Check out Friday and Saturday’s posts in case you missed those!
Sunday was my last full day in Dubai. It was gorgeous outside and I knew I wanted to take advantage of the weather and make sure I did my desert safari that day. There are tons of companies that do them, but I believe that you get what you pay for. I booked my excursion at my hotel and it was roughly $50USD but that included drop-off and pick-up from the hotel, 30 minutes of dune bashing, BBQ and drinks at the camp and a basic henna tattoo that I paid extra to upgrade. But more on that later.
As usual, I started my morning with a workout and a light breakfast and originally planned on going on a tour of the Grand Mosque, but ended up falling asleep and missing the 10AM tour. Instead I decided to go on another Big Bus Tour and see a few of souks and take in the sights of a different side of Dubai. I can’t recommend the Big Bus Tour enough, my 48 hour pass really came in handy!
I spent about 2 hours on the tour, hopping off and hopping back on a few times before heading back to my hotel and grabbing a snack before heading off on the desert safari. It was about an hour drive from my hotel to the desert and in true form I ended up falling asleep for a bit, but not before chatting up a cute guy in my car. He was in town on business and we hung out together for most of the safari. We nicknamed our guide “Jason Statham” because of his driving skills and Jason made sure we had fun while bashing. We had two stops before we got to the BBQ where we got out and took pictures while the drivers did some car maintenance and shortly before the sun set we arrived at the camp.
Our ticket included regular bench seating, but that got upgraded to table service. We got to enjoy the traditional dance performances and fire performances and had our food, drinks and shisha brought to us. It was really nice! There was even camel back riding and hawk trainers walking around asking if we wanted to hold them. I politely declined the hawks. I did however get a henna tattoo. A simple design was included in our ticket, but like I said earlier I paid a bit extra for an elaborate design. She did an amazing job on my arm, and I wish I could say that I still had the tattoo on me now, but I had to wash it off earlier this week for business reasons.
I had an early flight the next morning so when I was dropped off back at my hotel I just got cleaned up and packed up. I knew that I’d have almost 16 hours of in-flight time to catch up on my sleep and that’s exactly what I did on my flights home. All in all I truly enjoyed my long weekend in Dubai and I can’t wait to go back. Next time I’ll plan for at least a week in the beautiful city.
Have any of y’all ever been there? If so, comment below or tweet me and tell me what you loved about the city.