Dubai - United Arab Emirates

FLIGHT

As usual I found some cheap tickets with Norwegian. It is really nice to stay within one airline to save up those frequent flier miles. Or alliances of airlines like Star Alliance. Furthermore, it was an overnight flight which meant one more day in Dubai without having to pay for a hotel night. I was really hoping to get some sleep on the plane but ever since my injury I have never really been able to sleep on planes. This is because there is no comfortable position, I can put myself in and completely relax. 

AIRPORT

The next morning, I landed in Dubai. I love planes because I wanted to become a pilot before my injury. So, seeing all the A380s (the plane with two full floors) of the Emirates fleet lined up at the gates made me feel like a kid in a toy store. One thing that is a stressful or a somewhat annoying moment of traveling by plane is getting off it. You never really know how they will handle the situation. For those who don’t know how this works, the airport staff has a little chair that fits in the aisle of the plane. I personally need some assistance from the staff to transfer to this mini wheelchair. So, if you need to help lift people you would expect that someone fitting this would have the job. But no, in came an old man that was complaining about his back pain and that couldn’t help me. Fine, no worries, my friend or girlfriend can help me way faster anyway. It is just that, what would this guy have done if I was by myself? Of course, I feel bad for his pain and so on, it is just a little weird when somebody completely unqualified to do manual labor has a job like this. The second thing that is quite important for disabled people traveling is to get their own wheelchair as soon as they get out of the plane. Sounds logical enough right? I mean it is like our personal legs in a way. In some airports however, they don’t bring the wheelchair up from the plane and send it with the bags. In this scenario a disabled person is forced to use the shitty wheelchairs provided by the airport. Using one of those feels like walking in clown shoes. Because it feels so clumsy. And you feel like a clown too. I am quite proud of my wheelchair and think it looks cool but being in an airport wheelchair makes me feel so embarrassed. Especially if it is one of those that you can’t even push myself.

CAR RENTAL 

Next step was the car rental. In some countries it is possible to rent accessible cars. I have done it in Sweden and the USA. In Dubai I didn’t research if it was possible since my friend was going to drive all the time and he already had experience driving in Dubai. Something worth mentioning here is that for some reason you had to have a credit card. They wouldn’t accept debit cards at all. Luckily, I had one even though it is not very common to use one in Sweden. In the end I’m honestly happy that I wasn’t driving because they drive like crazy in Dubai. I really enjoy driving and probably would have gotten used to driving there but might as well take that stressful moment away from my vacation. 

A tip I have here is to not pay extra money for the GPS. If you have a smartphone you can use any Wi-Fi to pick a location on your gps app. Once you are riding in your car you can still use the gps function without an internet connection. Just be careful because the roads in Dubai can be quite complicated and if you miss your exit or take the wrong one, it can sometimes take ten to fifteen minutes before you can turn back. If you miss your exit or get lost you can always get a data package and just turn the internet on for a second for the gps to reroute. 

HOTEL

I stayed at the Conrad Dubai. Yes, there is a whole hotel chain with my name, it is actually a part of Hilton. I tried to convince them that I was the owner of the hotel, but they didn’t buy it, must have been the wheelchair. In all seriousness this is the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed at. Maybe the standard is a bit higher in Dubai but all I can say is just wow! The room was a normal room on a higher floor, but it felt like a suit. Since I booked a room on a higher floor, I had access to a private lounge. When I read about it online, I understood that you can have breakfast there and some snacks and refreshments during the day. The description did not even get close to the five-star restaurant service we had there. 

For breakfast there was a wide variety of fruits, sandwiches, pastries and all the regular buffet things. What stood out the most was these perfectly cooked eggs benedict. Never have I ever had eggs this good. I ate these every morning together with a smoked salmon sandwich and fruits. They also served coffee of your choice. My girlfriend said that it was the best coffee she ever had. Don’t take this too seriously though. After all, the French are known for their wine and not their coffee. The people working in the lounge were all dressed in beautiful suits, like professional waiters. During breakfast they took orders for coffee, juices and any extra things the breakfast was missing. I have never had service like this before. By the third day they had memorized exactly what drinks all of us wanted and when we wanted them. Five-star dining experience.

During lunch you could come there and have some fruits, pastries and sandwiches. All of this was always incredibly tasty. You could have a solid lunch here and hold off food until dinner. Then for dinner I expected something similar, some sandwiches and small snacks. But no, they had full meals. You never had to eat anywhere else if you wanted to save some money. Furthermore, during dinner you could order free alcoholic beverages of any kind. We are not heavy drinkers so we only had a glass or two before heading out somewhere, but I would guess you could order as much as you wanted.  

DUBAI MALL

After taking a much-needed nap after that night flight we spent the rest of the day at the Dubai Mall. What struck me the most about this city is that everything is so grand, majestic and beautiful. Every building is a work of art and looks like nothing you have ever seen in your life. The main street is basically an art exhibition except that every object is a 100-floor building. This impression did not stop with the mall. The car park was a maze of expensive cars. Every single expensive and fancy brand you could name had a store in the mall. There was a full-sized ice-skating rink and movie theatre with couches. As I don’t really care about luxury brands, I was way more interested in the food court. I wish I spent more time in Dubai just based on the fact that I wanted to try more restaurants in the food court. I have been to the US five times and I had never heard of half of the American fast food chains and restaurants that were located in the food court. 

Dubai has always been known as a playground for the rich. You can order a helicopter with Uber to come to your hotel roof. However, I never truly understood how luxurious this city could be if you had mountains of money until I was in the Dubai mall. Apparently, you could hire a taxi INSIDE the mall to drive you around. Wealthy families were sitting in the back of what looked like those cars you see inside airports sometimes but fancier. Mountains of bags from brands like Gucci and Prada were stacked on the taxi while it took the family to the valet service. Yes, the mall had a freaking valet service. Furthermore, to add to the ridiculousness of this mall, it had an aquarium. Trust me, this wasn’t your everyday aquarium with a few fishes and a small manta ray. I really love going to aquariums, but this place just blew my mind. 

The mall is as wheelchair accessible as any other. Very flat surfaces, big open stores and elevators everywhere. My complaints are that, yes there are elevators, but it is a joke to find them. I spent most of my time either looking for the hidden elevators or waiting in the huge lines because apparently people here are too lazy to use escalators which is just next level lazy honestly. Like fine if you can’t carry your bags up and down stairs. However, why people rather wait for an elevator for ten minutes than stand in an escalator for ten seconds is just beyond my comprehension. One thing that is both good and bad is that the mall is so big that you can download an app that will help you navigate in real time. Really amazing feature but it is missing the functionality of accessible routes. Then again, if you are rich enough you can probably rent a guide/bag carrier for the day which is a 10/10 on accessibility. Jokes aside, money can buy anything in this country, and it wouldn’t surprise me the least if this thing existed. 

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

In Dubai you have the option to take the metro or the bus. The metro is actually a few meters up in the air. First of all, as I have stated before, this city is a work of art and the metro stations are as impressive as the skyscrapers. All the stations look the same, so they are easily distinguishable. There aren’t too many stations though, but it will take you between all the most important places in the center. It is still under construction so by the time you go there a few more have probably popped up. One thing I found a bit confusing about the metro in Dubai is that it stops going quite early. Last train is at midnight or one o’clock in the night depending on the day of the week. I find this very early considering these trains are automated so theoretically they could go all night.

Then there are also busses, or at least I think so. Because truth be told I don’t know if I ever actually saw one. I did see a few bus stops though so I assume the busses sort of blended into the normal traffic. One cool thing about the bus stops is that they are small air-conditioned pods. You know it’s a warm country when waiting for the bus is considered inhumane, so they have to install air conditioners. 

The metro is very wheelchair accessible. All of the stations have elevators and there is just a minimal gap to enter the train. It was never really crowded in the trains I felt and always enough space for me. When it comes to the busses I really don’t know. However, AC in the bus stop is an amazing feature for someone like me that can’t control my body heat so I can’t withstand high temperatures for long periods of time. However, if you can transfer to a car easily, I would recommend using Uber because it is cheaper than taking the metro and it is faster since you don’t have to walk to the metro station. 

THE DUBAI FOUNTAIN

The fountains are located in the middle of Dubai mall and Burj Khalifa. It is the largest choreographed fountain system in the world. Honestly it is breathtaking. Every show is choreographed to a specific song and the water jets reach as high as 275m which sounds completely unbelievable unless you see it in person. You can see a show every half hour starting at 18 until 23. The fountain show combined with the Burj Khalifa and the whole area itself is my by far favorite place on earth so far. I wish that everyone gets a chance to experience this. 

Everything in this area is basically flat and therefore completely accessible with a wheelchair. It can get crowded during the shows and you won’t see anything unless you are in the front. So, you have two choices, just ask people to move or do what I do, stand there with sad puppy eyes until someone moves. As with everything else in Dubai, money will buy you something extra. There are boats that go close to the fountains, but I don’t know if they are accessible, my guess is no. What I recommend is spending dinner in one of the many restaurants surrounding the fountain area. If you travel on a budget it might be too excessive but, in my opinion, it is really worth the experience. Save the fancy date night for a romantic dinner with a magical view. 

PALM JUMEIRAH

If you have never heard of The palm it is a series of artificial islands connected to each other that are shaped like a palm tree. I had seen it in pictures before, but I never realized how big it actually is. Walking down one of the branches takes a bit over half an hour. The most see worthy thing on the palm is the Atlantis hotel. However, you can’t actually enter the hotel unless you live there. However, around the hotel there are a few attractions. An aquarium and a water park. Pro tip here is that admission to the waterpark is free if it is your birthday. Just go to their webpage and register. We were planning on going to the waterpark, but we never had time unfortunately. I spent seven days in Dubai, and I think I needed a week more to actually see everything. Since we didn’t get into the Atlantis and weren’t in the mood for the waterpark that day, we went to the other side of the palm and just walked down the top of the tree. From here you have an amazing view of the Dubai skyline. If you are traveling on a budget this is my number one tip. Take the metro to the end of the palm and just walk down the top branch and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The whole area is flat except for one bridge. 

DESERT SAFARI

I was going to start by saying that this was my favorite experience but if I think about it, I can’t rate the activities I did. They are all so special in their own way. If you want to have a little adrenaline kick and also experience some culture and the real nature of Dubai, this is the activity for you. Also, I just realized how different those things are from each other. Whatever your preference is, just do the desert safari. 

My first tip here is that whatever you do, do NOT book it through your hotel. They are just ripping you off. Look for a company online, they all go to the same place anyway. If you use a wheelchair you need to book a private car. That way it is just you and the people you are traveling with. Usually you pay per person and it is about 35 - 40eur. A car has seven seats and you pay for a seat in the car. Whenever you book a private jeep you pay for all the seats no matter how many you are. Approximately 250 - 280eur. The jeeps are fully fitted with seats so there is no space to put the wheelchair unless you book a private car and use some of the seats to pack your wheelchair. In addition, when booking a private jeep, you have full control of what you want to do and for how long. 

The driver will come and pick you up at your hotel around one o’clock. It is worth noting that the jeep is very high and making a transfer by yourself if you can’t walk is practically impossible.  After that you drive for about half an hour out into the desert. With the jeep you then go racing in the sand dunes that reach maybe 30meters or more in height. It feels like going on a sand rollercoaster. Personally, I have no core muscles because of my injury and therefore no balance whatsoever. I was in the back seat holding myself as hard as I could in the door  or the seat in front of me and my girlfriend in the middle seat. Probably one of the best workouts I ever had. At some point the driver will stop and you can take go out and feel the sand and enjoy the desert. I know some companies offer sandboarding and atv driving also. 

Once you have had enough of the sand rollercoasters, you will drive to a nearby camp. Here you will enjoy dinner and shows until it is time to go home. In the middle of the camp there is a stage for all the shows. Around it there are tables that you have to sit on the ground by. The area around the stage has fake grass so you can roll a wheelchair on it. To access the bathrooms or the souvenirs you need to go through sand unfortunately. Usually the cars stop a bit outside the camp but our driver took us straight to the middle so I wouldn’t have to roll in the sand. Furthermore, he came five minutes before the show ended and picked me up so we wouldn’t have to worry about the crowds or rolling in the sand. During the evening you will see belly dancing, classic Arabic dancing and fire juggling. If you feel sad about not being able to go through the sand to the souvenir stands, don’t worry, they will come to your table all night trying to sell you various things. During the show there is food served. Honestly it was quite bad food, but we were really hungry, so it was edible at least. To access the place where you get the food you again have to go through sand. However, the owner of the place made sure that food was brought to my table and my company. This was such an amazing gesture and I wouldn’t have expected in a million years to get service like that. I can’t mention this enough, money will buy you a better experience in Dubai. Even in the middle of the desert there were multiple upgrades to the table. So, having table service was quite an upgrade. It is really small things like this that makes the life of a person in a wheelchair so much better. Especially on vacation where you just want to relax and not worry about anything. Careful though, the boss might give you an upgrade, but the souvenir guys will still try to hassle you out of every penny

DUBAI BUTTERFLY HOUSE

I have been to butterfly houses before and I think it is one of the most beautiful things ever. But I was not prepared for the Dubai version. You walk around in three different domes with thousands of huge butterflies. Never before have I seen so many or so big butterflies. It felt like entering a fairytale. What bothered me about this place, however, is that people kept touching the butterflies. There were so many butterflies here that sometimes they would randomly land on you and chill there for a while. But some tourists and some locals were picking the butterflies up by hand and putting them on themselves to take pictures. It felt really horrible seeing that since you could clearly see the wings of the butterflies braking and they seemed really distressed by people picking them up. Please don't touch butterflies, they are very fragile. If you want pictures with them ask the staff that knows how to handle them properly. 

The butterfly house is free for people in wheelchairs and also 50% off your helper which is really amazing. It is indoors which can be an amazing activity for a day during the summer where the temperatures can be unbearable outside. In addition, it is easy to roll around in the different domes because it is flat. 

DUBAI MIRACLE GARDEN

The miracle garden is right next to the butterfly house and I would recommend doing both of these things in the same day since it is a bit outside the city center. If you don’t have a car, there is a shuttle service to go here. Whenever i think back at all the things I did in Dubai, it is really hard to choose a favorite because everything is so special in its own way. If you visit Dubai, you will really experience new amazing things every day. Everything here is so over the top extra. I had seen pictures of the miracle garden before visiting but pictures cannot make this place justice. It feels like entering paradise. Millions of flowers as far as the eye can see. What makes it so amazing is the fact that it isn’t just a park with beautiful flowers. There are statues and castles covered in the most beautiful flowers ever. There was a whole A380 plane covered in flowers. When you were younger, did you ever dream of going to the Willy Wonka chocolate factory? This is basically it but with flowers. This place is honestly surreal, paradise on earth. 

Like the butterfly house, entrance to the miracle garden is free for wheelchair users and 50% off for one person accompanying you. Everything here except the castle in the middle is accessible. If you are like me and struggle with heat, then don’t go here during the warm summer months. Actually, just don’t go to Dubai in the middle of the summer. Winter is the best time with temperatures of 20-28C. 

BURJ KHALIFA

The world's tallest building. I feel like that sentence right there is enough to explain the experience. Visiting the Burj Khalifa has been one of my dreams since it opened. 

You enter the Burj Khalifa through the Dubai mall. It is a bit complicated to find since the mall is huge. But just follow the signs. There are two different observation floors that you can go to, floor 124 and floor 148. There is also floor 154 but I don’t even want to know how expensive that is. I am a bit confused about the prices. When I checked online, I decided that I would take floor 148. The prices were approximately 80eur per person which is a lot but really seemed worth the experience. When i get there the person in the ticket office tells me it is 130 eur per person. Me and my girlfriend went to the side for a while to discuss if it was worth it or not. After a few minutes the guy at the ticket office waves at us and tells us he can give us a special discount. The price now is the 80eur we expected to pay from the beginning, so we happily buy the tickets. Just very confusing. I know also that during sunrise the tickets are more expensive so here in the middle of the day. The tickets to the 124th floor is 40eur but trust me, the 40eur extra for the 148th floor is beyond worth it. First of all, you get to enter a private lounge where you wait for the full group to assemble of about 20-30 people. Then you get to pass every line. At the ticket office you don’t realize how many people are actually waiting in line. Getting up to the 124th floor can easily take one to two hours. We are then guided to our own personal elevator that takes us to the 148th floor. They told us that we are allowed to stay for just an hour, but I stayed here at least two, so it isn’t exactly heavily enforced. You get offered some local tea, coffee and a little cookie with it. Now trust me, the 148th floor is so much better than the 124th. Honestly you don’t see that much of a difference of the view between the floors. However, the 148th floor is quiet like a library and you have time to sit and relax in a nice chair and enjoy the view. You can spend as much time as you want taking the perfect pictures and selfies. It is so relaxing and beautiful. But the 124th floor is the complete opposite. Kids running around and screaming. Gift shop on top of another gift shop. If you even get close to the windows to see the view you should consider yourself lucky. I had access to the 124th floor after I was done at the 148th, but I just stayed for like 15min here because the environment was so exhausting and crowded. Rolling around in really crowded places with a wheelchair is just the worst. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE ABU DHABI

We spent one day in Abu Dhabi visiting the palace and the mosque. It is about 1.5h drive away from Dubai. I don’t know if the palace is maybe one of the less popular places or quite unknown since they opened quite recently to the public. The fact is that there are quite few people visiting which in a way made the experience better. Writing about Dubai, I am running out of adjectives and superlatives to describe the experiences. Whatever I put down on paper will never make justice to experiencing it all in person. Everything in Dubai is so beautiful and luxurious. Now imagine the royal palace in a country where everything already is way above the standard. The palace is in a way quite intimidating, especially with the quite small crowd. Feels like a VIP experience that everyone doesn’t have access too. 

It is free to enter for people with wheelchairs. You get your own private car that looks like an accessible golf cart that you can roll onto with a ramp. This car then drives you for five minutes to the part of the palace that you are allowed to visit. Again, it feels like such a VIP experience. Everything here is accessible

THE GRAND MOSQUE

We went here on a Friday and apparently it is a religious day, so tourists are only allowed after 16:30. My tip is, don’t go on Fridays because of the late opening time the crowd is so packed, and the lines are crazy long. It is free for everyone to visit. Before going here, I researched clothing rules online. As a guy you need long pants that are not too tight and a t-shirt that covers the shoulders. Girls need to cover their hair and wear quite baggy clothes. My girlfriend chose the most appropriate clothes she could find and expected to just have to wear something to cover her hair. But unless you go there with your own headgear, they will give you a dress with a hood that everyone is wearing. It also comes in just one size which was quite funny since my girlfriend is really short. Well funny for me, she wasn’t too happy about holding the dress the whole visit to not trip on it. It is the world's biggest mosque so whether you are a religious person or not I would recommend visiting it. 

Everything is accessible here, just one hill that is quite steep and can be a problem for some wheelchair users. Also, the crowds are very packed but as I said before, I probably went on the worst day. 

ANGÈLES BIRTHDAY

The whole trip was actually a 21st birthday gift to my amazing girlfriend. She had never before been outside of Europe, so I thought what better gift than the gift of experience. Of course, during the day of her actual birthday I wanted to do something extra. If you don’t travel a lot, I have a great tip. If you are at a quite good hotel, take full use of the concierge desk. They are amazing at giving you ideas for places to visit and restaurants to eat at. Often, they might even have discounts to certain places. The concierges at my hotel were really amazing. First, I asked if they could do something for our room, maybe some balloons or some cake or something. They were more than happy to fix the room for my girlfriend’s birthday. We came for breakfast in the morning and they had organized it so that when we came back to the room after breakfast it was decorated. See pictures below. My girlfriend was really so surprised and loved the decorations. Before leaving the hotel for our daily tourist activities we visited the concierge again to thank them for the beautiful room. The funny thing is that the girl that helped me organize it asked me if we enjoyed the cake. I was like well there was no cake. Apparently, someone messed up bad and forgot the cake. Like personally I couldn’t care less since the room was already so perfect. But you have to realize that this is a five-star hotel and everything needs to be perfect down to the smallest detail. The concierge was really fuming. There was a fire in her eyes while she was trying to stay calm and ask about our plans for the day. For sure someone got fired after that. I mean they made her look like a fool and embarrassed. I even showed her some pictures we took, and she asked me really nicely if she could show the picture to her colleagues. She made it look like she just wanted to show the nice pictures, but she looked so mad when talking to her colleagues. 

Furthermore, I asked her for tips for a romantic dinner. At the same time the head concierge of the whole hotel was there. This guy really gave the vibe of being a butler to a sheik. You want some luxurious tea from the depths of the Amazonas jungle to be delivered in two hours? This guy had the connections. He knew basically every owner of every nice restaurant in town. We got a booking at the best restaurant I ever have eaten at with a magical view of the Dubai fountains. While choosing the restaurant the concierge took me to the side to talk to me privately. He said the owner was a good friend of his, so anything extra I wanted to do, he would organize it. I chose to write a personal message on the desert to my girlfriend. 

The restaurant we ate at is called After life. A restaurant with the vibe of a lounge with some music and the possibility to have some shisha with dinner. From the balcony of the restaurant you have a breathtaking view of the Dubai fountains and it is such a romantic place. In addition, the food was some of the best I ever had. A perfect birthday celebration. 

EXTRA NOTES

Some extra things worth mentioning about Dubai that didn’t really fit under any of the other categories. The united arab emirates is a religious country, but the state of Dubai is a place for tourists and therefore things like clothing rules are not enforced. This can create some very interesting cultural clashes. Walking around in the mall you can see both tourists that are not wearing a bra and showing some booty in their short shorts. Next to these girls there can be a local family walking around where the woman is only showing her eyes. You might be allowed to be dressed the way you want, but I personally feel it is a little disrespectful to walk in your most revealing outfit whether you are a guy or girl. Just seems inappropriate. 

Apparently public display of affection (pda) is forbidden in public places. I have read that some people have gotten in trouble for kissing in public. I feel that in the most touristy places this was not an issue, but sometimes just holding hands could give you a weird look from some older locals. 

In the UAE handicapped people are referred to as people of determination. I have never heard this before and usually I don’t care if people call us handicapped or wheelchair users or whatever. But I really liked the expression, people of determination. Felt really respectful. 

In some places where you can have free entrance as a wheelchair user, they are asking for a sort of handicap id. Something to prove that you have a disability. After looking into it the UAE government provides this type of id to its locals. But in Sweden at least we have nothing of the equivalence. Luckily, I had a front and back picture of my handicap parking card. It contains my name, picture and a big handicap sign so I convinced the people working that it was the Swedish equivalent of a person of determination id. So before going to Dubai try to find anything that could look like a handicap id. Because honestly, they have no idea whether we have it or not actually. 

I also want to just quickly mention my favorite lounge. It is called Lounge 43 and is an outside lounge on the roof of a hotel. The views are breathtaking in the night with all the beautiful lights everywhere. The mood is amazing, and the drinks and food are very affordable compared to many places. The only bad thing is that in Dubai they really water out the drinks and shots. So, don’t expect to get drunk here.