Winter sun / fun - Dubai

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Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

254 months

Saturday 28th January 2017
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Booked up today at the Hilton, so; 5* - 2wks - full breky inc. - sea view - premium economy flights £2.5k total for 2 people which i think is pretty good, booked through BA and cheaper than it was 2 weeks ago, sale ends this week so probably why, late March booking were about 20% more, assume thats half term?

Anyways, thanks for the help and pointers, will post back after trip smile

Pvapour

Original Poster:

8,981 posts

254 months

Saturday 11th March 2017
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Back now and have to say we were pleasantly surprised by Abu Dhabi and the people, locals and workers, very welcoming, polite and respectfull of eachother (not so in Dubai)

Visited the Mosque which was stunning, Gill loved wearing the Araya..
spent a day at Al Forsan sports park which was just arrive and play with everything, wakebaord, archery, shooting and karting were done, brilliant purpose built kart track (best ive been on)
Yas water park, desert safari (not the dubai ones)

Everywhere we went in AD was deathly quiet, absolutely loved it, not a single queue at any event or venue we went to (except Dubai). Any reason why it was so quiet?

Hilton is 70s built but felt in no way dated, maybe we're old but we loved it, Hilltonia beach and gym were fantastic and far better than any other hotel we saw there, a walk beneath the corniche was no effort and didnt bother us but we're very active

By shear chance there was a day of display by all the forces of the UAE military on the beach re-creating a hostage rescue off a boat in the water, bloody brilliant and all free just in front of the hotel.

Eat out everyday apart from breky as the food in the hotel was extortionate compared to local restaurants, with three malls within walking distance and all containing food from round the world (and very good) we loved walking out and sampling all these.

Did the main mall at Dubai and the Burj Kalifa, incredible building but we absolutely hated Dubai and the attitudes of people, not fair to judge a place on that alone really but just from that it was so so different to Abu Dhabi, would not go back to Dubai but would Abu in a heart beat.

I could go on but wont, thanks for the advice and we had a brilliant holiday!

Stylus

154 posts

174 months

Saturday 11th March 2017
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Abu Dhabi is playing catch up on the tourist thing which is why it's so much quieter - it'll get there I'm sure.

The oil price drop has seen a lot of expats leave too which means there's less people living here.

I watched the same air show, was a great way to begin the weekend.

Your comments on Dubai mirror mine, I love having it an hours drive away for a weekend visit once a month but much prefer the pace of life in AD.


TopGear7

339 posts

177 months

Sunday 12th March 2017
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Who did you receive bad attitude from out of interest?

I spent 10 days in Dubai and had an incredible time. What stood out was the great customer service in the hotel and restaurants and any staff we dealt with in shops etc.

6th Gear

3,563 posts

195 months

Wednesday 15th March 2017
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Pvapour said:
but we absolutely hated Dubai
That bad eh?