[Behemoth]

On the Holi Long weekend, we planned a short trip to Dubai and though it was just a 4 days / 5 Nights Trip, we tried to make the most of it!
Just some highlights of the trip I will share for the benefit of others who may want to visit Dubai and enjoy the thrills it has to offer.
I have been to Dubai more than 10 times before (mostly business trips) but this was the first time that we were going along with Family (my wife and son- 11 years old were going there for the first time.
So the agenda was of course to make it special for my son who is already a big fan of cars (obviously inspired by his dad who is such a TBHP Fanatic!)
There are many things to do in Dubai which are unique and quite special, however since we had limited time, we chose to do only the top things as below:
1) Burj Khalifa visit and Fountains
2) Dune bashing in the desert (evening trip)
3) Ferrari world (Abu Dhabi) and Ferrari Driving experience)
4) Atlantis and Aquaventure park

I will briefly share our experiences in these places!

1) The Burj Khalifa is an iconic building and is currently the tallest building in the world. You can visit the 125th and 124th floors which have an observatory deck from where you can see the whole of the surroundings of the city of Dubai. It is a one time experience and you do pay a steep price for going up and just spending 30 min at the top. There is a lot of waiting time also involved and at any given point of time you do end up spending almost 1-1/2 to 2 hours waiting in lines! If someone is going to Dubai for the first time, it makes sense to visit it but otherwise, you can skip the Observatory visit.
In the evening though, the musical fountains and the Light show on the building exterior make it an interesting place to visit. It is a much more happening place in the evening and even if one visits only the exteriors in the evening , it is worth it.



2) We also did the Dune bashing trip with OceanAir travels - we did the evening experience which includes the evening entertainment and Dinner and is definitely worth it! The Trip pickup happens as around 2 30 Pm and you return back by around 9 30pm.
You can get details our our tour here: https://www.oceanairtravels.com/emir...-dinner-falcon
The Dune riding experience in Land Cruisers was amazing and very well organized. From Dubai first we traveled around 45 min (80Km) into the outskirts near Sharjah. Here first we did quad biking in a place - this was a nice experience and even my 11 year old son got to drive a quad bike separately (a low powered 100cc one) while we drive a 250 cc high powered one. Cost for the quad biking for around 30 min was 200 Dhs for the big one and 100 Dhs for the small one - Definitely worth it.
Then we went on to the Dune riding experience area and we had 25 min of intense Dune riding. The Land Cruiser is an amazing car and here you get to see the car in its full potential. The same cars do this 280 Km trip from Dubai 500 times in a year (twice a day on most days!) which includes almost 50 kms of extreme dune bashing in each trip and these cars are built so well and very rugged. Most operators use Land Cruisers only for the Dune bashing trips as they are extremely reliable and hardly break down ever! 95% of the Dune bashing cars are Land Cruisers and only 5% are others like Nissan Patrol.
After the Dune bashing experience we went to a Campsite zone for entertainment which included a Turkish Dance, a Flamethrowing act and a Belly Dance event. The performers were quite good and entertained the group of 300 pax there for around 1 1/2 hours. In between, dinner was also served which was a decent fare with a spread of Veg and Non veg dishes in mostly Arabian cuisine. Post the Dune bashing we reached back to our Hotel by around 9 30 pm.

3) Ferrari World - This was really the highlight of our trip and we had some unique experiences here: The world's fastest Roller Coaster Ride - the Fomula Rosso which accelerates from 0-240 kmph in 4.9 Sec and also got to Drive a Ferrari California T on public roads on Yas Island.
Ferrari world is based in Abu Dhabi and one needs to travel around 120km from Dubai to reach Abu Dhabi (this takes around 1 hr 20 min by Cab). It is an indoor theme resort with Ferraris on Display and Memorabilia and also rides of various types. You can find more details on the website
https://www.ferrariworldabudhabi.com/en/rides
The Tickets are on the expensive side, but in the opinion of an Autoholic like me, definitely worth it! We also opted for the Ferrari Driving experience (which costs around 1100 Dhs!) and got to drive a Ferrari California T for 20 Min in Yas Island. For this experience the prerequisite is that you must have a valid IDP (International Driving permit) for UAE. I had applied for the IDP in India around 10 Days before our trip and it is very easy to get through the online system. The cost is around 1000 Rupees and you need to go to the Mini Secretariat (in Gurgaon) for around 2-3 Hours to get it.
Driving the Ferrari was an exhilirating experience (though I could only take it to 140 Kmph, as that is the max allowed on the Abu Dhabi Highway). One needs to be a bit careful too as UAE is a Left Hand Drive country and one needs some time to get used to the reverse traffic flow!
My son was completely floored by the Ferrari experience and even though we my never be able to buy one in India, this did give us chance to experience it for a short spell!


The rides at Ferrari world like the Formula Rosso are quite good and really bring a huge rush with the acceleration from 0-240 kmph in just 4.9 Sec.
In our trip the Flying Aces ride was closed for repairs so we could not do that.
Apart from that my son had a gala time on all the rides there and enjoyed seeing and photographing the cars on display!

4) Trip to Atlantis and the Aquaventure Water park.
We decided to stay at Atlantis for only 1 day in our Trip (as it is quite expensive!) and we would get access to Aquaventure park on both days (check in day and check out day). My son is a big fan of water parks and we knew that he would want to go there on both days.
The Atlantis Hotel is an amazing place and the location is very nice, right on the end of Palm Jumeirah. The Hotel itself is huge with almost 1500 Rooms and there is always a huge Mela of sorts in the hotel as well as the Water Park. There are many guests who come there only with a Day pass for the Water Park.


The waterpark is also good, though the long lines in the rides do take out some of the fun of the park. I will not elaborate too much on the park rides as you can find most details on other websites like Tripadvisor or Youtube!

The Bonus part of our trip was that when we were going to Atlantis from our Hotel in Dubai, we ordered an UBER one, which basically has Tesla Model S and Model X cars - and this was the first time for us in a Tesla and it was amazing. The Model S is a very cool car with the cool touch screen interface and all the fancy gadgets and I also loved the Panoramic glass.


We got to experience the Model S twice as we also booked on Uber One again when we had to go to the Airport from Atlantis . We were hoping to get the Model X this time, but ended up getting the same Model S and that too the same car and driver again !
Overall it was an interesting trip to UAE for us and we enjoyed the brief but tiring escape! The weather in Dubai was pleasant 18-30 degrees and we enjoyed many things for the first time ever - the Ferrari Drive, the Tesla Ride, the Formula Rosso Coaster and the Dune bashing experience!
That's all for now and if anyone needs any more info on my trip, please do drop me a PM.

[ChiragM]

Nice short and crisp travelogue Behemoth.

Please do pen down your experience driving the California T.

My son was completely floored by the Ferrari experience and even though we my never be able to buy one in India, this did give us chance to experience it for a short spell!

A future BHPian in the making .

What is Uber One? Is it a part of Uber and runs only electric cars? Yes, the Model S is a very interesting car. The electric drive takes some getting used to. When I got a ride in a Tesla, we even put the car in Autonomous mode. This is definitely something worth experiencing, even if you are on the passenger side.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by ChiragM

Nice short and crisp travelogue Behemoth.

Please do pen down your experience driving the California T.



A future BHPian in the making .

What is Uber One? Is it a part of Uber and runs only electric cars? Yes, the Model S is a very interesting car. The electric drive takes some getting used to. When I got a ride in a Tesla, we even put the car in Autonomous mode. This is definitely something worth experiencing, even if you are on the passenger side.

Thanks Chirag! I plan to add a lot more pictures soon too.

Driving the Ferrari California T was amazing. It is a beast powered by a 3.9 L turbo engine which puts out almost 560 Ps of power and does 0-100 kmph in 3.6 Sec. It is mated to a 7 speed DCT transmission and also has paddle shifts. The throaty roar of the engine was also quite exhilarating.
The California T was one of the few cars there which could accommodate 3 of us Plus one Ferrari Instructor who sits with you during the drive. The other models are mostly two seaters which cannot accommodate more people.
Also the California T is a convertible and we drove with the Hard top down. The fun of driving an open top convertible Ferrari on Abu Dhabi roads is a different experience altogether! (if the weather is good! )

Yes the Tesla experience was also cool and the Tesla is one car which does the 0-100 in 2.6 Sec
We just had to experience it and it was definitely worth it. After the Tesla Ride, My son was more impressed with the Tesla than the Ferrari! Only thing missing was the throaty roar of the engine
The Uber One service is a part of the Uber Taxi program in Dubai and has only all electric Tesla cars - you just need to pick Uber One (like you choose in India UberGo, Uberx etc) . As far as I know, they have a fleet of around 40 Model S and 10 Model X cars for service in Dubai.
The cars are not driven in Autonomous mode and are driven manually only due to laws in Dubai.