A Dubai Layover Experience

November 30, 2025

My husband, Fred, and I had a 24-hour layover in Dubai between our trips to India and Iraq. Having arrived in Dubai about noon on Sunday, November 30^th, we checked into our hotel and then decided to explore the Dubai Mall and surrounding area. We had pre-booked a couple of tours offered by Emirates Airlines – a city tour and a desert adventure. Our tours were scheduled for the next day,

The mall is huge - thank goodness we fueled ourselves with a stop at a gelato shop to start! There are many US chains in addition to international ones, and it was fun seeing names we knew also written in Arabic. Fred was disappointed the indoor ski hill was not part of this mall and had to do with the large indoor ice rink. Outside of the mall was a large manmade lake and a promenade with restaurants. We walked past the lake looking for what we thought was green space only to find a children’s play park built of stone and concrete. We kept walking….

Our walk continued into the evening. From along the canal (which had a lot of building construction in progress, so no photos) and back to our hotel discovering the city's array of architecture and a few surprises like a Caribou Coffee shop (those from Minnesota will appreciate that). As evening came so did the city lights and the world’s tallest building – Burj Khalifa – put on a nice light show!

Exhausted from the day’s travel and walk, we had dinner at the hotel’s French restaurant. Fred discovered he could find good salmon outside of Seattle. I, however, had an extremely disappointing cordon blue.

December 1, 2025

Our first tour a “City Tour” started at 9:30 am. We were on a small bus with 10 other tourists; a family from South Africa, a couple from Melbourne, and an Indian couple originally from Bengaluru (where we had just been for a wedding) but now living in Texas. The tour was mostly drive-by of royalty compounds, short stops to take a photo of landmarks, and a bit of history. It included a boat tour of the harbor and a short walk through the old souk with its gold and spice markets. From the boat ride we could see some of the city skyline and a few beach resorts. Yes, the gold shops in the souk were amazing to see and we did shop at the spice market where I purchased some saffron. It was a very short souk walk and we were back to the hotel by 1:30pm. If we were to do it again, we would opt for a private, full day tour so we could see, experience, and learn more.

Our second tour was a “Desert Experience”– Dune Bashing, desert sunset, safari dinner with traditional entertainment. At 4pm, We were picked up at the hotel in a land rover with 2 other South Korean couples. Our driver, Wazir, told us to expect a 45-minute drive to our first stop at the edge of the desert outside of the city limits. Traffic was heavy as not only were many tourists on the same journey as us, but it was also UAE’s National Holiday and many locals have desert vacation homes/camps. As we entered the desert, we could see lots of areas where 3 and 4 wheel drive vehicles were roaming the dunes. Our first stop was a surprise to us - a tourist sand dune buggy area. They lead us through a shop and strongly encourage the purchase a khufiya and other items. Fred did purchase a Khafiya, but I had a head scarf with me and several khufiyas at home. Actually, his was an excellent choice as this next adventure turned out to be a ride in a dune buggy and Fred got to drive!

We were teamed with a guide in a 3-wheel buggy and we were placed in a 2-person 4-wheeler. This was probably the most fun of the evening. We revved our engine and followed our guide into the desert. He was good at taking us into the less trafficked areas. However, we were surprised with a stop where we met a man with a hawk and were cajoled into having our picture taken with his hawk, of course we could not leave until the trainer was pleased with his baksheesh (tip). Well, how often do you get to hold a well-trained hawk in the middle of the desert?! Our guide was impressed with Fred’s driving skill (he has done some track racing and emergency training) and offered to up the speed as we headed back. We were glad for our face and head scarves as the sand flew though the buggy.

Next was the “Dune Bashing” adventure as advertised. Wazir headed deeper into the desert where we were ‘treated’ to a rollercoaster ride – up, down, and tight turns through the dunes which tossed us around in the land rover. They advise you to not eat prior and we quickly learned why! Thankfully none of us got motion sickness. Wazir was a good driver, but this was more of a ‘can we shake you up’ adventure! The dune buggy we got to see the desert – this was just watching the vehicle throw sand and us around. After about 20 minutes, Wazir brought the land rover to a rest so we could watch the sunset.

Back in the land rover and off to the encampment for dinner and entertainment. There was a large staged area catered by Hyatt Hotels which serviced several desert adventure groups like ours. We were assigned a table with pillow seating on a riser so our view of the stage wasn’t blocked by the group of tables in front of us. Each table was assigned a number for dinner, but the buffet was still very crowded. The food choices were a mixture of Indian and Middle Eastern dishes – all very good.  Dinner was served at 6:30 and the show started at 7pm.

The reason I signed us up for the “Desert Adventure” was the dinner and “traditional dance show”. On past trips Fred and I had experienced the Moroccan and the Australian deserts by land rover, camel, and at sunset. I thought this might be my chance to see Khalliji dance and music as we were in the EAU. I was sorely disappointed. Not that the dancing wasn’t good – but it was almost completely Egyptian style, even the music between numbers was the latest Egyptian pop- Ahmed Saad, Sultan Elsham,….!  There was a Whirling Dervish and then a Tanoura set – both to non-traditional music for the genre (the Tanoura was performed to an oriental/belly dance piece). There was a male fire performer followed by Egyptian Assaya/Tahtib (with two men and a woman to modern Sai’di music). The finale was the belly dancer entering with wings to Shik, Shak, Shook and then a contemporary Egyptian pop song to end. It was  now 8:30pm and I hadn’t even heard one Khaliji song during the show, much less see a Khaliji dance. It was a contemporary-traditional show, but not from the UAE or the Arabian Peninsula.

I did express my disappointment on the opinion survey card, but I may have been the only one in the audience that new what I was and wasn’t seeing. The S. Korean’s we were with seemed to enjoy the show, however. On the way back to the hotel I asked Wazir why there wasn’t any Khaliji dance or music. He was surprised I knew the difference and we compared notes on the Khaliji style men’s dance with the stick and the women’s hair dance (like was done for Trump when he visited, Wazir said). Why not those, I asked?  He didn’t seem to know but said the hired dancers were Russians. Well, at least Wazir had been playing Khaliji music for us in the car all evening, LOL!

My impressions: Dubai has such a large international community - expatriates far outnumber Emirate nationals by about 88% or more - so you may have to look hard to find a hint of Emirate culture. With travel (like that box of chocolates Forest Grump compares to life) sometimes “you just never know what you are going to get” - but the experience, if you let it, can be enriching none the less!

Next stop – Iraq for a 12-day tour.