Dubai, Abu Dhabi & The Maldives: Unforgettable Journey

For one of our more adventurous trips yet, we headed to the desert to explore Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As horse racing fans, this trip has always been on our radar to attend the richest horse racing event in the world – the Dubai World Cup. Given the relatively close proximity to the UAE, we also took the opportunity to get a taste of island life in the Maldives. We had a great time visiting these regions and look forward to sharing this Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the Maldives trip overview with you! For more detailed information on planning a trip to the UAE, view our post here.

Dubai – Top Attractions

We started exploring Dubai by learning more about its history. We took a guided tour that lead us around the Al Fahidi Historic District, through the textile, spice, and gold souks. Additionally, we took a trip on an abra water taxi which is a common way to get between the markets. This was easily one of the best walking tours that we’ve been on! Our favorite part was our guide, Hamza, who taught us so much about the history of Dubai, the UAE and Muslim culture and traditions. He also taught us how to properly barter in the souks. Not only did this information help us prepare for parts of the tour but it also helped us set the tone for the rest of our trip. We booked this tour through Get Your Guide – more details here.

Visiting Dubai’s Burj Khalifa

One of the top attractions in Dubai is the world’s (former) tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. This towering symbol of Dubai represents UAE’s desire to be the biggest and best in everything that they do, and it can be seen from all over the city. Along with taking in the views from the ground, you can take a trip to the top of the tower.

There are various options available that take you to different levels of the building and come with different amenities. We opted for the At The Top Sky Lounge option which takes you to the highest available level of the building including the world’s highest observation deck. This came with light snacks, a complementary drink, skip the line access, and a relaxing environment to enjoy the views. We’d recommend this option if your budget allows as the other levels were much more crowded and rushed. The best time to go is around sunset – we booked a ticket for 5pm and stayed through sunset. You can view the options and book tickets ahead of time here.

From the ground, there is an evening fountain and light show that can be viewed from the areas surrounding the Dubai Fountain. Though the times varied a bit, shows were typically every 30 minutes starting in the evening.

Dubai – Desert Safari

Another must-do when visiting Dubai is a trip out to the desert. There are many different tour options available with a wide variety of activities. We chose a tour that included a stop for riding ATVs through desert dunes along with sand boarding. This was followed by an evening at a traditional desert camp for dinner, an Arabic dance show, and other activities including camel rides. This tour was very organized and had just the right amount of time for each activity. Our guide picked us up in an SUV from our hotel which brought our small group to the various locations. We booked this tour through Viator and would highly recommend it – more details here.

The Dubai World Cup happens in March each year and is one of the best days of horse racing around the world. Many international contenders travel in for a chance at high dollar payouts. We won’t go into much detail in this post since this won’t be on most people’s agendas, but look for a dedicated post for a breakdown of the event. The Meydan racecourse is beautiful and at other times of the year you can book a tour of the track and see horses in training.

Dubai – Global Village & Miracle Garden

There are endless specialized attractions, theme parks, and shopping areas throughout Dubai. A couple that we chose to visit were the Global Village and the Miracle Garden.

The Global Village is a huge location filled with dedicated sections representing a large amount of Arabic and Asian countries (along with some smaller Americas and Europe areas). Each area offers authentic food and shopping. It was a great opportunity to experience many different countries all in one night. Everything is lit up beautifully and there are evening fireworks. This seemed to be where many locals go to spend the night out and so it was a nice way to get a feel for the local culture.

The Miracle Garden is filled with large and colorful garden displays. Visitors can explore the pathways through the various garden sections and view the impressive displays from roughly October through March each year.

We also stopped by the Dubai Mall a couple times – though we didn’t do much shopping there, it’s amazingly big and serves as a nice hub for visiting nearby areas.

Getting Around Dubai

Dubai is a joy to simply explore the various neighborhoods and take in all the sites. There are so many amazing buildings and you always see something new each time you’re out. The food options are endless and everywhere we went felt very safe and clean. While there is a metro line available, we found the Taxis to be the best way to get around. They are regulated and very reasonably prices. Uber is available within the city which we used initially before becoming more comfortable with using the taxis. We enjoyed walking along the marina area to find a waterfront dining option in the evening, and were consistently amazed with all the buildings we’d pass.

Abu Dhabi

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

When visiting Abu Dhabi and the UAE in general, one of the must-see sites is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This is the largest mosque in the country and is a stunning example of Islamic art and architecture. There are strict guidelines for women’s clothing when visiting the mosque (all skin must be covered plus your hair) so make sure to plan ahead or you will be turned away. Men should also plan to dress respectful for the visit. Though the mosque gets quite crowded with tourists, we enjoyed taking in all the views both inside and outside.

Along with the trip to the mosque we booked a guided tour that included bus transportation from Dubai and included stops to the observation deck at the Etihad Towers and a visit to the Presidential Palace. This tour was very well run and we learned a lot from our guide Riz along the way. More information can be found here.

Yas Marina & Ferrari World

As Formula 1 fans, Abu Dhabi offers some top attractions. The Yas Marina Circuit offers tours of their F1-focused track along with opportunities to do driving experiences on track and karting. We enjoyed the tour of the track which included getting to celebrate on the F1 podium! Next to the track is Ferrari World – a Ferrari branded covered theme park. The main attraction for us was to go on the fastest roller coaster in the world: Formula Rossa. This coaster goes from 0 to 150mph in just under 5 seconds!

The Maldives

The Maldives is a nation made up of over a thousand coral islands dotted across the Indian Ocean. A lot of research went into which resort to choose which you can read about here. We looked for a resort that had a lot of activities along with over the water villas options. We were very happy with our selection at Sun Siyam Olhuveli. Paired with perfect weather and crystal clear water, our favorite daily activity was snorkeling along our island’s house reef. We saw a variety of tropical fish, small sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, and even a stingray.

For more travel inspiration, check out our additional blog posts on international travel.