It’s not often I write on Dubai, so as my Mum has just been to stay for 5 days, I thought I’d write a blog on what we got up to as Dubai itself is a great destination to visit. Both me and my mum landed around midnight into Dubai, myself from Dar Es Salaam and my Mum from Manchester. I quickly changed after collecting my case from HQ and whizzed over to the airport to collect my Mum from terminal 3.

We headed back to my apartment as this was the first time my Mum would be seeing the new place and had a glass of wine and a chat before going to bed. Waking up earlyish the next morning, we had decided on visiting Cove Beach at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel as its a place I had not yet tried out for sunbathing! It was 100dhs for a sun bed and water with impressive views of the Burj Al Arab.

We were the first ones to arrive and had our pick of the sun beds so chose some right at the front of the sea whilst we sipped on iced water as it was an incredibly hot day. For lunch we both chose the chicken and avocado wrap (as we’re both big lovers of avocado) whilst we sat in the shade to get out of the midday sun. As Emirates Crew, I also got 20% off food and drinks there which was great.

You can also do free paddle boarding at Cove Beach however someone had managed to loose the paddle so me and my Mum just posed for a quick snap on the board.

After a long day sat in the 40 degree heat, we made our way back to my place to change and head out for dinner. I’d chosen to go to Ramusake at the Double Tree Hilton on JBR. We’ve stayed here before when my family came to visit last August and also when my friends came to stay but this is a new restaurant and bar thats opened up and on a Wednesday is ladies night where ladies drink for free up until midnight. It was also my Mum’s first time trying sushi which she really loved.

If anyone likes sweet potato fries, you should come here as they were recommended to me by my friend Grace and they are one of the best things I have ever eaten. Hands down.

Back to bed and we skyped my Dad and Sister who were back home in the UK and made plans to go over to The Atlantis the next day to use their beach club, Nasimi Beach.

We arrived the next day half an hour after it had opened to find out that it was their final ladies day of the summer and instead of spending 250dhs entry each for a sun bed and then you get 50dhs of this to spend on food and drink, we actually got in for free! So we grabbed a couple of sun beds, slathered ourselves in suncream before going for a dip in the sea to cool down.

The beach here isn’t as great here as it was at Cove Beach. Maybe because The Palm is a manmade island its quite uncomfortably pebbly with rocks and shells that have been dug up, however we still had a great view of the famous Atlantis. We ordered food and drinks, I had a great seafood pizza for lunch and made reservations for dinner that evening back in JLT.

We’d decided on a place called Cocktail Kitchen, close by to where I live and I’d had a few friends recommend it to me. However, we were unsure why as we were actually quite disappointed. We arrived and they had given us a table in the smoking area and another woman was half sat on our table to sit onto the next one. On the other side were a bunch of men stood smoking with their cigarettes facing at our table and it was so noisy with everyone stood close around our table. We asked to move which was fine and they gave us a much better table, but then everything that we wanted to order they seemed to have run out of or didn’t serve anymore, even though it was on the menu. It just wasn’t great service. We had finished our starters even before any drinks arrived, but it was saved with the main course and desert as they were lovely. Incredibly pricey though for what we got, so wouldn’t be in a rush to go back here anytime soon, and to say its called Cocktail Kitchen, not one of their cocktails took mine or my mum’s fancy.

We had some friends land into Dubai the previous night so we had arranged to meet up with them in the Marina for a catch up and some drinks at the Dubai Marina Yacht Club – another place where we get 20% discount for being crew. We grabbed a table outside along the waters edge and had a couple of cocktails before calling it a night.

The following day we had agreed to go to their hotel and use their pool and facilities. They were staying at the Sofitel, The Palm and what an absolutely beautiful hotel it was.

That evening myself and mum went to Urban Bar and Kitchen in JLT where we had Asian Nachos and oh my goodness, they were absolutely unreal. Shredded duck with cucumber, edamame beans, spring onion, chilli and coriander on top of nacho chips with three different dips. They were incredible. And to finish it off I had the fried chicken and my mum had some fish and chips!

 

The next day we went to Barasti, Dubai’s only free beach club and arrived early to grab four sun beds as they are in short supply. The final day of tanning both for my mum and our friends and my flat mate Chantelle also came to join us!

That evening we felt like a more chilled out and relaxed evening so we made our way over to the Dubai Mall and thought we could have dinner overlooking the dancing fountains and have a bit of retail therapy and I also needed to stock up on a lot of make up for work as I was beginning to run low!

My mum flew back the next afternoon and my other room mate Hannah was working the flight back to Manchester so she was able to look after my mummy and our friends! Thanks for coming to visit me Mum, I had the best time and I can’t wait to see you out here again in three weeks with Dad and Millie too.

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