United Arab Emirates or simply the UAE – a state in southwest Asia in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula
SHOPPING
Shopping in the Emirates is one of the best in the world. All European collections in Dubai cost 20-30% cheaper than in Moscow, as far as there are no taxes in the country.
Unconditional leaders among the emirates in the field of shopping – Dubai and Sharjah. The first option of shopping is shopping on shopping streets, where you need to bargain and in every possible way to show customer insight. The second way – visiting large shopping centers. The prices in them are somewhat higher, and there are less opportunities to bargain, but goods of higher quality, many specialized shops and stores of well-known world companies.
The inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates are big fans of gold, in no country in the world do they sell so much precious metal. The famous gold market in Gold Souk in Deira is stunning with the brilliance of windows and scope – more than 300 shops, shops and pavilions sell gold jewelry.
Every winter in Dubai held the famous shopping festival. At this time, the city is full of goods and sell them with good discounts.
Trade establishments and markets: from 9.30 (some boutiques do not open until 10 am) until 13.00 and from 16.00 to 22.00
Shopping centers: from 10.00 to 22.00 without a break, on Friday – from 16.00 to 22.00.
Most supermarkets are open seven days a week, some are open around the clock.
On Fridays, all shops are closed during the afternoon prayer time: from 11.30 to 12.30.
During the month of the Muslim fasting of Ramadan, stores open in the morning as usual, in the evening they close for the period of the iftar (evening break, approximately from 17:30 to 19:00), and then continue to work until midnight and later.
WHERE TO STAY
Dubai city hotels offer very mediocre quality in 1-2 “stars”, mostly good options in three- to four-star hotels and very good quality “five”. The coast of Dubai (the elite area of Jumeirah) – completely expensive hotels of a very high level.
In Sharjah and Ajman, the hotel base is weak (exceptions are Ajman Kempinski and Coral Beach), almost all other hotels can be easily written off by one “star”.
In Abu Dhabi, hotels are located on the coast, but since there is not enough land on the island, the beaches are very small. The hotels are mostly good, but old.
If you intend not only to spend time on the beach, but also make a number of successful purchases, then in this case, Dubai city hotels, from low-cost apartments to luxury five-star hotels, will be the best accommodation option. Almost all of them offer free transfer to the beach and shopping centers.
SEA AND BEACHES
The beaches in the UAE are sandy, gentle. The sand is soft, without stones. Hotels are located almost on par with the sea.
All hotels located directly on the coastline have their own private beaches. Guests of a two- or three-star city hotel can ride on a paid (5 DHR) or free city beach. A free shuttle bus runs from the hotels back and forth, and traveling by taxi (20-30 minutes from the farthest point of the city) can cost 5-8 USD. Hotels 4 * and 5 *, located in the city center, have agreements with coastal hotels, and a free bus carries guests to their beaches.
On paid beaches there are so-called “women’s days” (usually Wednesday or Saturday), when entry for men is prohibited.
UAE goes to the Persian and the Indian Ocean. On the side of the Persian Gulf are Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi; Fujairah is located on the shores of the Indian Ocean.
The coast of the Persian Gulf goes to the large and shallow shelf. Because of this, large ocean waves do not reach the shore, but break on the shelf, and the tops of the waves are cut off and run onto the shore. Therefore, it may seem that the waves are large. In fact, it is not. In shallow water, the difference between the lowest and highest point of the wave can be quite noticeable, and in another place such waves might look as more dangerous. But due to the fact that the beaches are sandy everywhere and the wave cannot drag you over the rocks, and also due to the fact that really big waves break and lose their main force at the beginning of the shelf, you can swim in the UAE at tangible waves without any risk (or much less if these waves were elsewhere in the ocean). A distinctive feature of this geological structure is that the waves can be practically at any time of the year and at any time of the day.
The beach in Fujairah is almost the same as the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai, Ajman and Sharjah. With the exception of the small shelf. Therefore, the weather and the behavior of the waves there are more similar to the behavior of the “ordinary sea”. (There are no small, but constant waves cut off by the shelf, but the weather at sea, unlike the Persian Gulf, can change, that is, if the waves start there, then you are unlikely to be allowed to swim in them, because their appearance can be harbinger of a stronger storm).
