FIRST STOP: 3 DAYS IN DUBAI

After cramming my life into a backpack, saying goodbye to friends and family and mentally preparing myself for 3 months out of my routine we left for the first stop on our trip - Dubai. One of my best friends works as an Emirates air hostess and our connecting flight to Bangkok stopped in Dubai so we thought we would have a few days of luxury before roughing it as proper backpackers. 

(Unfortunately our eyes were shut and we got too excited and never actually got the 'backpackers at the airport' snap so the above will do). 

We arrived in Dubai on Monday the 9th of October; writing this now it literally feels so long ago as this is the first time I've been able to sit down and write this blog (not that I'm complaining). I've listed below my recommendations, where we stayed, how to travel about etc and a few holiday snaps!

Travel We flew Emirates overnight and after about 3 hours of sleep and 2 films down we landed in Dubai. We decided to get the metro from the airport as our hotel was near the Mall of Emirates and since we are trying to live that #budgetlife it was a lot cheaper.  We booked a gold class ticket which is basically like first class. The gold carriage is at the front of the train, unfortunately we decided to just sit in the regular carriage as it was so quiet but then realised it was rush hour and ended up being in a similar situation as the northern line on a Monday morning at 8am - so make sure you do actually opt for the gold area. Women also have their own area! The pricing confused us a little. Our stop was in Zone 2 so we bought Zone 2 tickets but as we tried to leave the station we were told you buy tickets based on how many of the zones you enter and we passed through 3 zones so we need to buy an 'all zones' ticket. Now we're top class metro users I would use again especially as traffic in Dubai is horrendous! Saying that we used taxis during the rest of our time in Dubai as there isn't metro stations everywhere. They drive like loonys but it's cheaper than Uber and you can literally put your arm out and get a taxi quite easily without ever having to wait. Accommodation We found a hotel using Hotels.com (collecting those rewards for an extra night y'know). The hotel was called 'Al Khoory Atrium Hotel' and is just off Sheikh Zayed Road and behind the Mall of Emirates. 

I could not recommend this hotel enough. We paid £140.00 for a double room for 2 nights inc breakfast. It worked out at £35 per person per night. The rooms were huge, the breakfast was good and it also had a rooftop pool, sauna and gym.

Dubai is quite expensive for food and drink so paying this for accommodation helped us out ALOT! Recommendations As we were only in Dubai for 3 days (and on a budget) we didn't do too many activities or shopping etc. However we did try see a range of different areas as my boyfriend had never been! For a great view (and cocktails) The Observatory bar on the 52nd floor of the Marriott is perfect for sunset cocktails (make sure you sit in bar and not the restaurant it's on right hand side) It overlooks the palm and has happy hour from 5-7pm. The views are amazing and even when it's dark seeing the palm lit up is beautiful. We also had some Nachos from their bar menu which were bloody amazing! Prices here are on par with London but you do get a great view!

After this we headed to ,The Jetty Lounge' at the The One & Only Resort. The drinks here are also expensive however you sit and drink on the beach while looking up at the skyscrapers.

Standard Abbie drank too many cocktails and ended up with my head in a toilet so wouldn't suggest drinking heavily while jet lagged LOL. Activities We planned on doing more with our time in Dubai but lack of sleep on our flight and the cocktails hitting our travelling budget we decided to calm down and just do one thing we both wanted to do which was the Atlantis Watpark. We booked our tickets online and got a 10% discount from using a MasterCard, it was about £40.00 each. I'm not going to lie I was ropey AF after all the cocktails from the night before but powered through. Pretty proud of myself for the rides I went on, even though I didn't brave the one where the floor opens and you drop (FYI for you risk takers josh loved it!)

The waterpark is so 2017, your ticket is a wristband with a barcode which you can load with money and lock your locker with. So you can literally lock away all valuables and spend the whole day in a swimsuit cruising down the lazy river, buying drinks on your wristband and not worrying about your valuables. 

For dinner We met some friends for dinner at the Marina on our second night (and more importantly ladies night). I'm outraged ladies night doesn't happen in the UK but on a Tuesday women can get free drinks in most bars and restaurants (petition for this to happen in London - am I right?) We went to 'pier 7' which is a building with 7 floors of different cuisine. We ate at Asia Asia and it was incredible (and that isn't my 3 free glasses of wine talking). We had a mix of fish, duck and pork which were all cooked beautifully and I was very impressed with portion size.

The friends we were with also had this app called 'The Entertainer' which always offer deals on places in Dubai. So we ended up getting 2 for 1 on mains and bottles of wine. We had 3 starters, 4 mains and 2 bottles of wine (plus the girls free drinks) between 6 for £35.00 each! I would recommend downloading this app before going anywhere! The view overlooking the Marina is amazing, we sat outside even though it was quite toasty and all the lights is quite surreal. 

We had an early breakfast planned for the next day so decided to head home after dinner but girls you could go to each floor and get your drinks tokens from every different restaurant!  

Average prices in DubaiBottle of water - £3.00 Beer - £9.00 Bottle of wine - £50.00 Cocktail - £10.00

Average meal price in the mall - £10-£15

Considering we were on a budget we did drink quite a lot which is quite expensive in Dubai. However #YOLO, we had budgeted around £100 a day each which I feel is enough to have a good time and do a few activities. 

Next stop - Bangkok!

Stay tuned for my blog on our 14 day Northern Thailand tour by Tru Travels. For more photos from our travels look at #jabbieadventures or @lifeinlycra_ on Instagram :)  AbbieJS Xxx 

#dubai #mydubai #travel #travelblog #travelling #backpackers #dubaitravel #hotels #cocktails #dubaimarina