Dubai Half Day Tour with Entry Ticket to Burj Khalifa at the Top

If you’re only in Dubai for a very short time like we were it’s well worth booking this trip. It will allow you to see all the highlights in a brief tour around the city. We did the half day and enjoyed being shown a quick guide to Dubai. We finished at The Burj Khalif and made our way back to the our hotel using a taxi which are so easy to find and use as well. The guide and ear phones pointed out all the bits you would want to see throughout the tour. It includes your entrance to the Burj and was good value for money. We only had a brief taste of Dubai but this has wet our appetite to come back and explore some more. All questions and queries answered quickly and well by the tour operator and pickups right on the time they said!

Good quick overview of the sights and landmarks of Dubai to let you know where you might want to come back to later, and if you don't have time for a full-day tour. Caveat #1 - tour takes you to what was deemed as a "cultural center" that was nothing but a tourist trap with the focus on trying to sell you tapestry rugs to hang on your wall. Yes, there was some good information given, but the main focus was a moderate hard sell. This took up about 30 minutes of the tour if not more. You are ushered upstairs to a big room lined with chair. The curators/sales people bring out tapestry after tapestry and lay them on the floor and tell you how much they cost. As you are leaving they come up to you personally trying to get you to purchase a tapestry. Downstairs there are all types of figurines they try to get you to purchase. Nothing on the building says cultural center. It is nothing more than a tourist store. It was obvious that the tour company has an arrangement to bring the tour there. Caveat #2 - When you are taken to the Souk, the same thing occurs as what happens at the "cultural center." You get to the souk and then must go into a specific shop, up the stairs, and hear a spice/herb presentation with a moderately hard sell afterwards. This took up about 15 minutes. You are then given time to go through the souk on your own with a specified time to return to the shop as a meeting point. Caveat #3 - the tour ends at the mall and Burj Khalifa. Be prepared to spend 3-4 hours standing in line to the 125th floor lookout of the Burj Khalifa. We spent about 2+ hours in the line to get to the elevators. Once you are on the floor, it is a beautiful outlook (if there is no smog/fog). However, you then of course of to go through the gift shop where there is another loooonnnnggg line to get on the elevators to go down. With a bad bag, I knew I could not stand in another line for several hours. I begged an attendant to let me and my wife go down with the next group which was granted. In all fairness, we went at about 1p. Maybe the lines are shorter first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon. My wife and I felt it was not worth the wait, and it basically made our tour an all day event. We were too tired from standing in line to walk through the mall. But for the price, it was a good way to see the landmarks and sites and learn about the history of Dubai. You use earbuds on the coach bus with recorded tour information. The guide on the bus was very helpful and provided context and additional information.

Good quick overview of the sights and landmarks of Dubai to let you know where you might want to come back to later, and if you don't have time for a full-day tour. Caveat #1 - tour takes you to what was deemed as a "cultural center" that was nothing but a tourist trap with the focus on trying to sell you tapestry rugs to hang on your wall. Yes, there was some good information given, but the main focus was a moderate hard sell. This took up about 30 minutes of the tour if not more. You are ushered upstairs to a big room lined with chair. The curators/sales people bring out tapestry after tapestry and lay them on the floor and tell you how much they cost. As you are leaving they come up to you personally trying to get you to purchase a tapestry. Downstairs there are all types of figurines they try to get you to purchase. Nothing on the building says cultural center. It is nothing more than a tourist store. It was obvious that the tour company has an arrangement to bring the tour there. Caveat #2 - When you are taken to the Souk, the same thing occurs as what happens at the "cultural center." You get to the souk and then must go into a specific shop, up the stairs, and hear a spice/herb presentation with a moderately hard sell afterwards. This took up about 15 minutes. You are then given time to go through the souk on your own with a specified time to return to the shop as a meeting point. Caveat #3 - the tour ends at the mall and Burj Khalifa. Be prepared to spend 3-4 hours standing in line to the 125th floor lookout of the Burj Khalifa. We spent about 2+ hours in the line to get to the elevators. Once you are on the floor, it is a beautiful outlook (if there is no smog/fog). However, you then of course of to go through the gift shop where there is another loooonnnnggg line to get on the elevators to go down. With a bad bag, I knew I could not stand in another line for several hours. I begged an attendant to let me and my wife go down with the next group which was granted. In all fairness, we went at about 1p. Maybe the lines are shorter first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon. My wife and I felt it was not worth the wait, and it basically made our tour an all day event. We were too tired from standing in line to walk through the mall. But for the price, it was a good way to see the landmarks and sites and learn about the history of Dubai. You use earbuds on the coach bus with recorded tour information. The guide on the bus was very helpful and provided context and additional information.