Presley and I had the opportunity to go to Abu Dhabi for 3 weeks in July and I was thinking of putting together a travel guide, but there are enough out there in the world! Instead – I’ll just share some pictures and some of my favorite activities that we were able to do! We spent a majority (85%) of our time in the pool or at the beach because it was over 100f every single day – nights never got cooler than 95f. I’d recommend going to Dubai ANY time other than Summer. One of our tour guides said the country has two seasons, Hot & Hell.
Getting to Abu Dhabi was an entire day long process! We flew to Amsterdam, had a long layover & then flew to Abu Dhabi before getting a taxi to our place. Long travel days like this make me very thankful that we Lounge access because without free snacks, cozy chairs and drinks I don’t think I would have made it!
One of our favorite locations in Abu Dhabi was The Marina Mall. We spent a lot of time in this giant mall just 5 minutes from our place. We saw 3 movies (Aladdin, The Lion King & Toy Story) you could reserve your spot online, cozy chairs and even have food delivered to your seat. We even rode on the ferris wheel, played LOTS of games in the arcade and even spent an afternoon at the Trampoline Park. I think our favorite activity was walking around talking pictures with all the wall murals!
Hands down our favorite tour was a Desert Safari with Ocean Air Travels. We were picked up in an air conditioned car around 4pm and then headed to feed camels before heading out for an hour of dune bashing (I almost threw up)!! We tried sand boarding and then headed to the most gorgeous set up for henna, camel rides, bbq and some traditional music and dancing. The tour lasted about 6 hours and our guide (ask for Imran!) was amazing not only with our group but making sure Presley was comfortable!
There was a beach a 5 minute walk away, cost about 5 euro to enter, and more for a chair (we were the only ones ever there) we got a chair several times, but the rest of the time just found shade under a structure and laid down our towels. Not a lot of waves at the beach so the water is HOT. The beach had lots of shells and even more little crabs that we collected and made sand castle homes for.
We also went to Saadiyat Public Beach which was about a 30 minute drive but a million times nicer. The water had waves, was nice and cool plus beautifully blue. We had a wait a little bit for a taxi to come our way when we were done, but otherwise it was a great day trip!
All day Dubai trip with Rayna Tours. This was definitely our longest day & ‘the most boring’ according to Presley. We had a long ride to Dubai from Abu Dhabi (about 90 minutes). We saw Camels, visited the spice market, walked around the gold souk, the Dubai Museum, stopped for a few minutes at the beach, and saw lots of hotels! We watched the water show at the Dubai Mall and then headed home! It was A LONG day with a lot of information – but I’m glad we did it!
We found another awesome tour with OceanAir Travels (Remember to book with Imran) and it ended up being a personal tour because no one else booked with us! We got to visit the Mosque, Qasr Al Watan & Etihad Towers. THIS was definitely my favorite day because I had been wanting to explore the Mosque as soon as I found out we were going to Abu Dhabi! We had an amazing experience with Imran during our Desert Safari so it was fun to be with him again – he was amazing and took us to a few extra places, answered all my questions and was a rock star with Presley!
After a few more days at the beach, we decided we had to go to the top of Burj Khalifa so we booked another tour to go see it! We got to spend a few hours wandering about the Dubai Mall before heading to the top.
This could have been an amazing day but it was literally the HOTTEST day during our entire stay and the entire zoo was outdoors (obviously). By the time we left we were literally soaking wet in our own sweat. It was terrible! This zoo would be amazing in cooler weather because you could buy food to feed almost every single animal!
The entire reason for our visit, the sweetest bunnies EVER.
Logistics:
We purchased our tickets via SkyScanner and our flights were on RyanAir & Etihad Airways.
Taxis were everywhere and rides under 15 minutes were only about 3 euro.
A lot of places took card, but a lot of places only took Dirham.
Uber Eats – 4 dirham (around 1euro for delivery)
We booked all our tours on GetYourGuide
Everyone was incredibly friendly & we always felt extremely safe
Summer weather is absolutely terrible
Activites indoors – bring a sweater because the A/C will be blasting!
I saved some helpful travel guides HERE & shared more pcitures/videos on my Instagram! Thanks for stopping by today!
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