My husband and I recently traveled to Dubai with our two children and their mother on our first international trip together as a family.
It seemed like a good choice. After all, Dubai was the second most attractive city destination for travellers last year, according to an annual report by Euromonitor International, a global market research company.
On our 10-day trip we had a lot of fun and spent time with our family. We had a great time and would go back.
But even though we set out with a spirit of adventure, we made mistakes along the way and didn’t “make the most” of our time as well as I had hoped.
Our trip to Dubai could have been so much better if we hadn’t made these common mistakes.
We don’t spend enough time at each of the places we visit.
Many people recommended that we check out the Dubai Mall’s musical fountains during our visit. Images by NurPhoto/Getty
When visiting the Dubai Mall, we knew we didn’t want to miss the famous musical fountain shows, which start every half hour until 11pm.
But while we were exploring the aquarium and waterfall at the big mall and having dinner, we missed the last show. We had to go another night to see it.
Looking back, I wish we had set aside more time to explore the millions of square feet of the Dubai Mall and its many attractions.
We also underestimated the time it would take to explore Legoland Dubai. We arrived at 13:30 and our children didn’t have enough time to see all the attractions before the park closed at 18:00.
After Legoland, we headed to the neighbouring Motiongate theme park. My kids were disappointed to find that most of the rides closed before 7:30pm. It turns out that the park closes at 8pm most days.
Honestly, I would say that all three of these places need at least a full day to fully experience.
We found out too late that some attractions have variable schedules depending on the day.
Throughout our trip, we explored Dubai at all hours, day or night. It was difficult to wake the kids up for the next day’s itinerary and we always arrived late.
But we learned that a few hours could make a difference depending on the day.
Louvre Abu Dhabi galleries and exhibitions close at 6:30pm on most weekdays and at 8:30pm from Friday to Sunday. The museum is closed on Mondays.
Unfortunately, on the day we visited, the exhibits closed at 6:30 and we didn’t get there until the afternoon. We didn’t get to see much, but we were glad we got to explore the space-themed children’s museum.
I also wish we had confirmed which days of the week some places close.
We thought the kids would love the Dubai Dolphinarium, a huge family entertainment space filled with aquatic animals. But we ended up not going because we realized too late that it was closed on Tuesdays, the only day we were available.
We didn’t book tickets in advance for the attractions we really wanted to see.
We were unable to visit the Museum of the Future in Dubai. Tullio Puglia – FIFA/Getty Images
We didn’t want to overload our itinerary, but we learned the hard way that some popular attractions require visitors to book well in advance.
For example, we wanted to take the kids to the highly recommended Museum of the Future, which is full of virtual reality experiences and 3D exhibits.
When we searched for tickets online during our trip, the only ones available were for dates three months in advance.
We should have packed more comfortable walking shoes.
We walked a lot during our trip to Dubai, probably between 8,000 and 10,000 steps each day. It was exhausting and not having proper walking shoes didn’t help.
On our next trip to this city, we plan to pack shoes that are made for walking.
