DUBAI

Amer said - La Petite Maison is popular restaurant

BOUNCE and SKY DIVE for kids

SPA I loved - Al Sallah Ladies Dubai, in complex with Four Seasons Jumerai

Channing - Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary

Contemporary Art galleries in Al-Serkat Ave in Al Quoz


LOVED the camel market at Li Saili, next to Dubai racing and camel club
Dubai Al Ain Road

Dinner afterwards at Bab al shams, great resort/getaway!




Mateo found Oman boat ride, we weren't able to do it but it looked awesome for another time:\

Cristy Lumantas

Reservation Executive

Sheesa Beach Travel & Tourism

Dhow Cruises - PADI Dive Centre - Camping

Dibba - Musandam Port - Oman

Mobile: +971 50 3336046/ +968 99868393

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Channing:\

to me

*we loved camel race watching at Al Lisali, there is a camel market there, and Bab al Shems is a great resort to go have a drink/food afterwards, their main restaurant does a buffet and Arabian entertainment and a souk -very beautiful!

We just drove out there ourselves. We couldn't find reliable information online about the race schedule, so ask your concierge to call for you. Because we weren't there on race day, we just drove our own rental car along the track as they were practicing. Friends who went on race day made friends with locals with special viewing trucks and rode with them. Also check out the Lisaili Camel Souk while you're out there.

Other things that you might enjoy: 

• Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary off Dubai Creek: you may be a tad bit late, but you can see hundreds of flamingos during the winter
• If you want to cross over to Oman for the fun of it, Hatta Rock Pools just across the border is your best bet. Border crossings were easy and fast.
• Explore the contemporary art galleries along Al-Serkal Avenue in Al Quoz, an up and coming industrial area.

FRIDAY BRUNCH

We loved Madinat Jumeirah

• Nobu - At the very top of the palm fronds, this place is pretty nice.  It's more of a sit-down, set menu set up with things paid for a la carte, so it doesn't have the same lively excess that is chracteristic of most others.  Their menu options are characteristically creative though.
• Saffron - This is the one we ended up going to--same complex as Nobu, and the polar opposite in every way.  It's free flow everything--food from all over the world (esp. Asian varieties), an ice cream ferris wheel, the largest chocolate fountains you've ever seen, and LOTS of free flow alcohol.  It was a scene, an insight into Dubai expat culture I'm not sure we couldn't quite gotten anywhere else.  The food quality was pretty good but you can do better.
• Madinat Jumeirah Al Qasr- At Mina a'Salam, this place probably has the largest / broadest spread I've heard of.  Pretty amazing.
• Burj al Arab - Since the Burj Khalifa is too awkwardly tall, this place functions as the city's symbol, and you can't even approach the hotel without a reservation of some type.  The whole places is ridiculously opulent--think gold-plated hair dryers.
• Westin - This place has a pretty massive spread--the longest cheese station in the city (i.e. the world).  A French section, and American section, and an Asian section spread through three restaurants and into the pool.

Enjoy!

Amer said with kids BOUNCWE and sky diving in City Center Mirdiff
Restaurant La Petite Maison

OLD DUBAI

Visit the spice Souk and Gold Souq in Diera.

Take an Abra (boat) across the creek from Diera to Bur Dubai.

Stroll through the narrow laneways of the Bastakiya Quarter. This is a great area of heritage buildings with some cool little galleries and cafes.

The Heritage and Diving Villages and Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House are side by side on the creek on the Bur Dubai side (Al Shindagha Road). These are worth a visit.

NEW DUBAI

Dubai Mall is a monster mall you must see to believe. It has an insane aquarium that you can see from the shopping area. You can also pay to go into the aquarium.

Right next to Dubai Mall is Souq Al Bahar. This is also where the Dubai fountains are - def must see these at night. There are a whole bunch of bars and restaurants from where you can watch the fountain show over a cocktail.

Mall of the Emirates is where Ski Dubai is. Another must see place. You can go up to a bar called Apres and look down on the ski slope. Otherwise, get in there and do a few runs or just play in the snow park.

Madinat Jumeirah is a modern day souq with lots of waterways running through it and fake Abras. All very toy town, but there are some good bars and restaurants there and a good place for a beer and shisha by the water.

The beach beside the Burj Al Arab is great and the view is awesome. (Think this is called Umm Sequim Beach) Worth a visit for sure.

Jumeira mosque is the only mosque that lets in non-muslims. They do tours about 3 mornings a week (google for more info). It is in an area called Jumeira.

Barasti Bar at the Le Merdian Mina Seyahi at Dubai Marina is great for sunset drinks Follow this up with great pizza at La Bussola. It is an outdoor (upstairs) restaurant in the same hotel. Getting a bit hot for this though!

Jetty Lounge at Dubai Royal Mirage (also at Dubai Marina) is another fab beachside bar.

360 is a club / lounge bar out on the water in between the Burj Al Arab and the Jumeirah Beach Resort. It was a cool place when we were there - not sure now but it's still a great spot. Perhaps not kid friendly though.

A half day trip to the desert is always fun. There is a good company called Arabian Adventures that does 4WD and quad bike stuff.

Restaurants:

DIFC (Dubai International Finance Centre) has loads of good places. Stand outs are Zuma, Petite Maison, Wheelers (fish) and Royal China. Avoid Robertos.

Buddha Bar at Grosvenor House is amazing (also close to you at Dubai Marina) but no kids.

There is another nice fusion Asian restaurant at Dubai Marine Beach Resort at Jumeirah called Sho Cho’s. Nice outdoor area by the water and good vibe.

If you fancy a good pizza in your room dial 1800pizza. It is very good. And ex italian Emirates pilot set up shop making authentic Napoli pizza.

Must do for kids include Wild Wadi water park, The atlantis water park,

Kidzania at Dubai Mall, Ski Dubai at Mall of the Emirates and the beach!

Cabs in Dubai are pretty cheap and most cab drivers will know all of these spots. Hang on though - it can be quite an experience driving there!!

From Kerrie

Ideas for things to do in Dubai:

1) Dubai Ladies Club – fab local place to go for massage, was my fav spa.

2) Jumeriah Madinat – modern souk with lots of lovely little shops.

3) Dubai Mall – mega mall but inside is the biggest fish tank in world and it is a great place to go for dinner at one of the restaurants on the “lake” side.  The fountain in the lake goes to music from 6pm every half hour till 10pm (maybe 11 on weekends)...sounds bit dodgy but it is really spectacular.  The music alternates from one show to next between classic and arabic so is really nice.

4) Burj Khalifa – tallest building in world next to Dubai Mall...if you want to go up and see the sights.

5) Gold Souk is definitely worth a look...bargain hard if you plan to buy there.  There are other souks in same area along the Dubai creek which are nice to wander about.  They close at lunch time from 12 – 2pm I think.

6) Desert Safari is quite fun...go in 4WD over sand dunes and then have arabic dinner in the desert before coming home.  Hotel will book it for you if you are interested.

7) Mall of the Emirates...just a shopping mall but it is the one with the indoor ski slope...not quite Switzerland!!

Restaurants Suggestions...altho depends where your hotel is?  we lived in Jumeriah area so most of our fav restaurants were there.

Reem al Bawadi (Beach road) – very casual and local with great arabic food...we always went here when we had guests in town.

Shoo Fee Ma Fee – moroccan restaurant in Madinat Jumeriah (but Darren tells me he thought it closed down so ask hotel to ring and check).

Pier Chic (al Qasr Hotel) – seafood, expensive but very nice...we used to go there every year on our anniversary.

Frankies (Jumeriah Walk) – italian owned by Pierre White and Franki Dettori – delicious.

Good drink spots

Address Hotel, Downtown Dubai – fabulous view of the fountain mentioned above, but can’t hear the music so not quite as atmospheric as being down at the water.

Bar on top of Jumeriah Beach Hotel (can’t remember the name)

Mina A Salam Hotel – the raspberry mojito is to die for!!

Savannah GA USA

Of course I'm going to put Leopold's ice cream.

What other things did we do and see and ate that we all loved?

The pralines place was good Molly, Riverwalk Sweets right?

Do you remember WHICH one in Charleston is Hunter's fave so I can add that to the Charleston list?

How come I can't remember where we ate in Savannah?  We did that Ladys and Sons, then that  

seafood place on first day. Drift away Cafe.

I loved Forsythe park, and just walking around ALL the squares/parks/fountains…..and I thought it was cool that DOT was free for the yellow/green boat, and the trolley along riverwalk.

These are my notes from the Driftaway Cafe guy and his recommendations, we should try those when/if we are there again:

Walls BBQ - angels BBQ

Johnny Harris - victory drive

Back in the day bakery - hip

Bakers pride

Shrimp and grits - girabaldis or belfords

We ate breakfast at the coffee shop on Forsythe. It was good.

We did the water taxi and rail car. 

We has a very good and cheap pizza but don't recall name. U had good food from The place across the street from the pizza place which was also the recommendation from just the drift away Café.

Next time I would also try to do a haunted mansion tour. 

We loved walking along all the squares especially at night which is something I did with the children. It is pretty amazing the way they are lit.

There are quite a few churches to see we saw only one. Remember the very nice stained glass in the one we saw.

 I looked up our wknd trip notes, we are foodies, so for us it was all about the food - we thought Lady and Sons was nothing special. The usual messy buffet. It was our least favorite meal. Our favorite meal was at a very local joint called Driftaway Cafe (super local casual fish tacos), the shrimpt and grits at Belford's was fantastic as well as the fried green tomatoes, across from this restaurant is a casual pizza pick up place if you're going with kids, it's a good quick stop. Kids loved the candy at Riverwalk Sweets. As for activities, we did the free rail/trolley ride and the $10 water taxi ride (you can do a more expensive tourist one but for the kids the taxi ride was plenty). The Ghost Tour might have been fun but we had scaredy cats in our group. Walking around the parks were fantastic, especially at dusk/night when they were lit up. Lots of churches to stick your head in. Leopold's ice cream was absolutely our FAVORITE, we went three times in one wknd!!! Some recommendations we had from a foodie source/friend but didn't have time for: Walls BBQ, Angels BBQ, Johnny Harris, Bakeries - Baker's Pride and Back in the Day. Hope that helps!