Almost space skyscrapers, palm-shaped artificial islands, city-sized shopping centers with aquariums or indoor ski slopes, luxury beachside resorts, unmatched pure adventure experiences… That’s Dubai, a sci-fi destination emerged in full desert that prepares thoroughly to organize the first Universal Exhibition (Expo Dubai 2020) to be held in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. These are some clues to discover an exciting paradise “where everything can be conceived.”
The tallest skyscraper in the world
Everyone has heard of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world with its 828 meters that stretches vertiginously towards the sky. Inside, it amazes the Dubai Mall, the most amazing commercial mega-center on the planet with its 1,200 exclusive stores and its exclusive design, a large aquarium with more than 140 different species, an Olympic ice skating rink and the biggest cinema place in Dubai, although nothing as exciting as climbing to the 124th floor to enjoy a great panorama of the north and south of the city. Any of its 57 elevators will make you think that its speed of ascent is unmatched. And next to the skyscraper, an impressive water fountain, located on a lake.
The Dubai Frame, a unique photo frame
Since January 2018, The Dubai Frame has revolutionized the Dubai’s urban landscape. This gigantic engineering milestone, located in Zabeel Park, simulates a photo frame, the largest in the world as it could not be otherwise, allowing you to enjoy an incredible panorama at 150 meters high.
At the highest point of this attraction, the view reaches from the old town of Deira and the glittering waters of the Persian Gulf to the vast sand dunes of the Arabian desert and the skyscrapers of the ultramodern Marina always overflowing with yachts, but also the visitor can cross a transparent glass bridge that becomes a 93-meter-long walkway that connects its two vertical towers. On this bridge it is exciting to move over the transparent glass panels that produce the feeling of walking in the air.
Al Fahidi Fort
Meanwhile, the last generation building is another Dubai that is worth traveling. In the old city, Al Fahidi Fort is, for example, the oldest building of all that can be visited, a defensive building built in 1787 to protect Dubai from pirates and other invaders.
Inside is the Dubai Museum where the story of this emirate is told. From its origins, when it was only a village of fishermen and pearl collectors, until the discovery of oil and urban plans initiated in the 60s and completed in the 21st century. The venue, adorned with an eye-catching traditional boat, is located very close to the Great Mosque that stands out for its 70-meter minaret.
Dubai’s Little India, the dhows and the Gold Souk
On the way to the port and the Dubai Creek canal, the Bur Dubai souk is a popular textile and souvenir market that all tourists come to. This market extends in parallel along a historic cove that facilitated trade with India and Africa and offered a safe harbor for transport ships. Today, you can see in its narrow streets a “Little India” with a Tamil temple in Al Bastakiya, built in 1958, and dozens of shops full of hanging floral offerings of an intense smell.
It is a very crowded place because the most important foreign population in this emirate is the one from India. The dhows, the old traditional boats that allow any visitor to cross the canal for only 1 dirham, also navigate in the port, and on the other shore you will find the famous Gold Souk, located in the Deira neighborhood, where more than 300 jewelry stores open. Necklaces, bracelets, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds are displayed in all the windows of this passage and in one of them you can admire the largest ring in the world, worth more than three million dollars.
Desert excursions
Dubai is located at the entrance of the desert, which allows you to discover this vast expanse of sand that reaches the city limits. There is a great offer of “Desert Safaris” in 4×4 with expert drivers who show its expertise dancing and skidding in the red dunes that make the experience “an exciting time to unload your adrenaline”. After the walk you can enjoy the sunset in the desert and dinner at the camp (barbecue under the stars), where the visitor can climb a camel or dress as a Bedouin attending the typical dances of the region.
The “seven stars” of Dubai
Another unquestionable visit in Dubai is the Hotel Burj Al Arab, the only 7-star hotel in the world and for many experts the best on the planet. The establishment, which has a roll-royce transfer service and private helicopter, is built on its own artificial island 280 meters from the coast, measures 320 meters high, and all its rooms are suites. From its nearby beach you can get a good photograph of this construction inaugurated in December 1999.
Expo 2020 Dubai
In recent times the entire emirate has focused on the organization of the Universal Exhibition, an ambitious event that, under the motto “Connecting minds, creating the future”, will have the participation of more than 190 countries that will install their own pavilion. To make this event a success, Dubai has already built its second airport (Al Maktoum), very close to the new exhibition center, Dubai Trade Centre Jebel Ali, to the south in the direction of Abu Dhabi, and its organizers expect to receive more than 25 million visitors, from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
The aim of Expo 2020 Dubai is to propose a seductive tourist bet in which the new Museum of the Future will stand out, a unique project for futuristic innovation and design in a country that plans to launch its first mission to Mars in 2021 and hopes to establish human beings on the “red planet” in less than a hundred years.