I've been asked by some friends about my recent short trip to Dubai; of where I stayed, places that I visited, how to go there, etc. and I've answered most of these questions on my Dubai Travel Tales (Part 1 & Part 2), however, there are some other things that I feel you may want to know before visiting Dubai

A little disclaimer, these are tips based on my own experience and from my own perspective. They may vary with different people, on different aspect.

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Choose when to come wisely - avoid coming in summer. 

I went to Dubai from Malaysia, with average temperature of around 32- to 34-degrees, but when I stepped foot outside of the airport in Abu Dhabi, I felt hot air against my face and it was already scorching hot in the morning! Don't even get me started about the afternoon sun. The temperature reaches up to 48-degrees in the afternoon!

This was the outside temperature taken from inside the bus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. Please excuse the very shaky photo, it was taken from inside a moving vehicle. haha.

To top that off, it's also very hazy during summer, and thus, you don't get to see the beautiful Dubai skyline or skyscrapers from afar - which is a big disadvantage seeing that Dubai have some of the most impressive building structures and architecture in the world.

Easiest to get around by taxi

Although Dubai have buses and Metro services operating within the city, you need to buy the Nol Card to use these services. So the easier way to get around is by taxi. It may be a bit pricey but in the hot weather, you just can't be bothered to find the nearest bus station, and Metro stations generally stops at random locations and you'd have to walk or take a taxi to the main tourist destinations. 

You can even hire a taxi to drive you around to your desired places of attractions for a whole day or even half a day, but they charge you pretty expensive (around 400 dirhams).


More expats and migrant workers

Once you've reached the airport in UAE, you'll see many foreigners, and you'd be thinking that its normal,  because, duh, you're at an airport. But as you go around the city, especially by taxi or bus, you'll notice that you meet more foreign workers than Emirati. Although they dress in the traditional dishdasha, most of the time, they're not Arabs and they don't speak Arabic. Now this, is just from my opinion - they're not very friendly to tourists either. If you ask them about places, they'll just reply coldly. And this doesn't just happens once, but most of the time!

Note: Less than 10% of Dubai's population are Emirati, and the rest (more than 90%) are immigrants.

 Dubai Mall
 The Dubai Mall is sooooo huge that it could take you one whole day to explore the whole mall. I've already mentioned about this in my previous post, so if you plan to shop in Dubai, or in the Dubai Mall in particular, make sure to dedicate a whole day for this!



Dune-bashing
If you're going for the desert safari (dune-bashing), make sure you eat well before your driver picks you up from your hotel. Don't go on an empty stomach and don't eat too much either or you'll get sick during the ride!


Dubai desert
We've heard that the temperature in the desert drops really low at night, but it I guess it isn't the case during summer. While we were at the desert camp, it was still very warm and we were sweating even at night. So don't worry about it being cold in the desert at night.



Photo snaps!
While we were at the desert camp, there were a few people that came around and took our photos randomly; sometimes during dinner, at the entrance, during the camel ride (with our permission of course), and then they'd asked us to buy the photos that they took. It would be a different story if the photos were of great shots, but nope! They were lousy! So obviously we didn't buy any, although they started selling them for about 10 to 20 dirhams towards the end of the night.

This photo was taken by the guy in charge of the camel ride. He looked irritated and frigid when we asked him to take a photo of me and Fizal on the camel, but did it anyway. And we got a few shots of headless and feet-less camel. This was the best shot he took by the way. (-.-")
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Anyway, this may not be that much information, but then again, they were things that I wish I'd knew before I went to Dubai and infos based on my experience while I was there.

Hope this helps! :)