I have been wanting to plan a family vacation to Dubai for several years and the timing hasn't worked out yet. So when I had a chance for a short stopover through work, I jumped on it. I met up with two of my colleagues also en route to India, and we had hit the highlights over a weekend.
One reason this opportunity was available was because American Airlines was crazy expensive for the flight I've taken to Hyderabad previously through London. Emirates was therefore the preferred airline. My first leg - Chicago to Dubai left at 8:45 pm on Thursday and arrived at 7 pm on Friday. Do I "lost" most of Friday en route. The business class cabin is in two parts. One has two rows and one has four rows. Each is a 2 x 3 x 2 configuration. There was also a first class that was 1 x 2 x 1 but I didn't notice much difference besides a slightly larger pod.
Due to being in the first section of the business class cabin, I was one of the first people off the plane. The arrivals area was practically empty. I assumed it was because 200 people were behind me, but it was very odd. Later as I was en route to customs and immigration, I heard the prayer call, so I speculated that locals and travelers were already readying themselves for that, but John says the arrivals hall is just empty. I would get to contrast that with departures in 36 hours.
Skyline from the car. It's always hard to take photos from a moving car and at night it was even more so. But my initial impressions were New York City (skyscrapers) + Dallas (hot and spread out). I would later think it more Vegas-like, but Vegas is tiny compared to NYC or Dubai, so the comparison there is just for the excess.
We stayed in a JW Marriott near Burj Khalifa, which is visible in this picture I took the first morning out of my hotel window. The street car traffic wasn't very heavy on Saturday morning, but I thought this was more of a business district area so that made sense. The architecture was all very interesting. To propose a rectangular skyscraper build is likely met with scorn and derision.
After an amazing spread in the executive lounge thanks to one of my colleagues with better Bonvoy status than me, we went to Dubai Mall to look around and to view Burj from the outside. Luckily we also happened upon the fountain show, which I would have expected to occur at least hourly but was in fact only 2 times per day. It was SO HOT. I burned my arm by placing it on a railing to get a good photo of the fountains.
Inside the mall was nice and cool in the air conditioning. And there was an ice cream shop around every corner so I enjoyed some of that, too! I tried a delicious flavor called Lotus Caramel that was basically Biscoff cookie flavored (can't get away from me, American Airlines!). The main mall had an indoor aquarium, a giant "swimming" fountain sculpture, an ice rink, and every international mall store you could imagine. The food court was impressive as well with Canada's Tim Horton's and Alexandria, Virginia's Five Guys Burgers. In addition to Starbucks and Caribou.
Not pictured is the Souk Market building across from the main building (the fountain is in between) where local items like dates, chocolates, rugs, coffees, and jewelry were sold. Visiting a traditional souk was not an option on this trip, as we would need a guided tour. But this was a high end version of those items that was accessible to tourists. So it no way was it actually a souk experience. But it was a way for us to check off our shopping lists. I got a box of macadamia nut stuffed dates which were so sweet at delicious. Dates are used as natural sweeteners. If you're drinking bitter coffee, you take a bite of a date first to have that sugary coating in your mouth. I ended up sharing all the dates with colleagues in India so I didn't have to deal with customs on my return to Chicago. I did bring home date syrup and date jam though, which did not have to be presented as they were commercially sealed instead of fresh.
Our Saturday evening activity was Heritage Platinum Tourst desert safari. We were picked up at our hotel and driven to the desert about 30 minutes away. We did a jeep tour through a wildlife preserve and then met up with other participants for a falconry exhibition before going to a campsite for dinner. It was very well done and we really enjoyed ourselves! The headscarf is both a souvenir they provide you but also a necessity when riding through the sandy desert.
On Sunday our flight was around 3:30 p.m., so we did a morning tour at Burj Khalifa complete with the highest level access (literally the highest floor open to the public) to enjoy our coffee and sweets. It was very cool and I had no trouble looking down at where we had stood the day prior. But I couldn't look up and the photo of the top of the building was taken by my colleague for me. Ironically she was the one who couldn't look down!
It was a bit smoggy so we couldn't see out to The Palm like I hoped. You could vaguely see the outline of the building that sits at the top of the marina, but it didn't photograph well.
Looking down at the mall and fountain area
We ended the day with champagne at the Moet-Chandon champagne lounge at the airport. I had a headache and didn't end up drinking much, but we had scoped it out as one of the corners of the Emirate business class lounge, so had to check it out and confirm that yes, we could get as many samples of champagne for free as we wanted!
I can't wait until we can make a family trip to Dubai one of these days!
