Our Dubai visit was not a budget buster! Here is what we spent for 7 days.
Here are our final numbers for what we spent in Dubai. We had to be cleverer than ever to keep our expenses down. One of many things I have learned while on the road is that many places will charge you a fee just to sit in the restaurant. You have a cover charge or table charge to sit at the table to order your food and eat it. Also, each country taxes its food differently. Looking at the menu may give you an indication of what you will be spending but by the time you get your bill you might be surprised with the added charges. In Dubai, we found some good quality mid-range restaurants to eat at. We also had a few meals at the local mall food court. We didn’t have a kitchen but we did have a mini fridge. We bought some milk and plastic bowls and spoons. Each morning we ate cereal with fresh fruit. That helped a lot to keep expenses down.
Another area that we worked to save money in was the tourist sights. Luck would have it that I remembered to look far enough in advance to find a few great Groupon deals to some of the tourist hot spots. I checked back periodically to Groupon and we saved over 50% on the Burg Khalifa. Normally it is approx. $70 to ride to the top but we could get up there for $32 per person and it came with a free refreshment drink and snack. We did the same with going to the Aquarium and the Hop on Hop off bus. However, be sure to double check the city when you pay for your Groupon. I found a fantastic deal on the Hop on Hop off bus, purchased it and we eve
Here are our final numbers for what we spent in Dubai. We had to be cleverer than ever to keep our expenses down. One of many things I have learned while on the road is that many places will charge you a fee just to sit in the restaurant. You have a cover charge or table charge to sit at the table to order your food and eat it. Also, each country taxes its food differently. Looking at the menu may give you an indication of what you will be spending but by the time you get your bill you might be surprised with the added charges. In Dubai, we found some good quality mid-range restaurants to eat at. We also had a few meals at the local mall food court. We didn’t have a kitchen but we did have a mini fridge. We bought some milk and plastic bowls and spoons. Each morning we ate cereal with fresh fruit. That helped a lot to keep expenses down.
Another area that we worked to save money in was the tourist sights. Luck would have it that I remembered to look far enough in advance to find a few great Groupon deals to some of the tourist hot spots. I checked back periodically to Groupon and we saved over 50% on the Burg Khalifa. Normally it is approx. $70 to ride to the top but we could get up there for $32 per person and it came with a free refreshment drink and snack. We did the same with going to the Aquarium and the Hop on Hop off bus. However, be sure to double check the city when you pay for your Groupon. I found a fantastic deal on the Hop on Hop off bus, purchased it and we even rode it for ½ the day until one of the operators noticed that we were in the wrong city. They wouldn’t let us finish out the day because the Dubai trip was much more expensive than the city I accidently purchased. We decided to just end the trip because we had seen most of what we had wanted to anyways. Groupon should do a better job and making the city name more visible seen and I need to do a better job double checking.
Dubai was our 32nd city we have been to and I’m glad it didn’t fall in the beginning of the trip. Without all the experience, we have a accumulated, I think we would have paid a much higher price for our visit. Experience is the best teacher. Following is what we spent to see my 2nd top pick on our trip around the world. Beth
