Okay girls, this one is the second post from my #DubaiDiaries post. You can find the first post on my blog here. Lets move on the step 2 of your travel in Dubai which is accommodation and packing.
Accommodation:
Coming directly to the topic, once you are done with your tickets and visa, you need to decide where will you be staying. If you have family or friends in Dubai already and you can stay there, well and good. You wont need to spend any money in finding out an accommodation. Even so, you might be an independent type and would not want to bother anyone else with your presence, you can still go and find a place to live for yourself. The bestest possible way I would suggest is to use online booking websites like Agoda.com and Booking.com. These are both very reliable and have amazing features. You can sort the available places according to your budget, your location, hotel rating, even you can dig down for basic facilities like swimming pool etc.
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| My apartment in Gulf Oasis Apartments |
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| My apartment in Gulf Oasis Apartments |
If you are travelling with kids, I would suggest you to go with an apartment instead of a room because an apartment would be so much comfortable if you have to warm up some food in the middle of the night and so on. I personally think for an apartment you get better value of money and more independence as you are not dependent on room service for everything. Many of the apartments in dubai are serviced apartments which means that the cleaning, dishwashing will be their responsibility. They are also provided with small kitchenette along with basic necessities like Electric Kettle, Microwave, Induction cooking stove, basic crockery and utensils as well as washing machine. However, if you want to use the washing machine etc you will need to buy your own detergent etc as normally this is not provided by the hotel. They only provide you with the machine. You need to check in detail while booking that what exactly will be available in the apartment that you are taking. Not all of them will have all the facilities that I mentioned.
So the last time I went to #Dubai i took an apartment in Pearl City Suites, Diera Dubai. It was an amazing place and excellent location as every main landmark was closer to this location. I did that booking with Agoda.com and paid all the amount in advance. This time I did my booking with Booking.com and chose Gulf Oasis Apartments. I chose the option to pay the amount at the hotel so I didnt pay anything until I reached the hotel. It was also a very clean and cosy place and I enjoyed my stay there a lot. Booking.com normally has offers going on so you can get the charges suitable for you according to your requirements. For a period of 7-10 days (which is quite enough to see all major attractions in Dubai, you can easily get a place in under 100K PKR). Another thing which I missed this time is that if you are travelling through Emirates, you can choose Booking.com from the Emirates android app and get emirates loyalty points for choosing booking.com as well. I didnt know this thing and did my booking for the apartment directly from booking.com. When I came to know about Emirates & Booking.com partnership I couldnt get those points because I booked directly through booking.com and not through the Emirates app :( next time I will be doing that for sure :D
Coming to Packing, I would definitely suggest you to go as lighter as possible, but if you are travelling with a baby, at times the luggage does get a lot because babies have so many things. You need to have a lot of clothes for them, their food and milk (because generally kids dont take up new taste immediately). You need to keep warm stuff for babies as well as you might never know the new place's weather suits them or not. Emirates allows you to carry 30KG on an Economy Flex which is honestly more than enough. Another tip is to always go with lighter than what your limit is, because you will definitely be coming back with more weight hehe! One very important point is to keep a weighing scale at home and check your weight on that before leaving so you dont get any unplanned surprises. Most of the hotels also have weighing scales available so ask them while packing to come back and check your weight again. This can save both your time and money and you can save yourself from much hassle. Some more tips regarding packing are below:
- If you have any boxes with sealed packets inside (e.g. Milk for your kids etc) get rid of the boxes and only keep the sealed packets. This will save space and will have lesser weight.
- Take travel sized shampoo and conditioner containers, although almost all good hotels will provide you with basic toiletries, some people (like myself) want their own shampoo and conditioner everywhere. So if you are travelling for a lesser number of days, prefer taking small bottles. If you are travelling for lesser number of days, even sachets of the shampoos would work
- Same goes with makeup, I might do a video on my facebook group #thepinklounge to show how I packed my makeup for the visit to make maximum use of space and take as less weight as possible. The idea is to use smaller containers for makeup and skincare products instead of taking the whole foundation bottle, body lotion etc. Take only one makeup palette with good number of shades to optimize the space available. Maximum 2 nail colors will be fine to pack. For nail polish remover, don't take the whole bottle. Either take the nail polish removing wipes, or take a smaller bottle of nail polish. Even better would be to take something like this.
- Focus on what type of activities are you going to do in Dubai, pack 2 pairs only but if you want more then take (MAXIMUM) 3 pairs of shoes keeping in view the activities you will be doing. If you will be mainly out and about in sightseeing places, its better to get sneakers, joggers or sports shoes which will help you walk more. If you are planning to make any formal visits to family members etc, one pair of basic heels will do. I repeat, do not take more than 3 pairs!!! Personal experience ;) LOL, The colors better to take are blacks, whites, nudes, browns & greys. This way you wont have to worry if the color goes with your dress or not as these colors will go with almost all types of dresses.
- Clothes; choose multipurpose clothes where possible. For example, one black trousers may go with many of your dresses. Pack it. Same goes with white trousers, khaki trousers as well. This would help you to pack better because for 5 shirts you might use the same trousers. If you are jeans lover person, you may pack one pair of jeans and maybe 4-5 shirts can go with it. You might pack black, navy blue and brown, grey blazers or sweaters if the weather is cold. For winters, pack a thermal as well because its normally light weight but may replace your upper coats and heavy jackets etc. Take 2-3 scarves, shawls in cases of cold weather. You can wash your clothes if your apartment has a washing machine so dont worry about reusing the clothes.
- Pack your laptop, tablet, cell phone & chargers etc. in your hand luggage as normally airlines dont allow you to put them in the checked in luggage. Emirates allows 7kg of hand carry luggage which believe me is A LOT. You can carry so many things but I would suggest you to again keep it minimal and stay close to the basics. Wear most of the jewelry you are taking and try not to pack them in the checked in luggage. If you need to take some jewelry and cant wear it on the airport as well, please keep it in your hand luggage.
- One tip will be to keep a duct tape with you in your luggage as sometimes some suitcases or bags or anything can break and you wont have any immediate measures to fix that up. In that case duct tape will be a temporary solution to the problem. Some hotels also provide sewing kits but still its better to take a small sewing kit of your own as well. It helps in case your button comes off from a shirt or something.
I think this was it from my side. I have tried my best to share as much tips as possible. Do you have any tips for me!! Do share <3
