What to see in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for four days. The time is too short, but it still depends on the budget you have. Let me add a little background to this trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I had heard a lot of good things about it, but to be honest, I was quite prejudiced that I would like it. However, as a bit of a joke, I started tracking the plane tickets to Dubai. At one point, I found that if I buy them in October or November, the price of a round-trip ticket can be bought for less than euro 100. It is important to do it directly from the Wizzair website. The next step is of course the hotel and more precisely its location. Our hotel happened to be close to the Mall of the Emirates and a 10 minute walk from the metro. If you want everything to be cheap, use public transport. Taxis are a last resort, although they are also relatively cheap.

What you can visit in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Make a plan for everything so you don’t wander too much. A good option is to buy the attractions you are thinking of visiting online. But let us return to the beginning of our journey. We are leaving from Sofia and as soon as we arrived at the airport it turned out that we had entered the wrong terminal. Our ticket said Terminal 2, but later it turned out that it was in Dubai. Good thing we only travel with hand luggage. The flight was uneventful and uneventful and after four hours and twenty minutes we landed at Dubai International Airport. Since the airport is very large, it turned out that Terminal 2 is between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Logical, but also a little worrying, because the problem turned out to be that the distance between these terminals was quite large. In fact, there is a subway at terminals 1 and 3, but not at 2. You have to take a bus to connect to the metro. I think it was 6 stops. NOL cards are used everywhere in Dubai.

The metro is very easy because it is practically one line. There are English signs everywhere. We arrived at the hotel, albeit a little late. The next day our first stop was The View at the Palm. Entrance is about euro 25 (100 dirhams) The elevator takes you to the 52nd floor in 45 seconds. There is a brutal panoramic view of Palm Jumeirah from a height of 240 meters. You can stay up there as long as you want. How to get there? Underground metro/train is used, which is charged separately (not possible with NOL card). Then we visited the Atlantis aquarium, the price is BGN 75. Here I open a bracket that you don’t need to go inside to look at it, because you will see almost the same from the side, where there are huge panoramic windows with fish from tropical seas. Just go around the entrance on the left and you’re in front of them. In the early afternoon, we already walked on Palm Jumeirah, took pictures and videos of Hotel Atlantis and Royal Atlantis Residence. By 6pm local time we were already positioned to watch the fountains at The Point. To tell you the truth, they are quite impressive and different from those in front of the Burj Khalifa. They’re just colorful, though the music is quieter. We ended the day with an evening stroll at Dubai Marina. That was it for the first day. On the second day we visited the Dubai Mall and from there we entered the Burj Khalifa up to the 125th floor at a height of 360 meters. The weather was very clear and we were up from 12.00 to 14.00. We had a quick look around Dubai Mall and headed to JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residence). We bathed for 1 hour in the Arabian Gulf, walked along the promenade and returned to the evening show at the Burj Khalifa fountains. There were already a lot of people here, we hardly bothered to take pictures on the front line. The acoustics are great as the fountains are surrounded by tall skyscrapers. They shoot up to 152 meters high, although I think it’s a bit far-fetched to be that high. The other thing I want to tell you is that after each song (Arabic and world classics) there is a 30-minute wait. We only watched (heard) three songs, ate at the Dubai Mall and headed to the hotel.

We reserved the third day for Abu Dhabi. The transition is quite big, especially if you use Public Transport. You need to go to Iban Batuta metro station. Next to it is the Dubai Bus Station. You take a bus to Abu Dhabi and use the NOL card again. You must have at least 50 dirhams charged, because one way is 25 dirhams (6-7 euro). You travel for almost 2 hours and arrive at Central Bus Station in Abu Dhabi. In order not to waste time, we immediately took a taxi to the White Mosque of Sheikh Zayed. It takes about 20 minutes to travel. You have to buy a ticket for it in advance, although it is practically free to enter. You go through a long tunnel and climb to the level of the mosque. There is as much security as possible. Every 15-20 meters there is a security guard who constantly monitors what you are doing. There are many prohibitions. For example in clothing. You can’t shoot a clip and talk. You cannot, for example, raise your hands when taking a picture or hold hands, etc. It’s quite interesting as a landmark and it’s huge. It was built in 2007 and gathers 40 thousand worshippers. I don’t think you need to stand for more than 2 hours. From there we took a taxi to the Etihad Towers Skyscrapers, famous from the movie “Fast and Furious 7”, there was no time to enter the Presidential Palace and Emirates Palace. Actually it was from Abu Dhabi because we returned in the evening to Dubai. On the last day, we left it possibly for the places that we have not seen and are not our priority. We boarded The Frame. The entrance fee is 13 euro, it’s not much, like a panoramic view, if you’ve already been to the Burj Khalifa, for example. The interesting thing is the transparent glass floor that shows you how high you actually are (180 meters). We went prophylactically through the Museum of the Future. There the queue was quite long and the entrance seemed expensive to us at 37 euro. To finish the day, we visited the old city of Deira, where we bought souvenirs, ate cheaper food compared to the malls. Quickly to the airport and after 5 hours and 20 minutes we landed in Sofia.

What are our impressions of Dubai and Abu Dhabi

A very calm and logistically arranged place. There are no beggars and sellers to bother you, everything is new and tidy. True, there is no greenery, but it was a desert after all. A lot of money has been invested here from oil and is unlikely to ever be recovered. Most buildings in my opinion are uninhabitable and still under construction. I really liked everything, although as I wrote at the beginning I was biased. And when I think about it, about 4-5 hours and you’re warm. I thought about it!!!