of us in the group had our choice of airline. Only two others in the group besides me flew Emirates. The Emirates flight from JFK arrived at 8:10 AM, well before the other airlines that the group used and I was the first person in the group to check in at the hotel. However, it all equaled out at the end of the tour when the Emirates flight from Dubai to JFK departed early in the morning (at 8:30 AM) before the flights of most of the others in the group. The rest of the group flew Delta, British Airways or Air France. Emirates does not give frequent flyer credit, but I chose it because it is the world's top-rated airline and I wanted to experience it. Those who chose Delta did so either because they used Delta Skymiles or because they wanted to accrue them or else because Delta's Atlanta hub was more convenient to where they lived. I also suspect that Delta was probably a few hundred dollars cheaper than Emirates (Emirates was about $1500 round-trip from JFK). Presumably those who flew British Airways and Air France also took frequent flyer mileage and/or convenience factors into account.

Emirates Airlines was the best airline I have ever flown, although my flight over on the Boeing 777 was 100% more pleasant than the Airbus 380 on the way back (I have never been a fan of Airbus no matter how superior they try to make it to US-manufactured aircraft). I had a window seat on both flights, but on the outbound flight there was an empty seat between me and the person in the aisle seat, so we each had an ample supply of elbow room. The choice of meals on the outbound flight catered to western palates and I especially liked the pizza snack about ¾ the way through the flight, which was very good for airline food. On the return flight all the seats were filled, there was less leg room than there was on the Boeing 777, the food wasn't as good (it catered to the South Asian palate, which made up the bulk of the passengers on the flight from Dubai), and worst of all, there were two crying kids (a baby and a young boy of about age 5) sitting in the row directly in back of me (one of which I had to tell to stop kicking the back of my seat). Again there was a pizza snack about ¾ through the flight, but the cheese stuck to the box making it messy to remove and wasn’t as tasty as on the way over. I tried to make the best of the flight though. In front of each seat (on both the inbound and outbound flight) was an individual screen with the widest choice of movies and music I have ever encountered on an airline (over 1200 channels of inflight entertainment). After seeing so many tropical fish in Dubai, I felt it was only appropriate to watch Finding Nemo for the upteenth time. Then I listened to the audio sound tracks from the musicals Phantom of the Opera, the Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, the Producers, and Chicago, while at the same time keeping track of where we were on the flight map. What I liked best about the return flight was the view from the plane and being able to identify an area by a prominent geographical landmark. Early on in the flight we flew over almost the entire length of Iran (a country that I visited with TCI/Serious Traveler in Nov. 2010) and only from the air did I realize the extent to which that country is desert. I recognized Tehran brushing up against the Alborz Mountains and sure enough, the onscreen flight map indicated it as such. Several hours later, as we flew over Volgograd (which I had previously visited on a Uniworld River Cruise from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow), the long, winding Volga River was sticking out as clear as day in an otherwise very frozen Russia. From the Caspian Sea area of northern Iran and Azerbaijan to Russia all the way through Greenland and Northern Canada, seems like over half the world was covered in snow on Jan. 23. Yes, to repeat, the view from the air was the best part of the flight and not sure how many people on the plane appreciated it other than me.

The downside of the trip is that it was a very long distance to go for such a short period of time. It was a very long flight from New York -- 12 hours on the way over and 13 on the way back. For those from the west coast it may have been as long as 16 hours. Because of the considerable time it takes to get there and back, some of the people in the group thought it was more time and cost-efficient to combine the week in Dubai with a week-long cruise that included Fujairah (another one of the Emirates), 2 days in Muscat, Oman, and an additional day in Abu Dhabi, but that didn’t appeal to me because I want to spend way more than just 2 days in Oman. One day is wasted at sea getting from Muscat to Abu Dhabi, but this might not be considered a waste to people who have more of a penchant for cruises than I do. If you are interested in doing Gate 1’s combined 14-day Dubai escorted land and cruise tour, it can be found at http://www.gate1travel.com/royal-caribbean/dubai-cruise-tour-14ddxbdw12.....

If you take Gate 1’s escorted tour and have an early morning departure on the last day, be sure to confirm with the hotel desk the night before that a light breakfast (rolls and coffee) will be delivered to your room prior to departure. Breakfast is included in your room rate, so don’t let it go to waste (even if you have to eat it at 4:30 AM). About 8 of us had to leave for the airport at 5:00 and 5:30 AM to catch our morning flights home. Since the hotel’s breakfast room doesn’t open for another hour, a local representative from Gulf Circle Tours (the Dubai travel agency that handles the tours and transportation for Gate 1) made arrangements the night before for breakfast to be brought to our rooms before departure. However, even though I spoke to the local representative personally the night before and saw that he had written down my room number next to my name, I was the only one of the early departures who didn’t receive a breakfast. I was upset about that and complained about him to Gate 1 on my post-tour evaluation. That was my only complaint about the whole tour. I should have known better and the lesson learned from that experience is not to rely on anyone to arrange the breakfast for you – do it yourself.

In any event, I definitely recommend Dubai with Gate 1. Dubai has to be seen to be believed. It is so over-the-top in terms of most, best, largest, tallest, grandest, and every other superlative one can think of that it makes that other oil-producing area on the opposite side of the globe, the great state of Texas, look like Delaware in comparison.

I chose Gate 1’s Dubai tour over the more expensive one offered by Friendly Planet Tours. Gate 1 spends a day longer in Dubai than Friendly Planet and since you’re flying all that distance to get there, you might as well spend as much time in Dubai as possible. Friendly Planet uses a more fancy-shmancy hotel, the 4-1/2 star Hyatt Regency (ranked #51 out of 424 Dubai hotels by TripAdvisor), but when all the chips are down the 3-1/2-star Royal Ascot gets consistently better reviews on TripAdvisor even though it is currently ranked as #180 out of 424 Dubai hotels. Another advantage that Gate 1 has over Friendly Planet is that it includes the aforementioned dhow dinner cruise on the final evening, whereas with Friendly Planet it is optional.

As an appropriate companion piece to this report, I recommend that you read the excellent article, “Three days in dazzling Dubai” in the August 2011 issue of ITN Magazine (pp. 48-53) by Fred Steinberg (a fellow New Yorker), which I used as sort of an unofficial, micro-guidebook for my visit.

Dubai whetted my appetite for wanting to see more of the Persian Gulf States (actually in the Emirates and Oman it’s referred to as the Arabian Gulf). I want to go back to Dubai, but next time I will combine it with an in-depth land tour of Oman. Let’s just hope that nothing happens militarily concerning Iran that would have the potential to kill off all travel to the entire Arabian Gulf region.

A few practical tips about travel to Dubai:

A few of the people in my group chose to have lunch or dinner at the Al Mahara in the Burj Al-Arab Hotel, an uber-expensive seafood restaurant which bills itself as one of the top-ten restaurants in the world and where the average cost of a full-course meal could run well in excess of $200 per person. Unless someone else was paying for it I would consider such an outlay of expense totally wasted on a non-foodie like me who doesn’t like seafood (with the exception of sushi). I would have liked to have seen the restaurant’s interior though, which is an aquarium in itself. You would need reservations in advance to eat in any of the 10 bars and/or restaurants at Burj-Al Arab listed at http://www.jumeirah.com/Hotels-and-Resorts/Destinations/Dubai/Burj-Al-Ar... and best to make them before you leave home. Although several people in my group were able to get a lunch reservation at Al Mahara the night before, the very popular afternoon tea (offered from 1:00 to 6:00 PM) in the Skyview Bar was booked up for the entire duration of my visit and beyond, so for that you would need to make reservations well in advance. The email address for reservations is BAArestaurants@jumeirah.com.

A visa is not required for Dubai and your passport will be stamped upon entry, but be prepared for long lines at the immigration counters when entering the country.

If you go to “At the Top” in the Burj Khalifa, be sure to make to make a reservation in advance online for a specific date and time at http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/observation-deck/ticket-information.aspx, which will cost you 100 AED ($27.23). For the same price one can purchase a ticket for a specific day and time at the ticket office near the entrance to Burj Khalifa at the lower level of the Dubai Mall, but those sell out quickly and are generally not available for the day and time of your choice on short notice. Otherwise one has to pay 400 AED ($109) for immediate entry to Burj Khalifa’s observation desk, as I had to. Ouch!

If you visit Atlantis the Palm, be sure to go early and be at the Lost Chambers when it opens at 10:00 AM. By 11:00 AM it was already too crowded.

Be sure to bring the 3-pronged adapter plug that is good for the United Kingdom. I brought my trusty old 2-prong Franzus adapter plug that says Europe/Middle East on it, but it turned out to be of no use in the Middle Eastern Emirate of Dubai. The Royal Ascot Hotel (and presumably all or most of the other hotels in Dubai) use the British plug. Mercifully the Royal Ascot had an adapter I could borrow, but don’t know if they would have enough of a supply for everyone who needed one, so bring your own.

Way far back in this ITN message forum the subject of bringing prescription medications into the United Arab Emirates was discussed at some length, but I am unable to access it right now because without an appropriate search mechanism it would be like reaching into the twilight zone. To quote the pre-departure information we received from Gate 1, “United Arab Emirates enforces very strict drug policies. Many pharmaceuticals that are considered over-the-counter in the United States are prohibited in Dubai. For a complete list, please visit the U.S. Department of State's United Arab Emirates Embassy website at http://abudhabi.usembassy.gov/restricted_medication_.html. Essential prescription medications should be stored in their original bottles. Please also ensure that you have proper documentation for your prescriptions. It is recommended that non-essential medications such as cold and sinus medicines be left at home and purchased locally if needed.”

I followed Gate 1’s advice, but in actuality no one checked and I did not have to show my prescription (and supporting documentation) or my vitamins, nor did anyone else in the group have to do so. However, just to be on the safe side I would recommend that you heed Gate 1’s advice nonetheless because you never know – someone could do a spot check.