Holidaying in Dubai

[Onedaughteronecat]

We are off to Dubai in May for a weeks' holiday to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We are taking our 10 year old DD too.

We'd like some advice please on the best "things to do" whilst we are there. We would also like some advice please on etiquette rules, such as required clothing etc.

Can anyone help please?

Old town ,souks , museum and historical neighbourghood are all nice to walk around and I like looking at all the different spices, foo etc.
Burj Khalifa
Light and fountain displays at some of the malls in the evening
Think there is a really good water park
If you like dates go to Bateel - delicious dates with chocolate and lot of other yummy stuff - they give out samples so take your time when choosing.
Re what to wear - just wore normal summer clothes (nb the air conditioning in some of the malls is pretty fierce) but made sure my shoulders and knees were covered. I saw local girls of your daughter's age wearing clothes where knees where shoulders were not covered and this seemed acceptable.

I did not go into any mosques, but when I was in Brunei I was given an abaya to go over my clothes. It may be the same in Dubai.

Clothing is pretty much normal holiday clothing in Dubai, unless visiting mosques etc as previous posters mentioned. Burj Khalifa is a must, old town and the best water park is Wild Wadi, which is brilliant fun. Where are you stating OP as dubai is quite a size, and spread out?.

We did a desert safari in 4x4s when we went, that ended with a Arabian BBQ & entertainment. Not sure of the cost (we were corporate hospitality ) but it was great fun! There's a really good aquarium in the biggest mall, and we visited a mosque that offered a cultural talk on Islam, which was really interesting. Lots of children there, so should've OK for your DD. I would recommend the yellow boat tour of the coastline - you see the palm, burj al Arab, marina and the pilot picks up a bit of speed on the open sea, which is exhilarating. You can pick these up from the marina area.

If you go on the metro (which is straightforward to navigate) be aware of the women & children only carriages - men can be fined for sitting in these, and on some trains the only demarcation is a pink line on the floor of the carriage.

It all depends where you're staying but it's easy enough to get around. Taxis are very cheap, and crucially air conditioned so I wouldn't bother with the Metro.
Wild Wadi as a PP said is brilliant for all the family, as are the desert trips.
The malls are massive but the souk is far more interesting.
In terms of clothing, just be sensible; Covering shoulders/knees isn't essential but it is respectful. No beachwear unless you're on the beach/by the pool, that sort of thing.
Booze is ridiculously expensive; swing by the Duty Free at the airport and pick a couple of bottles when you land; slip them into your luggage and then you can order room service mixers

We went to a mall on the first day and picked up a tourist voucher book in a bookshop. It seemed quite expensive but worked out to be really good value. We got 2 for 1 on all our meals, tickets to attractions, 4 by 4 safari, etc. If you hang on to it you can sell the book with unused tickets on eBay etc and get some of your money back.

Thanks for all your travel tips. They are very handy to know.

We are staying at the Al Bustan Rotana which is in the Dubai creek area. We have been told about the metro and intend to use that if we can.

We've been to Vegas a few times and I am imagining that the hotels in Dubai are on the same scale as Vegas hotels, just minus the gambling and alcohol. We don't drink alcohol, so that isn't an issue for us.

We intend to visit the water park and the mall. I am a bit apprehensive about the whole trip, but I am sure we will be fine.