Surviving summer in Dubai

Only a few would probably choose the hot summer months for their first visit to Dubai.

We did just that and were there for two weeks this year in July and had a very nice vacation in the Emirates. With 47 degrees Celsius in the shade and high humidity, you cannot really take long walks outside during lunchtime and enjoy a drink or dinner in a nice beach club on the terrace in the evening. But if you adapt your vacation planning to the local temperatures and conditions, you can enjoy a wonderful time in the summer in Dubai.

Since Dubai is less visited during the summer months, you usually don not have long waits at the main attractions and the malls are not overcrowded, which is very pleasant.

Another great advantage is the cost savings. During the low season (May-October), flights to Dubai are usually

cheaper and many hotels offer their

rooms at greatly reduced rates.

Emirates offers the so called Emirates Pass. By presenting your boarding pass, you can get discounts at various attractions, restaurants and hotels, some of which are generous. In addition, some attractions also offer free admission for children and other discounts in the summer, read at Visit Dubai.

There are also various Dubai Passes that give you good discounts when you combine different attractions.

In general, I would definitely recommend booking tickets and restaurants before your vacation and comparing different price options. This also helps to think about a rough agenda before the vacation to be able to plan better.

For our first visit to Dubai, these were our highlights and can definitely recommend a visit:

THE VIEW PALM

A perfect time to visit The View Palm is definitely the early evening hours just before sunset. This way, you can experience a very special atmosphere while enjoying the magnificent 360° view over the city on the 52nd level. Recently, you can even go a little higher up to the Next Level, which gives you even better views.

Book your ticket here (powered by GetYourGuide).

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SONARA DESERT CAMP

Definitely a very special trip to the desert is a visit to Sonara Camp Dubai. This particularly authentic, elegant and environmentally friendly desert camp was founded by a Swiss woman.

We booked the Sunset Experience and spent a fantastic evening in the desert. Even the short journey from the gate of the reserve with the Sonara Jeep over the desert sand was an experience in itself. If you want it to be even more adventurous, you can book the Dune Bashing additionally. Having arrived at the Sonara Camp we were warmly welcomed with a wet towel to freshen up and then escorted to our small private sitting lounge area. Before there were then very tasty appetizers for us, we still tried the various activities in the camp: Camel riding, sand boarding, visiting a falcon, playing soccer and swinging in the dunes.

You can find their website here: https://www.nara.ae/sonara/

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AQUAVENTURE WATERPARK

Especially with a child is the visit to the largest water park in the world, the Aquaventure Waterpark of the Atlantis Hotel, an absolute highlight. It is best to visit the water park

during the week, as it is then not quite so crowded, and tickets necessarily purchase online

in advance to avoid long queues at the box office.

The highlights are best done first and if necessary buy a fast track ticket. We were a bit disappointed by the famous Shark Attack Water Slide, which leads through a shark tank. We actually stood in line for 45 minutes for this slide (without a Fast Track ticket) and were then very surprised how short this slide only lasted at the end and was then already over again before it even started.

Here you can get your tickets (powered by GetYourGuide):

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LOST CHAMBERS AQUARIUM

Directly next to the Aquaventure Waterpark you can visit the very beautiful, small Lost Chambers Aquarium, which you can reach directly from the park via The Avenues area in the Atlantis Hotel.

Here you can buy your tickets in advance (powered by GetYourGuide):

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WAVEHOUSE RESTAURANT

If in the evening then after such an eventful day the hunger announces itself, one can excellently relax in the Wavehouse Restaurant right next door. Especially the kids will have a lot of fun in the cool gaming and bowling zone and there are great prizes to be won. Find out more here in this blog entry here.

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BURJ KHALIFA

If you are in Dubai for the first time, you must of course have visited the highest tower in the world, the Burj Khalifa. Even from a distance, this spiky building stands out from the rest of Dubai's city skyline.

Get your entry passes here (powered by GetYourGuide):

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DUBAI MALL & FOUNTAIN SHOW

Since the Burj Khalifa is directly adjacent to the Dubai Mall, it is perfectly accessible from

the Fashion Parking area of the mall, and a walk through the Dubai Mall can be very nice after the tower visit. For us, this mall was less a shopping paradise, but much more a place

of discovery. There are an incredible number of interesting stores, but the prices are quite high and do not really invite you to hunt for bargains. There are much better malls here, more about that later.

We were out and about in the mall during the day and were thus able to watch the Fountain Show at 13:00 perfectly from the air-conditioned Nike Store out of the mall. This was the perfect whale for us in the midday heat.

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MADINAT JUMEIRAH

It was also very nice to stroll through the Madinat Souk and drift through the artificial lagoon city in the style of old Arabian palaces with many stores, restaurants and luxury hotels. Madinat is crisscrossed by waterways of a total length of 3.7 kilometers, over which you can even shuttle with an abra (water cab) in the winter months.

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DUBAI MARINA

Another very nice place for a nice walk or a nice dinner in the evening is definitely the Dubai Marina. Good starting point here is for example the small but very nice Marina Mall, where you can also park for up to three hours free of charge.

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AL BASTAKIYA & AL SEEF

If you want to experience old Dubai up close, you should definitely plan a stroll through the historic residential area of Al Bastakiya. This listed neighborhood on Dubai Creek consists of old houses with wind towers and many narrow alleys. The neighborhood is also home to al-Fahidi Fort, the oldest existing structure in Dubai.

AL BASTAKIYA & AL SEEF

Right next door is the new, man-made Al Seef section. This large area stretches for 1.8 km along the shore of Dubai Creek. Here there are numerous stores and small cafes that invite you to linger.

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SPICE & GOLD SOUK

The bazaars on the other side of the creek in Deira are even more traditional. In addition to tourists, the locals also haggle here for the many different goods. However, since we were almost the only visitors to the souk in the hot month of July, we were literally "attacked" by the merchants, and every two meters we were offered a wide variety of products. That was then actually a little too much for us and we have wandered in a quick step over the Spice and Gold Souk and have limited ourselves to collecting a few impressions.

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SHOPPING

Unfortunately, the prices for goods in Duabi are now quite high, so that you can no longer really make real bargains here, for example, branded clothes. Nevertheless, the emirate offers many different stores with the most diverse products.

The two biggest malls in Dubai, the Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates, are worthwhile rather to walk through there once and visit the attractions. The food courts and different restaurants are also worth a visit.

The Battuta Mall on Sheikh Zayed Road in southwest Dubai is particularly beautiful to behold, with six country worlds architecturally recreated over 250,000 square meters to commemorate the 14th-century Berber explorer Ibn Battuta.

For interesting stores, where you can still get the one or other accessory, piece of clothing or souvenir quite cheap, I recommend the Dubai Hills Mall located a little outside the city in a green residential area. It is one of the newest malls in Dubai and even offers something for the adventure-seeking guest with its own record-breaking indoor roller coaster, "The Storm", although not quite cheap.

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BURJ AL ARAB

Another highlight was definitely also the visit to the famous hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai. We have visited the luxury hotel during a guided tour, please find out more here. Alternatively, non-hotel guests can simply book a Day Pass or sun bed in the pool area or reserve a table for High Noon Tea or Dinner and get a few glimpses of the hotel.

Maybe one or the other has been there for you. I wish you in any case a lot of fun in Dubai and a nice trip!