The United Arab Emirates is one of the most civilized and safe societies I have ever seen.
It is one of my favourite countries in the world, but is best suited to very successful people due to the high cost of living caused by the influx of millionaires fleeing high tax social democracies.
They have zero tolerance for criminals or welfares spongers, which is why it is so safe and they don't tax half your income.
UAE would literally deport half of the UK, who are net drains to the state, which is why it's such a nicer place.
Do not use Google Maps in Dubai, it is awful.
It will give you wrong directions or verbal instructions that do not match the map direction, leading you to taking many wrong turns which can cost you half an hour in journey time as you try to navigate around large blocks of motorways.
Use Waze instead.
The capital of the UAE.
More relaxed, than Dubai.
- Paradiso - I dropped nearly £100 just for my half, but I did get the steak... good quality, the price of drinks adds up
Dubai is more of a city-state than a city as Europeans would understand it.
It would be extremely difficult to walk due to the large distances and high heat.
"I don't walk anywhere in Dubai" one of my Brit guys there told me. I saw why after I arrived. Even a 15 minute walk to lunch will leave you a sweaty mess by the time you get there. People drive with air conditioning and dive into malls, offices and restaurants with air conditioning.
I used Virgin Mobile on a prepaid contract for around £200 for the year which was the cheapest deal I could find.
Good for the areas it covers.
Very cheap, typically 3 or 5 dirhams per for a single one-way journey using a prepaid Nol card depending on if you're going 1 or 2 zones. This works out to a mere 65p or £1.10!!
Buy a Nol card immediately for 25 dirhams which has 19 dirhams of credit already pre-loaded on it.
You will need a car or taxi to really get around.
Careem is the everything app, including Taxis.
It does everything from Uber-style taxis, to food delivery, to rental bicycles.
Parking is easy in most of the malls but really difficult near the Dubai World Trade Center.
The Al Saada parking is a large free open air car park that is a gem known only to the local workers. Occasionally it is blocked off for DWTC events, but there is another smaller open air car park around the block here. I avoid using the Al Mustaqbal car park as it is expensive at 10 AED per hour.
The weather is so hot even by May some people use sun umbrellas - so hot that it broke my car phone holder. Rich people usually leave Dubai and go to Europe for the summer. Copying them was how a lot of the European countries on this list were covered!
Dubai has a good mix of beaches and malls. It is built in the US style where a mall is not just a shopping venue but a destination with lots of restaurants & cafes as well as activities.
- Dubai Marina - long walk with boats and restaurants - an excellent place to rent an e-scooter via Lime or bike via Careem since it's a 7km oval
- JBR Beach - popular tourist beach with the usual mix of restaurants and cafes
- Downtown / Dubai Mall / Burj Khalifa area - not just a mall, everything is here, countless restaurants and coffee shops (relatively expensive) and even indoor skating and aquarium with sharks and rays, the water fountains and surrounding area
- Dubai Marina Mall - smaller mall on the Marina but high quality, everything from Wagamama to Waitrose to designer shops and good restaurants
- Dubai Hill Mall - large suburban mall with all the usual shops and restaurants
- Mall of the Emirates - popular mall with even indoor skiing, in the Al Barsha area which is mostly asian rather than western mix international like Dubai Mall or Dubai Marina Mall
- Kite Beach - long popular beach with cafes for cool drinks, e-scooters, and hipster restaurants at the north end
- Dubai Festival City Mall - another very good large mall near Dubai Creek
- City Centre Mirdif Mall - another very good and large mall near Dubai Creek
- Deira City Center Mall - another good mall with an Acai Spot, restaurants, and all the usual brands
- City Walk - cafes and restaurants in an outdoor retail complex with a tree-lined esplanade and central fountain
- Global Village - only open October to April
Often restaurants outside of the malls are better in terms of prices.
- Doors in Dubai Mall - fancy upmarket restaurant overlooking the Burj Khalifa water fountains. Go for a special occasion. You will pay £10 per juice
- Tashas - high quality restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating on the Dubai Marina
- Moshi - small place with great asian food, Thai Tom Yum soup and Sushi, just outside the Mall of the Emirates
- Acai Spot - chain Acai cafe throughout Dubai, pricey but good. I usually get the tropical or make your own
- Angel Cakes Dubai Hills Park - gentrified cafe serving food, cakes and drinks. Small chain, also available at Dubai Mall and Bluewaters (next to JBR)
- Habib Beirut - good lebanese on the Marina, a short walk from Dubai Marina Mall
- Alyasamin Aldimashqi - good Syrian restaurant opposite Deira City Center Mall
- Greenland - local indian chain, 24x7, affordable, big selection of fresh juices There are outlets in various areas of Dubai
- JusGrill - local cheap eats in Al Rigga serving Indian, Chinese & Filipino food The Pancit Bihon (Filipino equivalent of singapore noodles) is good, as is the spicy Prawn Schezwan Fried Rice which contains lots of fresh green chillis. There is a large selection of fresh juices, but the Coconut Shake and Mango Passion Special are particularly good (I was getting one of these two daily)
- Umami - Japanese chain in the mall food courts, cheap and cheerful for a bento box, my pick if you're caught in a mall food caught with too much fast food
- Favoreat - outside City Center Deira Mall, it has an Ethiopian menu that is good with that special sour pancake thing they do with a variety of foods on it
- Al Rigga Night Market - full of cheap eats, and the market opposite, bustling at midnight, open until 2am
You are required to get a medical blood screening, chest x-ray, biometrics like fingerprinting to get a visa here.
Once you have residence you are no longer allowed to use your UK driver's license and will get a shock as your car rental company refuses to release the car to you.
You will then need to Careem around the city to get your Emirates ID and then your Drivers License which will require local bank or cash payment.
- Mashreq is the easiest to use, app-only like Starling or Monzo
- but I lost 5% on a GBP-to-GBP transfer from ADCB to Mashreq... Bitcoin transaction fees are usually much lower.
- ADCB is the next best, but the premium account is a big hassle and has a
substantial minimum balance requirement of 500,000 AED that many people will not be able to meet
- See the 5% loss above sending GBP-to-GBP from ADCB to Mashreq (estimate 1.68% on ADCB's side even using a premium account)
- I calculated a GBP to AED transfer within ADCB cost 1.66% hidden in a worse conversion rate. This is outrageous if you were to transfer or convert large amounts of money such as your life savings.
- Emirates NBD has a bad reputation among my peers for being a lot of hassle
- they were a hassle to open, wanting salary certificate
- even closing the account is difficult apparently according to my colleague at the time (too much questioning)
- HSBC was a similar hassle to NBD above wanting salary certificate addressed specifically to them
- they actually rejected my employer's salary certificate because it wasn't addressed specifically to their bank
- much more hassle, not like HSBC back in the UK, most UK banks just open accounts easily
- even already having an HSBC UK account didn't help me