отдых в дубай holidays in dubai

We went to Dubai in February 2011. I must say right away. that before the trip I read a lot of reviews, including about the hotel. There were both positive and negative reviews, but all the reviews were true, although my friends claimed that the reviews were written either by representatives of tour operators, or travel agencies, or hotels.
1. Hotel Versales. There are no Russian speakers at the reception in the lobby. But in principle, if you know at least the minimum vocabulary in English, there will be no particular difficulties. We were settled on the topmost, 7th floor, where mostly only Russians, although I must say that there were 25 percent of Russians in the hotel.
The room was normal, yes, the windows did not open and were not quite ideal, but in principle this did not interfere with our rest, the windows did not need to be opened, our room had a separate adjustable air conditioner, personal, and not one per floor, as they say in others reviews on hotels, but to be honest, we turned it off almost on the day of arrival, the room was cool enough, not hot, and at night even under the covers sometimes froze, sometimes we had to cover ourselves with a blanket. Immediately asked for a bed one or two. In the room, the refrigerator was immediately filled with cola, mineral water, beer, there was a basket of chocolate paste on the table. Nuts, sweets, something else, it's all clear, extra. services. We didn’t use anything, we only used it as a refrigerator for storing food, while during checkout no one came to check our stock, apparently they had already checked it.

Nobody said a word to us, I am writing this to the fact that many dissatisfied compatriots complain that they were unreasonably credited with what they drank and ate. Upon check-in, we were immediately given a memo when the bus goes to the beach, the schedule for breakfast and lunch, while they immediately took away our passports, with the replica “no problem”, they didn’t swear and download rights, especially in English we didn’t know how to express ourselves , while I already foresaw this in advance, having read reviews on other hotels, in 3-star hotels, this is a common practice, they did not offer money for a deposit, they immediately took their passports. The next day, when our guide approached, they asked to return the passports, to which Asya said that the passports would be returned, but in return they would be offered to make a deposit, we said that we did not mind, but not $ 100, but after her conversation, the passports were returned without further questions. I will make a reservation right away.
That when buying a tour, we immediately looked for food: breakfast-dinner, Natalie tours assured us that the hotel had a choice of lunch or dinner, however, when checking in, again at the reception, the girl said that breakfast and lunch were told to the guide the next day this is a misunderstanding, again she clarified, it turned out that you can still choose, but lunch is a buffet, and for dinner you need to order several dishes in advance, we, after thinking, did not bother, left lunch. But the conclusion: keep your eyes open at the reception. At the same time, the downside was that the agent Natalie Tours met with us already in the second half of the day following our arrival, when we were already at random in the hotel and talking on the beach with the Russians had a rough idea of ​ ​ how to get around the city by taxi, metro, what excursions are better to go, etc. , how to call, etc.
, took a map at the reception, and also thanks to the numerous reviews on the websites of our compatriots, we went to the country, already having a more detailed idea about it. The food at the hotel is monotonous, but healthy: vegetables, chicken, meat, fish in batter, salads, potatoes ...like our average Russian canteen, the table does not break, but you won’t stay hungry and certainly won’t get poisoned, as was the case with me in Egypt. Cooked delicious, homemade. There were few and unripe fruits, there were only melons and watermelons, sometimes oranges and grapes. The pastries are the same every morning: one kind of buns and croissants, for lunch, too, the same jelly dessert. Well, sorry, 3 stars… We didn't see anyone buying alcohol for breakfast or lunch. I saw one cockroach in the restaurant, it was not in the room.
No music in the evenings and at night rattled the whole hotel, although we sometimes came after midnight, but the only thing is that you can really hear the construction outside the windows, don’t think that this is a construction site near the hotel, it’s just that construction is going on everywhere, even at night, it’s busy during the day, you don’t pay attention like that, but at night it’s quiet, you can hear everything. And no mullah with a morning prayer in his sleep woke up, it was quite calm. The room is spacious. Almost the entire wall of the window, the curtains are thick blue, in the photo, when I watched the presentation of the hotel, the rooms seemed very gloomy to me, it turned out not, very nice, clean, we had a huge mirror and a large plasma, the First worked from the Russian channels, but not in that sequence there were programs, as with us and not all. And so, there were 15 channels. There is a safe in the room for free, they kept documents and money in it, but to be honest, the first two days we generally lost sight of the safe, we thought it didn’t work, because it was presented to us.

With a free safe at the reception only, nobody stole anything. Moreover, on the second day they hurried to the beach and left documents and dollars on the table somewhere around 100, everything remained intact. It was only evident that the dust was being wiped off the table. The boys cleaned very well, first of all they vacuumed (noted), change of bed and towels every day, on the first day we took one towel to the beach, so they put us another one, in the end it turned out to be one extra. But no one took him after. One glass was broken, no bill was presented to us. At first, every day they put a new shampoo, gels, soap, until we had three sets, after which they stopped. Since tipping is not a duty here, but just gratitude, we decided to look at the quality of cleaning and did not tip at all for the first days, then they began, the quality of cleaning did not change from this, they were cleaned just as well. No Egyptian obsession, very nice.
Near the hotel there are several grocery stores where you can buy something to chew on, cheese, fruits, vegetables, juices, etc. , and the bread and rolls are very tasty, the prices are low.
The schedule for the beach is not very convenient, at 0.30 departure, it is convenient, but at 1.00 they are already being picked up. since it is not so hot in February, I wanted to be on the beach longer, so sometimes we got back by taxi, about 25 dirhams. In general, keep in mind that in Deira, all the hotels are urban and travel costs are inevitable, better than a taxi or metro. I read a lot about taxi drivers, including negative ones. But I will give only one example. On the last day, we had to leave the room at 1.00, we decided to leave the beach at 1.
00, to still pack our bags, drive for about 20 minutes, but the driver, firstly, did not know the city very well, took us by some other road, as a result, we drove longer, then they began to confuse in the vicinity of the hotel, he began to ask passersby, how to get there, because even according to the map from the hotel it was difficult to figure it out, as a result, we began to swear among ourselves. That we had to leave earlier, we are late, etc. , he apparently understood our cries in a different way, that we are unhappy with the fact that he deliberately winds circles near the hotel, but cannot bring it, in the end he just turned off the meter, after a minute 8 found our hotel. That is, I don’t think it was on purpose, although I might have shaken it, who knows ...The beach, Al Mamzar Park is very personal, there is a green area and the beach itself, although at the entrance to the beach, where there are most people, it is not very clean, in the sand - cigarette butts, garbage, next to the palm trees are very cute.

The water was 20 degrees, but we swam, sometimes a cool breeze (even a very cold breeze) blew, we were full 8 days, it rained one day in the evening, one was just cloudy and cold, it cleared up in the evening. I took protective cream with me. On the first day I took advantage, it was gone, there was simply no need, although my skin is capricious. I really liked that, unlike Egypt at this time, where in winter the air temperature drops decently, here it is only 3-4 degrees, it is very warm, in the evening you can walk, like during the day, with bare arms and legs.
We went on 2 excursions: a sightseeing tour of Dubai and the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean is an excursion simply takes the name, and there is no particularly water world, you lie on the beach on the Indian Ocean for several hours in hotels of a higher class, plus a buffet lunch, plus at first you just drive through the emirates.
I liked the sightseeing tour of Dubai very much, although this is what is called a “gallop across Europe”, at first the idea developed, and after that we ourselves arrived at the Dubai Mall, watched the singing fountains, a giant aquarium, etc. Advice to those who don’t know, tickets on the observation deck on the Burj Khalifa on the day of inspection they cost 400 dirhams, buy 100 dirhams in advance, but it’s better to buy right away, we arrived 3 days before departure, there were no tickets for these dates. We went on excursions with Aladdin, there is also Arabian Knights, I read that Arabian Knights are better, then I compared their programs, the excursions are very similar, they differ in some nuances, the prices are the same, it seemed better, Arabian Knights, but we bought from Aladdin, because they are on beach every day, we saw the Arabian Knights, on the 4th day, when we had already bought excursions from Aladdin. Aladdin's guides are very good, Russian women, they told quite fascinatingly.
I will not list the sights that are worth visiting, because there is a lot of information on the Internet, I write that you won’t read it there. I also want to note, since our hotel is in Deira, we just walked around the city a lot in the evenings and at night, very calm and good. We fell into the period of the shopping festival, of course, discounts, this is very loudly said, but in general there is something to buy at the sale, we mastered only Deira City Center and Al Guair. I didn’t like Nasser Square, some kind of Cherkizon, we didn’t look for a fur coat, so we just walked for fun, heard about the Golden Fork, decided to go in too, the food is so-so, the prices are low, but correspond to the quality of the food.

But the service is wonderful, everyone was brought on time, very helpful, while unlike all other restaurants and cafes more expensive, where a tip of 15-20% is immediately included in the bill, and they also don’t give change stably for 15 dirhams (smiling sweetly and saying “thank you”) here the girl didn’t include a single penny extra on the bill, we left her a tip, got ready to leave right away so that she realized that she didn’t need change, but went to the toilet, (sorry for the details) so at the exit she was waiting for us with change until filsa!!!!!!! ! Naturally, for such service it is not a pity to leave more tips.
Dubai is a wonderful city. The only point I will pay attention to is no accompaniment of Natalie Tours. Upon arrival at the airport, we were met by some kind of hectic girl, handed us advertisements for Fur Planet fur coats and excursions (2 p more expensive than the same ones from Aladdin and Arabian Knights), handed us to the hotel driver.
She answered all our questions that the day after tomorrow, in the afternoon, you will meet with your guide. The guide, of course, arrived on time, but firstly, we needed help on the first day, the day of settlement, because we do not speak English. Moreover, I wanted to know about the country, its features, what is possible, what is not allowed, how to move around, etc. We did not receive this information either from the agency when we bought the tour (we referred to the guide upon arrival), or upon arrival. Reading reviews before going. I met a lot of similar complaints about Natalie Tours, so I read a lot and studied the country myself, including route maps. This helped, as well as communication with our compatriots on the beach and at the hotel.
By the way, on the website of Natalie Tours there is a memo to those traveling to the UAE, it is indicated that it is handed over to tourists and introduced to her, nothing like that, I repeat once again no information about the country, except for the advertisement of the Fur Planet fur store and excursions we were not provided. The guide, who approached us at the hotel, answered all the questions somehow vaguely, and I repeat once again, when we met with her, we already had the basic information, and after the poke method, her visit was useless. Before leaving, they put information under the door about when the departure is and that’s it, you go downstairs with bags and the concierge understands that you have a departure and calls the driver. We went several times to Egypt with Tez tour and Pegas tourist, a completely different attitude, we nursed like babies, we received all the information about the country from them and accompanied them all the way back and forth, then we really felt the care for tourists.

But maybe we were just unlucky with the guides ...or we are so fastidious. give us information about the country, tell us, but show us ...
The UAE is a wonderful country. I advise everyone to visit and once again thank you for everything for the truthful reviews, those who write them for the benefit of their neighbor, and not by order. Sorry for the mistakes, the lack of a punctuation mark somewhere, I wrote quickly, not for the sake of a literary work, for the sake of content.