Where To Stay in Dubai

I used to always suggest to only stay in Bur Dubai. These days, I feel like Deira is more interesting than it used to be and doesn’t shut down early. I still will only stay in Bur Dubai due to my love of the area.

Stay near a metro station. That’s my main advice for where to stay in Dubai. The metro is the best single utility for tourists, especially those on a budget. Having to get transport to and from a metro station will get expensive quickly.

Dubai has hostels costing a few dollars a night up to the Burj Al Arab, a 7 star hotel (thousands a night). The cost will depend on where you stay and the sort of hotel. My favourite part of Dubai to stay would be Bur Dubai or Al Satwa, preferably near a metro station. Deira is a little cheaper but also further away and less interesting later at night – some parts are basically dead after 9pm. The newer hotels are further south along Sheik Zayed Rd, along the marina district and around the Dubai Mall/Burj Khalifa.

Dubai is a place that I wouldn’t lie by the pool ordering room service, it’s exciting and amazing to go out. So I treat the hotel as a place to sleep, do washing, drinking chai/coffee and eating breakfast (purchased elsewhere) and watching the best ads on tv late at night. During the middle of the day, a lot of stores will be closed, so a nap or a swim is perfect.

Be wary of the “tours” desk in any hotel that offers to organise things for you, as sometimes they have a huge mark-up on tickets. In the world of the internet, the tours desk is a little outdated but oddly still everywhere.

When I stayed in Al Satwa, just south of Bur Dubai, I had a great time. It’s a quieter and non-touristy part of town, with proper local restaurants and bakeries etc. So the stores are cheaper and more like the non-touristy parts of the middle east. There is now a metro station within walkign distance, which didn’t exist when I first stayed in Dubai.

When I stayed in Bur Dubai, it was a very different story. The hotel was a hub of prostitutes and was busy until the wee hours of the morning. There were two 24 hour supermarkets (West Zone Supermarkets) within 2 blocks of where I was, with fresh bread and supplies, water and (Galaxy) chocolate. Even camel milk. There were both excellent and moderately ok shawarma cafes everywhere, and I was 50m from a metro station. There was always something to see, and I would often sit outside the entrance chatting with the doormen, watching the hustle bustle.

You should be able to get a decent hotel room for $60-150 a night, depending on the time of year. I used various websites, often offering different deals for the same hotels. Some with different rates and fee internet, others without internet etc. Breakfast is sometimes included. Sometimes they pick you up from the airport.

I use booking.com exclusively for hotels, and Airbnb for private stays. I didn’t find the airbnbs were worth it in Dubai, unless you wanted to share a room with 3 other men (I did not).

Be wary of comments on these sites, the “noisy nightclub” and “full of prostitutes” reviews ended up just making the hotel more interesting. Out of interest, you can check this entry:

https://www.dubailime.com/guest-friendly-hotels-in-dubai/

Due to alcohol licensing laws in Dubai, bars and nightclubs have to be associated with hotels. So often in places like Bur Dubai, the older hotels (few decades old, before the tourist boom) have been bought up by Indian businessmen and used almost exclusively for the nightclubs and associated prostitution.