sarov

Stopping over in Dubai during my trip to India, Travelling with our boys 5y and 7y. I have narrowed it down to couple options. Please let me know which might be good or if you see a variation of this?
Option 1: Dubai + Atlantis
6/4 - 7:00 PM - Arriving Dubai; Stay in a hotel.
6/5
• Ride up to burj khalifa
• Dubai mall
• Desert safari
• Stay in the downtown
6/6
• Drive around with friend to see the city, Burj al arab from outside, eat lunch
• Go to Atlantis by noon; Stay in Atlantis
6/7
• spend time in Atlantis
• Leave to airport by 4 pm for a 9 PM flight.
Option 2: No Atlantis
----------------------------
6/4 - 7:00 PM - Arriving Dubai; Stay in a hotel.
6/5
• dubai mall
• Gold souk
• ride up to burj khalifa
• Stay in the downtown
6/6
• Creekside park
• desert safari
• Stay in the downtown
6/7
• Jumeriah beach side
• Mall of emirates
• Leave to airport by 5 pm; Flight @ 9 PM.

Thanks much

zarir1

am not gonna comment on each specific option but shall just give some rounded feedback and opinion.

if you gonna be staying at the atlantis then would suggest you use the facilities like the water park and dolphinarium to the fullest. else it would be a waste. plus you would spend a lot of unnecessary money to stay there and not use it well and also a lot of unnecessary travel time to commute everywhere from there. and everything is far from there. in my opinion you are staying there but spending more time outside elsewhere.

a possible alternative would be to stay else where like your other option closer to downtown dubai so you dont waste a lot of unnecessry travel time. you could always cover the atlantis and the entire palm island from outside like you intend to do for the burj al arab when you do your drive around dubai with your friend. if you wish to see the atlantis from inside then plan on doing a lunch / dinner there. alternative water parks to the atlantis are wild wadi and the yas island water park. yas island also houses the ferrari world but may not be suitable for the younger one. alternate dolphinarius is the creekside park.

if you covering dubai mall then you need not do mall of the emirates unless you wish to see / use the indoor ski slope facilities etc. purely from a mall perspective - dubai mall is great and you anyway will not finish this mall itself in one day. they have a great aquarium if interested.

dubai mall / burj khalifa / dubai fountain / desert safari should not all be done on the same day. it would be a good idea to do dubai mall during the day and then go up to burj khalifa closer to sunset. this way you will get to see dubai from top with daylight as well as with the night lights after the sunset. the same evening you could also see the dubai fountain show with sound and lights. it will not be possible to do the safari the same day as they will tend to pick you up by 4ish depending on the weather.

dubai airport is quite in the center within the city limits so you do not need to factor in so much buffer time in reaching the airport. plus you leaving on a friday (which is like the international sunday here) so negligible traffic. also if you flying EK then no time spent on baggage screen etc etc.

6th is likely to be a local holiday here so do factor that in your planning etc.

well thats it from me. hope have not managed to confuse you further.

SalmaSh

I agree with zarir on everything!

First of all Dubai mall is more than enough, you won't need to go to any other mall cause this one's HUGE! Another thing is, I never really liked the ride up Burj Khalifa, but maybe that's just me!
To me, it's better to dine at one of the restaurants at Souk Al Bahar facing the Burg Khalifa and watch the dancing fountain's shows, you don't want to miss that!

Also if you're not going to be doing a lot of shopping at the mall then you could possibly let the kids go to Kidzania (inside the mall) or maybe go to iFly (indoors skydiving) yourself.

The Safari is exhausting and can be too much for the kids, so if you're not so inclined to do it then I'd vote against it. You should also consider going to madinat Jumeirah instead of Atlantis and the Palm.. Much less money for way more charm, Madinat Jumeirah is as close as you will get to the authentic emerati atmosphere, complete with water canals and bazaar souks and amazing restaurants and luxury hotels!

If you wish to have some bargain shopping then you should pay a quick visit to Dubai Outlet Mall, if you're lucky you can find designer pieces on sale for less than half the price.. But ONLY do it if you're sure you have time because this mall is way too far from the city center.

And above everything, try to focus your itinerary on less places and activities so that you get the time to actually do it instead of glancing at it on the run. And don't get stuck on the tourist-y stuff.. Some of the raved about, over-priced, super famous stuff in Dubai are overrated.. Look for more low-key stuff and you'll definitely have a better quality stay

moremiles

If you have time, I recommend the Dubai museum also and think the kids will enjoy it and learn a bit about Bedouin culture. There are many dioramas and it only takes about 30 minutes to walk through.