Reply To: UAE place to kill time and spend a £200 Amex credit

[The real Swiss Tony]

memesweeper wrote:

I’ve driven in a few developing countries, and was planning a drive to Abu Dhabi for sure… unless that’s madness?

You absolutely need your wits about you. SZR is an eight lane racetrack when it’s not snarled up, with cars weaving all over the place.

The Careem app (like Uber) is really good. It cost me £90 for a taxi from AUH to Dubai – that wasn’t just a normal cab, but sort of an exec type thing. Easy to use to jump around town as well. Only time I had a slight problem was on the evening before a holiday weekend, but then I waited maybe 8 minutes instead of 2. Short journeys were £5-£10, a trip from the Sofitel to the Marina was £22, again in a nice car, but even the standard cabs all seemed immaculate inside.

I have seen the Hilton Canopy in the old part of Dubai come up very cheaply on the Amex page with assorted benefits but it seems to come & go. Would at least be a different part of town. The Marina just felt very same-y to me – glizty buildings, a shopping mall, etc etc, although the people I met down there rated the Crowne Plaza very highly.

I think the one thing I look for when travelling alone is a club lounge for breakfast. Two instances of getting up to order an omelette at the main restaurant then returning to the table a few minutes later to find it cleaned down and some random sitting in my chair was enough to convince me.

I think you’ll find you pay a big premium if you stay out by the coast. You could always stay on the QE2 and get Accor points thrown in, too. That’d be different although don’t know what the wifi is like. Also just a thought but does Zoom work out there? I believe Teams is OK and Skype works for voice calls.