We visited Dubai for five days in March 2022, and I have already written about the Dubai World Expo and about visiting some of the biggest malls in town.

We still had plenty of time to explore other parts of the city, and here are some of the highlights.

We left our stroller in Cairo and took the metro almost everywhere

We considered bringing the stroller to Dubai, especially since we wouldn’t have to contend with the cobblestone streets of our Europe trips, but we opted again to leave it at home and stayed at a hotel directly on the metro line. It was convenient to ride the metro to the Expo and most of the other main sights, and we also took a couple of buses. Ralph was happy to be carried all day in the Ergobaby, and he slept while being carried whenever he was tired. 

Using the time difference to ‘stay up late’

Staying up late while on vacation is always fun, but since we have started travelling with Ralph we usually start our days quite early and then are too exhausted to stay out late. 

Dubai is two hours ahead of Cairo, and for such a short trip it didn’t seem practical to try to adjust. The benefit of this approach is that we could stay up till 11pm in Dubai but it only felt like 9pm for us and Ralph, and then we could also sleep in each morning. We didn’t actually stay out  late most nights, but it was nice to have a couple of hours back in the hotel room to watch a movie and have a drink.

We hadn’t considered the benefits of this time change, but I think it is actually a good reason to choose a destination a couple of hours ahead when travelling with kids, and we similarly benefited on a different trip to Tbilisi.

Our evening at Dubai Marina was lovely, but the best part was riding home in an Uber with a carseat already installed.

We decided to spend one evening out, and we started by walking around Dubai Marina. The walk was nice, and actually way less fancy than I expected, which I appreciated. We ate at Tony Roma’s, a silly American chain restaurant that neither of us had been to before. The food was what you would expect, but it was busy and we had a great view and a wonderful time. 

After dinner we walked down to the JBR Beach, which was packed with people and had the festive atmosphere I had expected from the Marina, along with the upscale hotels and restaurants. We walked along the promenade and then crossed a small pedestrian bridge until we were directly under the ferris wheel. 

From there it would have taken about an hour to get back to our hotel through a combination of walking/tram/metro, but it was almost 10:30 and we were getting tired so we called an Uber with a car-seat already installed, something which does not exist in Cairo and we were excited to try. The car arrived in about 15 minutes, and it was fairly easy to get Ralph strapped into the fancy Cybex car seat. The drive back to our hotel took 20 minutes and cost AED 52 (about USD 15). 

I told the driver that this was such a great idea, and he said the only problem was the branding,  that because it was called Uber Family people sometimes requested a ride expecting a large vehicle instead of a regular sized car with a car seat. He said he preferred that Careem (a competing ride-share app also now owned by Uber) calls their car seat option Careem Kids.

Whatever you want to call it, having such an option in Cairo would be life-changing, and one can only dream. 

Strolling along Kite Beach at sunset

One day I would love to live in a city by the sea, but until that time comes I content myself with long seaside walks whenever I get the chance. Egypt has long beautiful beaches on both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, but unfortunately beach access is often blocked by hotels and gated compounds. 

Dubai certainly has its fair share of private beaches, but it also has long stretches of public beach, and so one afternoon we took a bus to one end of Kite Beach and then just started walking. We saw many people walking, jogging, or just chilling by the beach, and it seemed so nice to have such a space be both free and open to the public. There were a few cafes along the route and we stopped at one called Salt where Jessica had an extravagant Sundae.

Eating South Asian Food

It can be hard to find delicious non-Egyptian food in Cairo, which means that food is a top priority whenever we leave the country. In Dubai we were happy to find a casual South Asian restaurant just outside the metro station by our hotel, and we twice picked up a cheap and tasty dinner on our way back. There was also an adjacent supermarket where we picked up mustard seed, curry leaves, shredded coconut, and some other ingredients to bring home.

One afternoon we also visited the neighborhood of Karama, which is home to many people originally from South Asia. The neighborhood was full of modest mid-rise buildings and many small restaurants selling South Asian food, and we stopped for a few samosas and pakoras. Karam had none of the glitzy buildings we tend to associate with Dubai, and we also didn’t see any other tourists. It was calm and easily walkable, and if such a neighborhood existed in Cairo we would be visiting several times a month.

Jessica’s lowlight: crossing Dubai Creek in an abra

During most of our time in Dubai, Cairo felt a world away.

The two exceptions were having an Egyptian taxi driver from the airport and when we crossed the Dubai Creek. I had read that you can make this crossing in an Abra, a type of traditional wooden boat. Based on our other experiences in Dubai we thought this would be an orderly and safe experience, but this felt a little more Cairo-esque than we were hoping for (especially for Jessica who has been very hesitant to take Ralph on any boats). 

There was a long messy line to get on the boat, but thankfully it did move rather quickly. When it was our turn to board we had to take quite a big step and then quickly sit down, and there weren’t even any railings or anything to hold onto. The boat itself was wobbly and the Creek was full of boats, making for a stressful but thankfully short ride. We were able to take the metro on the other side and so didn’t have to do the crossing again.