Guide To Dubai: Top Places To Fall In Love With (p.2)

Guide to Dubai: top places to fall in love with (p.2)

By Anna Purpurpurpur

Dubai, the most visited city of United Arab Emirates, is a royalty among the hospitality sector: everyone wants to visit it!

And there are seasons behind it: there are lots of restaurants, entertainment parks, modern installations, restored historical sites and museums. I’ve already covered the most classic famous spots – see a portion of other ones too!

11. City walk

City walk is a new district of Dubai where urbanistic sights are dotted with greenery. There are lots of shops, cafes, restaurants (including L’Eto and L’Occitane), and beauty salons.

Some activities for kids are also there – for instance, you can board a mini train, a double-decker or an electric toy car, and I believe there are more to come. Definitely a nice spot to stroll around! The Green Planet Dubai is also located in this area.

Green planet is a fantastic space for kids where you can observe birds, reptiles, insects and even some mammals from a touching distance! The core of the Green planet is a massive tree with live plants and waterfalls around it, and you follow a pathway from the tree top down meeting animals walking freely or sitting in their enclosures.

12. Dubai frame

Dubai Frame is an absolutely astonishing building not to mention the views from it! It’s 150 meters tall and the hollow centre is 93 meters high with the observational desk on the very top. It’s located in the Zabeel Park, and we were lucky to watch some dancing fountains on the ground too.

Dubai Frame opened to the public in 2018, and the general idea behind the building is to ‘frame the city’ (which was produced by Mexican architect Fernando Donis for the architectural competition) and to divide old and new Dubai. On one side of it you can see the skyscrapers including the silhouette of Burj Khalifa and on the other side there are the historical areas and more residential buildings. You can also enjoy (or find it scary) the motion-activated glass floor that turns from opaque to transparent as you walk on it.

Dubai Frame is a home to the museums of Old Dubai and of the future of Dubai as well as the souvenir shop. The cherry on top (sorry for the pun) was the stand of Yamanote Atelier, a Japanese bakery selling the most delicious donuts and Totoro buns!

13. Al Seef village and Al Fahidi districts

Come to explore the historical heritage of Dubai: it’s fully renovated (and many reconstructions are going around Al Fahidi village right now) and showcases how the idealised life here was not very long ago, in the last century before the oil industry kicked in.

For instance, the Al Fahidi neighbourhood dates back to the 1890s but it was destroyed in 1980s to clear up the space for modern buildings. Only later on, Rayner Otter, a British designer, came up with an idea to restore the district, campaigned it to then Prince (now King) Charles, and the renovation project started taking palace in 2005.

Mud houses, small museums such as Coin museum and Coffee museum, Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, The Arabic house restaurant and many other eating options, calm Dubai creek waterfront with traditional abra boats – come here to explore all of it!

These are also the markets, or souks, located en plein air but under high tents to protect you from the sun. Vendors are located both right and left of you, and you can just leisurely walk through the market looking around like in a museum even if you’re not interested in acquiring anything. If you decide to buy something, keep in mind that bargaining is a must!

We were lucky to attend a guided tour through Deira and Al Fahidi historical neighbourhoods organised for us by Visit Dubai a few years ago, and this time we returned here by ourselves. Dubai Museum located inside the Al Fahidi Fort, the oldest building in Dubai dated to the 18th century, is currently under renovation.

14. Dubai Marina

Dubai Marina is a nice place for a promenade along the water watching the boats passing by and having numerous eating options as there are restaurants everywhere.

You can hire a boat or take a dhow ride here or simply enjoy one of numerous cafes.

You can go for something posh like the Blume with their Dior experience, Vasilchuki chaikhona or something simpler such as Roll and Boil (Lepim I Varim) for breakfasts, for instance.

You can also pop to the Marina Mall and visit the beach promenade or explore the Bluewaters island.

However you can opt for scenic views over boats and yachts: have a dhow ride along the Dubai Marina! We opted for a sunset tour which was combined with a dinner buffet.

15. View at The Palm

The View at The Palm is easily accessible from the Nakheel mall: get to the roof of the shopping centre (where the Starbucks and the aquarium reside) and then to the very top of the Palm Tower. The observational desk opened just recently, in April 2021, and we visited the 52nd floor of it three years ago. Now, the visitors can even go to the 54 floor for more dramatic views!

At the beginning of the tour the visitors participate in the interactive ‘building of the palm Jumeirah’ altogether, then watch a short film and learn about the history of the man-made island construction. For instance, did you know that originally it was meant to be sun-shaped, not palm-shaped and that it’s clearly visible from space?

After that you proceed to the very top to enjoy the 360 degrees view of the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai skyline from 240 metres above. I’d suggest you visit floor 52 too just because it’s much less crowded – we were alone there.

16. Chinatown Dubai

Did you know that there is a Chinatown now right inside the Dubai Mall?

It has just opened and looks astonishing – this area is located indoors, there is a Chinese food court, a tea room, a couple of spas, an Asian supermarket, a few Asian skincare shops and more! There’s even a limited edition of Starbucks goods.

17. Dubai Safari Park

Dubai Safari Park opened in 2017 and since then has become a major eco friendly attraction of Dubai.

There are 6 areas to explore: African Village, Asian Village, Explorer Village, Arabian Desert, Kids Farm and Al Wadi.

We started with an African village, a wonderfully made space with artificial baobabs, elephants, lions, monkeys and some other animals. There is also a large aviary there and a few restaurants. The aviary looks very cool too, with birds flying and running around freely.

Buy a package with additional access to Explorer Safari tour: it’s a ride of approximately 35-45 min in a micro bus through the zones of Africa and Asia with a guide.

Also for an additional fee you can attend a feeding experience (buy it at the park entrance), and we went for a giraffe encounter! And finally, we went to the Kids’ farm, with a petting zoo inside.

18. Mall of emirates

Mall of Emirates is one of the largest malls of Dubai.

It opened in 2005 and now you can find lots of attractions there: luxury shops like Celine, Dior, Chanel, LV etc, cute and posh cafes such as Ralph Lauren coffee, Cipriani of japanese bakeries, and even a supermarket Carrefour!

19. Bluewaters

The Bluewaters Island is one of my fav places in Dubai: it’s a futuristic and pretty island near the Dubai Marina area.

It’s home to Ain Dubai. At the time of its opening, it was the world’s largest and tallest observation wheel – it’s 250 m tall! I was lucky to visit it in the past, then it stopped operating and now, from December 2024 it’s back on track!

There are 48 air-conditioned capsules with different experiences (you can just go there for a view or for instance have some gastronomical experience as well). Bluwaters also is now a spot for various free outdoor musical shows – check timetable in advance!

20. Global village

Global village is kind of an EXPO park but built solely for the entertainment cause. It combines the rides of an amusement park, with restaurants and with pavilions (there are 30 of them) representing various countries of the world, all built in different styles and showcasing some of local goods, foods and even music!

For instance, we visited some of more ‘local’ pavilions such as Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Egypt pavilions alongside Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand and Russia. There are also a few bigger areas covering larger territories such as the Americas, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.

We acquired a ‘Global village passport’ upon entering the premises, and we stamped it in every pavilion we visited – just like you do at the EXPO!

There is also an area of the Floating market with a pond and a large dragon in it! We watched a show with lights, water and fire there. In 2025, Global village runs until 11 May.

Where to stay?

We prefer to review different hotels, and our next hotel is located right in the Dubai mall – so you walk through the mall like – and enter the Kempinski Central Avenue!

As you see, Burj Khalifa is visible from the balcony of our room.

The breakfast area is situated in one of its restaurants, the Cez. It’s a stylish space with a good selection of western food, and you can try some Arabic and Indian cuisine too.

And of course, there are lots of restaurants in the Dubai Mall nearby such as Angeline, L’Eto, Novikoff cafe, ARTE Museum with their Tea Bar and Armani Caffe.