How To Spend A Perfect Two Days in Dubai

Dubai is one of those places you just can’t fully understand until you’ve been there. It’s a place where contrasts are alive and thriving. It’s sidewalk and restaurants and shops and all of a sudden it’s the beach. It’s luxury high rises and high end shopping and all of a sudden it’s Old Dubai. There’s more than enough to see and do in Dubai to last you a very long time but I only had two days while I was there and had to maximize my time. I was actually really pleased with how much of Dubai we managed to squeeze into two days so I thought I’d share how to spend two days in Dubai!

Day 1:

La Mer

We started our first day a little bit later by sleeping in until about 10 am since our days in Jordan had been so busy. Our first stop was La Mer where we intended to start the day with brunch. If you’re familiar with Jumeirah Beach Residence Walk (JBR) then La Mer is pretty similar. It’s a beach front with a ton of shopping and restaurants. La Mer is still fairly brand new so a lot of the restaurants were still under construction. We walked around for a little bit and took some pictures (you’ll find that everything in Dubai is incredibly photogenic) but ultimately decided against having brunch here and headed to JBR instead. I’m not really a lie on the beach person (not at this stage of my life yet!) but it seemed like a great place to do it if that was my thing. They’ve got private cabanas they rent out if that’s your thing! The area is very pretty though with lots of colors and lots of lights which must look absolutely stunning at night! It was a nice area to walk around in and somewhere I’d love to spend more time once it’s all up and running.

JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residence) Walk

According to our friend who lives in Dubai, locals call JBR “Random Beach” because you will find literally the most random things in this area and you’ll have no idea why. There are a ton of restaurants and shopping in the area so it was a great place to choose for brunch. We opted for a patio seat because of the amazing weather and it was a great place to do some people watching and to take in the area. Sitting on the patio you really did get to see how random the area is. There’s a vendor cart selling towels, another vendor selling bananas, someone selling sunglasses and someone else selling balloons. There’s a ton of activities going on at all time so it’s definitely a cool area to explore in Dubai. We walked around after lunch and saw some camels on the beach (yes, very random) and also took some pictures of the Ain Dubai which is set to open sometime in 2018 and will be the largest wheel in the entire world.  There’s also a market with local artisans selling their goods After some walking around we ended up grabbing dessert at PappaRoti which is a Malayasian chain that is incredibly popular in Dubai (it can be found everywhere!).

Al Sufouh Beach + Burj Al Arab

To keep track of your timing, we reached this part of the day at around 2:30 pm (we had a bit of a later start). Our friend took us to a bit more of a private beach (it seemed to be more locals than tourists) that had a great view of the Burj Al Arab. It was nice to walk around in the sand for a little bit with clear blue skies and take some fantastic landscape pictures. The beach seemed a little bit inaccessible without a car though so it’s definitely somewhere to uber to. It was a bit windy on the beach so I didn’t dare to dip my toes in but it did look like a great place to swim at with less people than some other places in Dubai!

Atlantis at the Palm

Atlantis at the Palm is one of the most well known 5 star hotels in the world. It’s located on the Palm portion of Dubai. There’s tons to see and do within the hotel itself. There’s an aquarium, a water park, tons of restaurants and shops and beautiful decor (especially the ceilings on the inside!) It was a bit too luxurious for my taste to be honest but the outside architecture is nice and walking along the boardwalk by the water is really nice. I think we only spent about 30 minutes here and I was good with that amount of time.

Al Bastakiya

Al Bastakiya is a great artistic area in Old Dubai with some great little cafes, galleries and lots of art installations to check out. It’s also incredibly easy to get lost just walking around this area and end up in the same spot you already came from. It’s hard to know where you’re going here if you don’t know where to go ahead of time. My two recommendations are the Make Art Cafe and the Arabian Tea House. The Make Art Cafe has a fantastic roof top patio to see the sunset from which is what we chose to do. After sunset we headed to the Arabian Tea House to have some tea, fruits and a typical Middle Eastern Dessert. The inside of the restaurant is beautiful with white and blue furniture. It’s got a real Mediterranean feel and was a great place to relax at for an hour or so. Once we headed back out of the area a lot of it was lit up with beautiful fairy lights and it made for a nice walk back. I’d recommend getting here about 30-45 minutes before sunset (which was around 5 pm for us) to walk around and take in all the art work first. There’s even a piece of the Old Dubai Wall so it’s definitely a really historical portion of the city and it’s really quiet (we had the place almost to ourselves!).

Dubai Mall

Dubai Mall is pretty unbelievable. I’m sure you’re aware that it’s big (like the biggest mall in the entire world big) but it’s hard to picture it until you’re there. With everything from a skating rink to a giant aquarium to every store you could ever think of, it’s easy to spend an entire day at this mall and still not see everything. There’s plenty to see and do (and to eat!) but if you’re looking for the highlights I’d recommend checking out the skating rink, the aquarium (don’t forget to look up! the ceiling is amazing over by the aquarium), the giant waterfall/fountain and the avenue of umbrellas. After that I’d head outside for the fountain show and to see the Bhurj Khalifa.

Fountain Show + Burj Khalifa

The Dubai Fountain Show and Burj Khalifa are probably two of the most popular attractions in Dubai (especially for people on a layover) and as a result they’re also incredibly busy. It helps that they’re located right next to the Dubai Mall (like literally right outside of it) and that they’re free to view (although it costs to go to the top of the tower). The Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in the world at over 828 meters. The Dubain Fountain is the tallest performing fountain in the world at over 270 meters in length and has over  80,000 liters of water going when a show is on. The shows start every 30 minutes and runs for about a few minutes. There’s a rotating set of shows so depending on the day/time you go you’ll see a different performance. I’m giving fair warning here that going in the evening means it’s incredibly, incredibly busy. Like you’d have to almost be there as soon as a show ends to be able to get okay pictures for the next one. I chose to stand sort of in the middle of the walkway instead of right by the fountain so I could get pictures of the tower as well but I’d suggest taking pictures for the first minute or so then just enjoying the show because it’s actually pretty cool!

Dinner on Kite Beach

We wrapped our day around 10 pm with a burger dinner at Salt on Kite Beach. It was a great outdoor setting with decor, music and a ping pong table. And the food was great! Kite Beach has some other options for food as well if burgers aren’t really your thing but it was a more chill area which I appreciated after the crowd at the fountain! We had a great first day and went to sleep satisfied with everything we had fit into the first day.

Day 2:

BoxPark

BoxPark is an up and coming area in Dubai. It’s actually a really cool concept because all the stores/restaurants are built inside of shipping containers (hence the name BoxPark). They’ve still done incredible things in terms of decor both inside and out and it’s another area in Dubai that you could spend a few hours wandering around. We stopped here on our way to Old Dubai to grab lunch (a very delicious shawarma) and were impressed by the concept of the area.

Old Dubai + The Souks

If you’ve ever been to Jordan or Egypt, Old Dubai will definitely bring back memories. It’s a lot more of that similar vibe. Especially with the vendors yelling for you to come and check out their goods haha. There’s a couple of different areas to check out in Old Dubai so I’d recommend dedicating a few hours to this area. We started at the textile souk then moved on to the spice souk and then to the gold and perfume souks. This part of Dubai is a great area to buy souvenirs in but definitely make sure to haggle because they’re going to start you at like 4 times the price that they’re actually willing to sell the item for. There’s lots of little shops around selling local foods and juices so you can grab something to eat while walking around. If we hadn’t visited Al Bastakiya the day before this would have been a great time to fit it in because it’s actually really close to the Souks. My tip for Old Dubai is just to be prepared to walk a lot. Wear comfortable shoes and bring cash because it’s easier to negotiate prices if you’re paying for your items in cash. Once you’re done your shopping definitely take a water taxi!

Riding an Abra Water Taxi

Abra water taxis are part of the public transportation system in Dubai and there’s a couple of different lines running. We were actually heading to Miracle Garden after the Souks so we took the boat more for the experience than the actual commuting part. However, it was actually a really cool experience and only cost us 1 dirham. It’s an easy way to cross the water and saves on commuting time if your next stop is on the planned routes. The boats move at a decent speed and you’re pretty much just sitting on wood with no rails so definitely hold on to any wild children but it’s a nice, low-cost little boat ride to enjoy!

Dubai Frame

Dubai is really into the biggest and tallest things if you hadn’t noticed. The Dubai Frame is no exception to this. We actually only saw this from our car on the way to Miracle Garden but given that it’s a new attraction it’s definitely worth mentioning. The top of the frame offers a 360 degree view of both new and old Dubai.

Miracle Garden

I’m saving my comments on the Miracle Garden for a separate post but it’s definitely a very, very super touristy spot. The flowers are pretty and it’s a great place to take pictures but unless photography is your thing consider skipping this as it’s fairly busy and at an entrance fee of 50 dirham per person it isn’t the cheapest attraction to do. I really enjoyed the different colors after so much sand and desert but could have done without the crowds. You can take a bus here but I think it’s easier to uber.

Dubai Marina

The Dubai Marina is a cool part of Dubai to check out at night. All the buildings light up and there are a ton of restaurants to choose from so it’s also a great dinner spot. We enjoyed spending a couple of hours here just eating great food and taking in all the giant buildings all around.

JBR at Night

JBR at night is a bit of a different experience than at daytime. It’s definitely way, way busier and everything kind of gets lit up and comes to life. The restaurants are busier so there’s more people around too. JBR has a local crafts market (like I mentioned above) and this stays open late into the evening. It’s a bit nicer checking it out in the evening because it isn’t quite as hot outside so you can take your time walking around! The same goes for all the stores, they’re open fairly late so if shopping’s your thing I’d save it until later in the evening and utilize the day time on outdoor activities!

I’ve put together a little map of all the locations we hit up so you can move the itinerary around if you’d like! A lot of the stuff is focused around the water so it’s all kind of in a straight line!

The only thing I sort of regret missing out on is doing a desert safari but we had just spent a lot of time in the desert in Jordan so I didn’t want to overdo it on the deserts (if that’s even a thing haha). Dubai was a great two days and it was amazing to finally see this place I had seen everywhere on Instagram in person. If you’re able to do a couple of days in Dubai instead of just a layover I would highly recommend it!

If you haven’t got as much time as us then I’d recommend checking out this 1 day itinerary for Dubai! But if you’ve got even more time than we did than this guide to Dubai is for you!

Have you visited Dubai? Was it only a layover or did you spend more time in the city? What was your favorite spot? If you haven’t been what would you like to see? Let me know in the comments and pin this post for an upcoming trip!