Christmas in Dubai 2021

*This post consists of my Christmas in Dubai, followed by things to do in Dubai.*

Christmas is the one time a year that I am guaranteed a long holiday without fail and it's one of my favourite periods of the year, however each year the big debate is whether to spend the couple of weeks in the snow or sun.

Some friends have commented previously that they'd find it strange to travel over Christmas or be somewhere warm, however I've only spent a couple of Christmases in the UK (one of which was forced by a lockdown) as almost all of my family is abroad. The long holidays also provide the perfect opportunity to go skiing or somewhere far, such as Australia. Furthermore, I love spending Christmas in the snow, but in London it very rarely snows in December so instead it's often either raining or cloudy, which is just miserable. Having said that, one of my favourite memories of central London (specifically Regent's Street) was seeing it over Christmas during the lockdown when it felt ghostly but beautiful.

In 2021, we settled on spending Christmas in Dubai, where the weather would be in the mid-20s - perfect for sunbathing but not too warm to spend the day out and about sightseeing. Given that London was getting very chilly and I was in Estonia in -9°C only a couple of days beforehand, I was so excited for some warmth. My brother and dad had been to Dubai a couple of years beforehand and loved it and I'd only ever been to the airport so I was keen to see what the fuss was about. Having said that, I wasn't expecting to love it as I had perceived Dubai as having a materialistic, 'showing off' culture (e.g. fancy cars and designer everything), which I am not interested in at all, but I did want to explore the emirate regardless.

We flew with Emirates, who provided us with a face mask and sanitiser, which was much appreciated, and the flight was very smooth. We left London in the early afternoon and arrived at night just in time to go to bed (Dubai is 4 hours ahead of the UK) so we weren't jet lagged whatsoever.

The holiday was very relaxing overall, which is exactly what we needed after a very busy 2021, with a couple of busy sightseeing days interspersed with beach days.

The resort was great, with a gym (which I forced myself to use towards the end of the holiday), several pools (although we always swam in the sea as I prefer it infinitely more than any pool), several restaurants, and a games room (with table tennis, which is a family favourite on holiday). The food was also very good (I had pancakes every morning) and they even provided in-house PCR testing before our flight back to the UK. The highlight was definitely on my birthday, where after a long day of sightseeing I came into my room to find a birthday cake waiting for me (which was surprisingly delicious). Despite this, I am adamant that if you travel to another country you should leave the resort and actually explore the area as resorts teach you very little about the locals' lives; the rest of this post contains things to do and see in Dubai.

The Dubai Mall

We spent my birthday exploring the city centre. Now, I am not one for shopping and wasn't expecting to enjoy the Dubai Mall, however there were direct transfers from our hotel to the mall so we decided to make a day of it. Needless to say, I was shocked and had never seen a shopping centre of this size in my life. There were several fountains, a massive aquarium with sharks (and mermaids), a souk, and an abundance of luxury stores (including several Rolex stores, one of which is the biggest in the world consisting of three floors). The only downside was that many luxury items were out of stock (this probably had more to do with the fact that we went the day after Christmas), but it was a fascinating experience and I'd recommend a visit to anyone in the city.

The Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain

Just outside the mall, you can find the tallest building in the world: the Burj Khalifa. This structure is truly massive at over 800m and it is very impressive (especially as you get closer to it). Between the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall is the Dubai fountain, which is a nice contrast to the surrounding concrete jungle and provides a nice backdrop for photographs. We stayed to watch the fountain show, which was decent but it had nothing on the fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas, which I'd seen a few years beforehand.

Expo 2020

A few days later, we visited the Expo 2020, in which each country showcases what they have to offer. I didn't know what to expect, but was excited since my friend had been a few months earlier and had recommended the Expo highly. The complex was truly ginormous, which several different areas connected by a central dome in which projectors displayed incredible scenes correlating with audio from huge speakers. This doesn't sound too impressive, but the dome was massive, the audio was matched to perfection, and the imagery was incredible and very immersive. There was also a massive water feature, comprising of both projectors and actual streams of water and was pretty cool.

The main exhibitions we saw were Portugal's and the UK's (for obvious reasons). We expected the UK's to be more time-consuming and impressive, so started with Portugal's, which was decent but I felt like they could've done a lot more with it. There was a Portuguese restaurant upstairs too which had nice food, but we bought a pastel de nata (a typical dessert which is essentially a custard tart) at the café downstairs after and burnt ourselves with it, which would never happen in Portugal and was disappointing. We then visited the UK's exhibition, which looked very cool, however it was essentially just showcasing a poem that was being written using AI (artificial intelligence) using words that visitors typed up on iPads inside. The premise was cool but the iPad rejected the majority of words that I tried (including regular nouns in the dictionary) and I feel like the UK could've done something much more impressive all in all. Regardless, the Expo was very cool and there were robots everywhere delivering food which was a novel sight for me.

Dune buggy, Camel ride, Sandboarding

One of the main excursions offered in Dubai is a day trip to the desert where you can ride a camel, sandboard, and rent a dune buggy. We didn't go on any of these trips as I'd already ridden a camel and none of us were too interested in the other activities, however I know many people who have done them and which ended up being the highlight of their trips so it could be worth trying out.

Abu Dhabi

One of the main things I wanted to do in the UAE was visit Abu Dhabi, especially given that it was only about an hour away from our resort in Dubai. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque looks stunning and I was keen to visit it, however due to the differing covid restrictions between the Emirates it wasn't worth the hassle. Nonetheless, I'd definitely like to visit the next time I am in the UAE (or fly with Etihad).

Water sports

Despite not being the main association with Dubai, water sports are rife along many of the coastal resorts and our resort offered a variety of water sports, including kite surfing, water skiing and kayaking. I love most water sports and would recommend giving them a go if you have the time.

Skydiving

Dubai is one of the best places in the world to skydive and it was one of only three places that I wanted to skydive (the other two being Hawaii and New Zealand). I ended up skydiving in Uluru, Australia (see the picture on the right), but the view over the Palm Islands in Dubai looks incredible and it would be cool to skydive here.

Dubai is both exactly what you expect, in that it is somewhat ostentatious and everything is designed to impress, however in many aspects I was also surprised - for example as soon as you're out of the main city the surrounding area is just desert and there is little to do (outside of the resorts). Either way, it is a very unique city and is well worth the visit, especially in an attempt to escape the British Winter.