South meets North in the Middle!
- Rhoda Phillippo Harrington
- Apr 7
- 12 min read
Photos courtesy of @alpstobeachphotos (Tim Harrington) and Jack Holmes
We arrived in Dubai very early in the morning and followed the very clear instructions to pick up our Premier Inn bus to our hotel. The Premier Inn really surprised on the upside – Costa Coffee shop in the lobby, lovely big room and a rooftop pool! Jack and Megan, Magnus and Leif had arrived around 1am and we had agreed we would wait to hear from them when they woke up. https://mena.premierinn.com/en/hotel-directory/dubai/dubai-international-airport-hotel. The view from the rooftop pool over Dubai was fantastic so Tim and I hung out there until we all met up. Megan and Jack had not had such a good experience with the bus and ended up catching one for another hotel and then talking the driver into dropping them at the Premier Inn! It is wonderful to see them all and they decide to take the boys for a swim while Tim and I head to the Air BnB to get a supermarket shop in – it is Ramadan and we are nervous about what we may or may not be able to buy.
We shouldn’t have been – our 37th floor apartment is in a large complex that has an amazing supermarket with a very good deli and 3 different swimming pools to choose from. We arrive as the cleaners are leaving and they are unhappy with the high chair that has been left for us so deliver a brand new one the next day! We are very happy with our apartment – it has two levels, three bedrooms, two bathrooms including one with a bath and plenty of room for the boys to run around and play. It is in the Jumeirah Beach Residence area (JBR). It has over 40 hotels and residential towers and a great shopping strip called The Walk as well as 1.7km of beachfront where you can do everything from swimming to ski-diving to playing on the incredible inflatable water park set up in the sea.
Once we have unpacked we go out for a walk and come to Cove Beach which Megan has looked up in advance. It is great being with people that have researched what we can do – we really enjoyed this. Cove Beach is a restaurant and multi-pool facility which extends down to the beach and is a 10 minute walk from our apartment. We go to the restaurant to have an early dinner as all of our body clocks are a wee bit out of kilter! https://www.covebeach.com. We enjoy a lovely dinner and Magnus makes a little friend. We walk down to test the pool out and end up coming back here later in our holiday for a day at the “beach”.
The next morning Tim and I are up early for a walk along the beach – there is a Starbucks under our apartment so we grab a coffee and head out to explore. Our coffee adventures this week prove to be interesting and pricey. With Starbucks we knew what we were getting and it was priced at $25 for two coffees. Later in the week we tried Charlie and Friends https://www.charlieandfriends.ae/ and %Arabica https://arabica.ae/ and paid in the latter $60 for two coffees and they weren’t that good! All part of holiday learning. Back at the apartment we decide we are going to walk to the Dubai Marina walk and then get out on a boat – again Megan and Jack have looked up how to do this. We enjoy a nice walk on our side of the Marina, grab a smoothie and directions from the friendly staff and then head over the bridge to the other side where we can catch our boat at the Marina Mall stop. Jack has purchased gold class on the Dubai Ferry and we are excited for this. https://dubai-ferry.com/ . Unfortunately although the seats are comfortable they are inside at the front of the boat so our view is blocked by the captains cabin. The back of the boat is awesome though and you can stand there and watch the world flash by. The boat takes us out of the marina, past Ain Dubai, the large wheel on the Bluewater island https://www.aindubai.com/en. Bluewater isn’t actually an island, joined to JBR by a bridge with some lovely apartments, shops and sports facilities. There is building work going on and this is clearly going to be the next new place in Dubai. From there our boat takes us out and around the Palm with its multi-million dollar homes and turns around at the amazing Atlantis Palms hotel, such a landmark. The trip lasts 1.5 hours and was a great way to get a sense of the activity on the waterfront of Jumeirah Beach. We are hungry by the time we get off and choose the first restaurant that we see which turns out to be excellent. Actually in the week we spent here the staff everywhere were so friendly and helpful – considering most of them were observing Ramadan and must have been hungry working in a restaurant all day, we thought they were pretty amazing. This restaurant Habib Beirut featured Lebanese cuisine so we had many small plates – choosing too many of course – and enjoyed a lovely lunch. https://habibbeirut.com/.
It was back to the apartment to try out the swimming pools – as I’ve mentioned there are three and we try out the closest one as at this stage we didn’t know we could use the others. The pool is heated to a lovely temperature but isn’t in the sun. Later in the week we try out another which is sunny but the water wasn’t as heated so not as much for fun the boys as they got cold quickly. We pass a lovely couple of hours in the pool and Magnus is fearless with his jumping in. He has fantastic arm bands and has absolutely no fear of the water. Leif is very happy bobbing about in his water cradle. A very precious time together. We have worked up an appetite in the pool so head out for a walk along the beachfront to choose somewhere for dinner. We quickly find a lovely Japanese restaurant in the nearby Pavillion complex called Mu Kii https://mu-kii.ae/. It has an all you can eat approach so we order several dishes from the iPad and there is something for everything – Magnus loves edamame and both the boys love rice! There is a family with a birthday opposite and when the staff bring a cake and sing, Magnus joins in.
On Sunday the Holmes are visiting the Burj Khalif so after Tim and I have had a walk around the Marina Beach I head out for a 10km run around Bluewater island and the marina. I am delighted to spot a couple of hoopoe birds – we have seen these before on our African travels and they are quite striking. When I get back from the run Tim and I head out to find somewhere for lunch, trying to walk through the Sheraton Hotel at first and along the beach but we can’t do this so retrace our steps and eventually end up at the Claw BBQ https://www.clawbbq.com/ and enjoyed a guacamole being prepared in front of us and excellent seafood – prawn salad and tacos (we didn’t try the crab!). Again wonderful staff and a fun experience. Jack and Megan and the boys get back around 3pm and as the boys have slept on the train on the way back they are all up for another trip to the pool. This time Jack and Megan sit and relax and Tim and I have a great time in the pool with Magnus and Leif. Megan has cleverly brought beer and wine so a fun time for all of us. They have also bought food for dinner from Eataly in the Dubai Mall so she prepares a wonderful pasta dinner. After stories and playing the boys go to bed and we play sheningrams and perudo – Jack wins both of course and I’m not sure I ever understood the rules of perudo!
Monday dawns and Jack and Tim are off to play golf this morning (Tim’s Christmas present from them). After our morning walk we get some lovely bread from Charlie and Friends to fortify Jack and Tim for the game as it is going to be a hot day. I organise a cab with a car seat to take us to today’s treat – the Dolphinarium https://dubaidolphinarium.ae/. I have organised tickets for this in advance and they are for a set time so I am a little bit stressed as it is further away than I had planned. Our taxi driver is Abdul Kader Sayed (details below) who proves to be one of the great finds of the week and ends up driving us for the rest of the week, taking all the stress out of working out how we were going to get about. Magnus and Megan enjoy the seal and dolphin show and Megan says she has never been to something like it before. It was one of the better ones that I have been to as well. After the show we have a walk around Creek Park https://www.visitdubai.com/en/places-to-visit/creek-park so that Leif can have a crawl and Magnus a run around. We buy a ball at a small stall and then as we wander off are surprised to find that Magnus has “shoplifted” a pink squishy donut toy. We did intend to return it but forgot on the way back. Creek Park is massive so we had a great walk around and then a taxi back to our apartment where Tim and Jack were just arriving back from golf. We had a sandwich lunch and then headed to the pool which did have sun on it but so cold so it was a shorter visit than our previous couple of days. The Holmes head out to find an icecream at the beach while Tim and I chill. We have successfully persuaded Megan and Jack to go out for dinner together (we are really pleased about this) so we look after baths and bedtime. We have a cheese and bread dinner as we have been eating like kings the last few days. Leif does wake up but seemed very happy to be awake when they get home. His sleeping patterns are a bit off, not surprising given the time difference. Magnus has always been a wonderful sleeper (bed at 7pm awake at 7am) so this is a different experience for Jack and Megan.
Tuesday has a very misty start to the day so Tim and I have another walk around and Tim gets some awesome photos of the buildings emerging from the mist. It is four years since the start of the war waged by Russia on Ukraine, so I take a moment to think of the poor families whose lives have been changed irrevocably over this time. Josh and Jihane have left for Valencia, so I am pleased they are not there for the savage attacks that are happening.
Jack has booked us into Cove Beach for the day which is fabulous. Poor Megan and Magnus have been up sick in the night, so a quieter day is a good outcome. We have four loungers and once again the staff can’t do enough for us, moving umbrellas around to make sure there is shade where needed. Magnus is happy playing in the pool closest to us which is very shallow so perfect for him. We order great sushi food, burgers and rose wine and beers – a lovely day in the sun. We also do some good people watching, one woman in particular who takes well over 100 selfies around the pool! Megan starts to feel a little better in the early afternoon.
We head back to change and then Abdul is there to take us to the Dubai Mall for the evening. It is so busy! We find our way to the Time Out market and order our food and drink. I get octopus, having had it the day before we got married in Lisbon – it was as good. After dinner we make our way down to watch the amazing light show and fountains with the Burj Khalifa in the background. Such a spectacle.
We start Wednesday with a walk around the marina and then Abdul takes us to Green Planet. https://www.thegreenplanetdubai.com/en. Again, I have bought tickets in advance, however this is much more chill than the Dolphinarium as the tickets are valid for a month so you can show up anytime. This is a really beautiful experience with four levels of beautiful coloured free flying birds, monkeys, flying foxes, sloths all built around a massive tree. We have a drink in the café and then Abdul takes us to the souks.
This turns out to be not quite the visit we planned. We walk through the souks and are asked by every shop keeper to come into their shops. It is all a bit overwhelming and Magnus is not enjoying it. We decide that we will get an Abra https://www.visitdubai.com/en/places-to-visit/abra-creek-crossing to the other side where the gold souk is, however we need cash. Tim and I set off to get cash out – it proves to be quite hard and takes quite a while and by the time we get back Jack and Megan have wisely decided to abandon the boat trip and head home after we have had something to eat. It is a really hot day and hard for the little ones. We have a nice break at the café and then walk back to meet Abdul. We find where Megan originally wanted us to be dropped off – where we had visited with Josh on our last Dubai trip hopping off the hop-on hop-off bus. Here we walked around the streets of the really old and original part of the souks and bought a few little keepsakes to bring home.
After a brief relax at the apartment and a trip to the beach for Magnus we walked down to Rosa Thai for dinner – a very relaxed affair and just what we all needed. https://rosasthaiarabia.com/
Thursday arrives – our last full day. We can’t believe how quickly the week has gone. Tim and I have a much shorter walk this morning and then we are picked up by Abdul to head to Legoland Aquapark. https://www.legoland.com/dubai/explore/legoland-water-park/ I have chosen this as it boasts that it is the only waterpark where 2 year olds can do all the slides. Sadly this isn’t the case and the lifeguards determine that Magnus is just a tiny bit too short and won’t be persuaded otherwise, even for the very mild slides. We have a private cabana with its own air conditioning, fridge and loungers. Leif and I spend quite a bit of time in the wave pool and later Tim and I float along the lazy river a couple of times with Magnus. We have lunch at the park and get a duplo present as we leave. It was a fun day but I think it would have been more fun if we could have gone on the slides.
The Holmes have a break back at home while Tim and I go to the Marina Mall to get a couple of things that we need for our Jordan trip. Then we all get dressed up and Abdul takes us to Le Petit Chef – an experience in Le Coco social restaurant inside the Hyatt hotel. https://www.hyattrestaurants.com/en/dubai/restaurant-bar/la-coco. This is a wonderful experience – a four course meal interspersed by a story about the little chef’s adventures projected onto the table and animated and explaining what you are eating. Magnus had a lovely time and once again the staff were just amazing. We would highly recommend this experience for anyone with young children and they have them all over the world. https://lepetitchef.com/Dubai. The food was delicious although we did all have a laugh about the “boeuf en croute” and how like this was to the Beef Wellington – the cause of a celebrated murder trial in Australia. When they brought out desert there were audible gasps of delight from children at the table next to us. Such a joy. To top the evening off we won a Le Petit Chef toy from a grab machine at the end.
Our last day here dawns and we are up early to head to have brunch together at Charlie and Friends before we head to the airport. Abdul has been amazing and as I pay him he tells me that he is from Bombay and gets home to see his family every 6 months if he can. His children are teenagers and it must be so hard. We are blessed with how we live our lives
and where we live. We pass through the airport arrangements easily and hang out at the “playpark” in the airport which is underwhelming. We are very sad to part ways – we know we will meet again later in the year but it is such a wrench leaving the littlies. However with what transpired the next day we are extremely grateful that they did leave then!
Until next time.....x
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