ANOTHER BUCKET LIST ITEM CHECKED!
September 4th - 8th 2021
I recently returned from a trip that has been on my bucket list since 2003 before I began my travel industry career. This 7 star luxury hotel was featured in a commercial with Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball into the ocean from the top. I fell in love with the United Arab Emirates. The water was beautiful and this hotel was stunning. The hotel was opened in 1999 and is the hotel of choice for the rich and famous. Then the UAE just kept improving on the excitement by creating the Palm Islands in 2001 and indoor skiing and snowboarding resort in 2005. This is a wonderful, clean, and extremely safe country. I would go back in a heartbeat.
Our trip started with an early check in and breakfast after arriving at 4:30 AM. We then recuperated from our jet lag by taking a nap in our room until 11:00 AM then napped around the hotel pool until around 1:00 PM. It was hot, very very hot! Each day we were there was above 105. They say the winter is much better. We took an Uber to Top Golf. Had to get our Top Golf in! We played for about an hour and a half then went straight to Dubai Mall which is the largest mall in the world with the amount of stores and activities, however, The Mall of America still holds the largest in the world by land mass. The Sheik doesn't like that so they are building 800 more stores to make sure this mall is the largest in the world store wise and land mass! We only saw a very small portion of this mall. You would need at least 4 days to walk through it and see everything it has to offer. We did manage to see the aquarium that is in it. We then had a nice dinner and watched The Dubai Fountains show. Our tour started at 3:00 on the 5th so we hung out at the pool for a little while again. We met in the hotel lobby for an SUV ride to the desert. We had a stop on the way to ride 4-wheel ATV's first. That was extremely fun, and I would highly recommend it. From there we drove straight into the desert in the driver's vehicle. A Toyota Land Cruiser. We "bashed the dunes" which was like a roller coaster ride in the desert. This was about a 45 minute to an hour ride. We stopped for stunning sunset pictures and then proceeded to the tent city where we would eat dinner, enjoy a show, get a henna tattoo and ride a camel. This was so much fun, and the food was great too. The next day we met in the lobby first thing in the morning for a city tour, with stops at "souks" for shopping, a palace visit, a stop at a museum, and a lunch experience. The souks were wonderful. It is a big flea market where you can bargain your price for wonderful treasures. There is a Gold Souk, a Spice Souk, a Utensil Souk, and more. We had the afternoon off and met in the lobby at 7:00 for a drive to Palm Jumeirah to see the Atlantis, then to Dubai Marina for a traditional cruise on a dhow with dinner. Our last full day was another free day so we made a tee time where they play the Dubai Classic and had a very nice, very hot round of golf. It is a beautiful course right in the middle of the city. After golf we had lunch then went up to the 125th floor of the Burj Khalifa. The tallest building in the world. There are 163 floors but you are not allowed up there. It was so beautiful, unfortunately when it is as hot as it was, the heat makes for a thick haze so we were not able to see the Palm Islands from up there but we did manage to see the top of the Burj Al Arab. These are just some of the pictures I took on this trip. Again, I want to stress that I always felt safe, never in harms way whether with crime, Covid, or anything. 
