I took the lead in finding a hotel in Dubai for our 4 night stopover. I thought it would be fun to stay out on the Palm Jumeriah, the artificial island completed in 2006 that is home to many hotels and private residences. This was a few days we wanted to splurge a bit and there was a huge amount of choice. I biased toward something with an Arabian flare, ultimately picking the Hotel Jumeirah Zabeel Saray.
Before the Hotel, Some Ramen
We arrived very late the first night into Dubai airport, so we stayed at an airport hotel so we could get to sleep quickly. We woke up the next morning and headed into town, enjoying a delicious lunch at Woyko. We all agreed eating a delicious bowl of ramen almost felt like being at home after a couple months of eating different foods through Europe and the Middle East.
The cashier enjoyed the intensity of our excitement during the ordering process and he was impressed with how engaged the girls were with what they were eating. After they sat down, he said to me, “you’re a lucky man, I can tell your girls like to eat.” Very true - I couldn’t agree more.
As we took down our very authentic Japanese noodles, we strangely felt a pang of NYC homesickness. Just wait until our crew gets to Japan in April 2020! (See our current travel schedule here).
Hotel Home Run
After lunch, we jumped into an Uber and headed to our hotel. It’s not everyday that you drive onto a palm tree...excitement levels were high!
As we pulled up to the hotel, it became obvious that this was the nicest hotel we’d ever stayed at. This was a luxury we certainly don’t often pony up for (if we did, we wouldn’t have money for a trip like this, hehe).
We learned that the hotel was owned by the King of Dubai and his investment fund. I learned this when I asked who it was in this picture.
"Ass in Butter"
My friend Nguey has a saying I like. When you get lucky, “your ass lands in butter”. When we checked in, it did. We had been upgraded two levels from what we booked, into a family suite. It was as big as our apartment in NYC! We were all excited and the girls created an intro video to our room.
Three Days Enjoying the Hotel
It’s not in our nature to sit still, as you probably can surmise if you’re following our journey. We had planned to spend a bit of time doing that (amidst sightseeing), but when we saw how nice the hotel was we immediately decided to soak it in. We’d considered visiting a number of sites in Dubai and taking a daytrip to the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. In the end, we only left for a few hours to take a speed boat to see the city from the water - read about our boat ride here.
School
We spent our mornings devouring the breakfast buffet - it was actually really good. After breakfasts, we took advantage of our lazy days to get some good school sessions in.
The Pool, Beach, Kids Club & Spa
We spent our days doing a combination of the above. The girls really enjoyed the Sinbad Kids Club where they got their hair braided, did arts and crafts and went down mini water slides.
Running Around the Palm
I got three good runs in, the most memorable on the last morning. While everyone was asleep, I sneaked out of the room and took an Uber to the other end of the palm tree. From there, I ran 7+miles back to the hotel. I should have woken up a bit earlier, even at 8:00am without any shade out on the boardwalk, it was hot! It’s a run I won’t forget and was memorialized in my ‘Running Around the World’ photo album.
Pictures of the Bathroom
We were mesmerized by the beauty and quality of the hotel. So much so that on one trip to a lobby bathroom, Sarah and I both independently took photos of the bathroom they were so nice. I can say with certainty this was the first time in my life I took photos of a bathroom!
Here are some pics around the hotel we took during our stay…
We’ll Be Back!
We leave eager to come back to Dubai someday to get out and see more. On our Uber ride departing for the airport, we had a driver from Pakistan who we spoke to for almost an hour about Dubai, things to do and he made us eager to learn more and return. We will be back one day!
Sarah’s colleagues & friends from her time living in London often went on vacations to Dubai and she wondered why. As we departed, she confidently said, “now I know why.”
Until next time, Dubai.
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