Travel: Delight in Dubai
I VISITED Dubai as a honeymooner.
As I began to explore this exciting city in my first few days as a married woman, the feelings of love and admiration were overwhelming.
I had spent months preparing for this and now I was finally in this city with my one true love...shopping.
And obviously my wonderful new husband tagged along too.
For a shopaholic like me, Dubai is simply heaven – home to some of the most incredible shopping malls in the world. It isn’t just the designer shops and amazing sales that attract people to the malls in Dubai – they are home to some of the city’s finest attractions.
One mall included the vast Dubai Aquarium, with a 32m wide viewing panel allowing shoppers to see sharks, manta rays and all kinds of marine life.
Another part of the mall contained Dubai Ski, an indoor ski centre where visitors can forget the blazing sun outside and take to the slopes. Others included an indoor theme park, five star luxury hotel, ice rink, the world’s largest indoor Gold Souk and a 22-screen cinema.
We visited Dubai in the first part of our honeymoon, staying for five days before jetting off to another exotic location, and there was plenty to keep us occupied.
Next to Dubai Mall is a sight that has to be seen when visiting the city, the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa.
It stands at 2625 feet tall and visitors can go to the observatory deck or the restaurant on the 122nd floor, but waiting times were long when we arrived with no free slots for two days.
Dubai feels like a city not to be outdone, where the phrase ‘The World’s Only’ or ‘The World’s largest’ is commonplace.
Everything is on a grand scale, with most hotels having in excess of 50 floors, and roads feeling the size of a motorway.
We stayed in the area of Dubai Marina, which like most of the city is home to a lot of redevelopment and building work. Our hotel, the exclusive Le Royal Meridien Beach hotel, had so many facilities it would have been easy not to leave the complex.
