Holiday in Dubai

  Deciding to take a holiday with little ones often opens up a whole host of questions… Will it be warm enough? What if my child gets sick? Will we be able to cope with the flight? Will the hotel have a cot? Will there be plenty of activities for children? We decided to take my eldest Jack who is now 3 to Dubai when he was just 8 months old.  One of the main reasons we went was to visit friends who live out there, but soon found out that Dubai is in fact a great place to take a young family. Firstly the flight time is only 6 hours which is not a horrific amount of time to spend on a flight and we managed to get a night flight which was even better as we were able to put Jack in the bassinet at the bulk head of the plane – more leg room for us and Jack was able to sleep most of the flight.  We were actually very proud parents as Jack was so well behaved compared to the little horrors we had sitting next to us and some of the other passengers commented on how good he was! When we arrived we managed to get straight into a taxi to take us to our hotel.  We had brought Jack’s car seat with us so he was safely strapped into the back.  We had chosen a hotel right next to the beach and it was perfect.  The staff were very welcoming and with a variety of restaurants as well as a spa and swimming pool we had everything we needed after stepping off a night flight.  They had also put up a cot in our room for Jack, which saved us bringing extra luggage over from UK to Dubai.  Many of the hotels I found were extremely well catered for children.  Often they host kids clubs or a babysitting service so that parents can enjoy a well-deserved break as well. I found Dubai to be an extremely family friendly place.  Locals often commented on Jack and were very helpful with the buggy and accommodating our needs.  Local activities in Dubai are also very much geared up towards families.  One of the main attractions is the water parks.  Choose between Wild Wadi with 30 various attractions and rides situated in front of the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and Aquaventure Water park situated at Atlantis The Palm Hotel.  This boasts to be the number 1 water park in the Middle East and Europe. The warm weather of Dubai is an obvious draw to this family friendly location.  We went in March, which was perfect.  The summer months are best avoided unless you like sweltering temperatures – not so great with children though.  During the peak sun of the day Dubai is host to some fantastic shopping malls.  Air conditioned and home to various shops and restaurants you can easily spend a day window-shopping.  We visited the Dubai Mall.  With over 1200 shops there is plenty to see but the biggest attraction was the aquarium, which Jack loved as seen in this picture! I would not hesitate to recommend Dubai as a place to go on holiday with a young family.  With so much to do and see you certainly won’t get bored and as a Mum I felt very safe knowing that should we need any medical care it would be easy to get (Boots was on our doorstep!).  Now that we have Lilly it is tempting to plan another trip!