February 2013, it was time for another adventure. After spending 2 weeks in Japan back in April 2012, we had every intention of keeping our travels light in 2013. Instead of taking a nice, quiet trip somewhere in the United States, we ended up traveling internationally for over 3 weeks in 2013. Our first destination was the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A coworker of mine inspired me to research this country after a conversation about our shared love for Japan. I explained that traveling to Japan opened my eyes to the idea of traveling outside of Europe, and that I wanted to see what other exotic destinations were out there. He recommended Dubai. Knowing practically nothing about it, I started looking at the two most important things: cost and safety.
The UAE shares borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia and is just a boat ride across the Persian Gulf to Iran. In case you don't watch the news, these countries aren't the most welcoming to American tourists. How could we be safe visiting a country that's only slightly larger than Massachusetts? But the UAE is a nation rich from oil profits with an incredibly stable government for its middle east location. The UAE is made up of seven independent kingdoms that all fall under the same governing body. Historically, the king of Abu Dhabi is the president of the country and the king of Dubai is the prime minister. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the two more westernized and progressive emirates, which (in my opinion) helps keep the country balanced. We also learned that 80% of the population are expats from other countries. Only 20% of the population are citizens, and the UAE's don't allow permanent immigration. Once born an emirate, always an emirate. The UAE welcomes foreigners to live there and conduct business there, but they will never accept outsiders as their own. Strange, right? But convinced that we would be safe as American tourists, we embraced the idea of an Arabian vacation and started planning.
Unlike Japan where we city hopped, in the UAE, we parked ourselves in Dubai for the entire week (staying in 1 hotel the entire time) and took day trips outside of Dubai. This worked very well for us, except for the fact that we could only spend 1 day in Abu Dhabi which is something I regret.
We did take note that the UAE seemed, at first, like it was going to be incredibly expensive. The famous Burj Al Arab hotel cost a cool $1,200/night for their basic room. Granted not all hotels were that pricy, but one could easily spend several hundred dollars a night on their hotel room. Dubai has tons of hotels and the more you're willing to pay, the more you get. I thought I scored big with our Dubai hotel, but it ended up being a huge lesson in where I failed to do my homework. I booked a 5-star Hyatt Regency hotel for 6 nights for about $210/night. I know, I know. I broke my own $200/night hotel room rule but for a 5-star hotel and for only 6 nights, I thought it would be worth it. Plus the hotel got great reviews, it was within walking distance to the metro, and it was within walking distance to the gold and spice souks (a major cultural and tourist attraction). I thought I hit the jackpot when I found a nonrefundable rate for so cheap. (Did I mention Dubai was expensive?) And based on everything I've ever learned about traveling so far told me that this was the place to stay. In Europe and Japan, walking distance to public transportation is key. What I didn't realize at the time was that the souks were terrifying and the metro was utterly useless. But more on that in later blogs.
I booked 2 roundtrip, nonstop flights from Washington Dulles to Dubai for about $1,200/pp. 13 hours on a plane is a very very long time, but it was nice to get there without any layovers. It's worth mentioning that there were a large number of service men and women on the plane with us. Their final destination was not Dubai. Instead they would continue on from Dubai to Kabul, Afghanistan. It is because of their sacrifice that we are free.
Even though we only went for a week, after seeing the flight and hotel cost, we worried that the trip could still cost us close to $10,000 like some of our two week vacations. In the end, however, it ended up costing a little under $5,500. This was thanks to the fact that many of our activities included food and other times, we found ourselves eating in mall food courts. But if you've read my other blogs, you know that I'm a super cheap travel eater. In this case especially, it saved us big bucks.
So what about the UAE appealed to us? Why travel to the other side of the world to see such a tiny country? You'll have to continue reading to find out, but some of the highlights include the world's tallest building, high tea at the world's only 7-star hotel, dune bashing in 1950s range rovers through the Arabian desert, indoor skiing, and one of the largest and most opulent mosques in the world that features Murano glass lights, precious gems inlaid in the walls, and mother of pearl stonework. It was a week of highs and lows, and a blog series you don't want to miss!
Thanks for reading!
- Foxy the Traveler
