I have a 4 -5 day layover In Dubai
Do you know of an experienced safe reliable local tour company or car and driver/guide for my stay ? I’m a single woman traveling alone?
I would rather NOT use viatour separate day excursions.
I was hoping 3 days Dubai and 1 day Abu Dhabi
Suggestions ?
Thanks
Major hotels can help with that. I stayed at the Marriott when I was in China and when I checked in, I signed up for all the tours I wanted to take.
I don't have a specific recommendation, but I do have a strategy.
I often start by looking at the Tours By Locals website. It lists tours available for a city and has bios of the guides who participate with the site. Tour/guide reviews can only be done by people who have purchased a tour, so they should be fairly reliable. For Dubai, the link is https://www.toursbylocals.com/Dubai-Tours
If I find someone that looks like a good fit for me, I do a web search for them to try to find their personal site; booking on the private site generally saves money over the Tours by Locals site (which takes a 20-25% finder's fee).
For example, let's go with "Nada B" (I am not endorsing Nada B, just using her as an example). When I put "Nada B tour guide dubai" in the DuckDuckGo search engine, I get her Tours By Locals site, but I also get her "Wander with Nada" private site (which unfortunately is down for maintenance at the moment, but she has a contact e-mail).
I also get links to TripAdvisor reviews, which I can use to see her Trip Advisor listing: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g295424-d10054988-Reviews-Wander_with_Nada-Dubai_Emirate_of_Dubai.html
TA has 455 reviews, but it is interesting to note that many of her reviews are single contributor reviews. Either she is aggressive at getting clients to do TA reviews (positive worldview) or she is paying for reviews to push her up the list for TA guides (cynical worldview).
At any rate, this strategy has worked well for me.
In case your time meshes and you are interested, World Expo 2020 was delayed until this year and starts some time in October in Dubai. That can be reached by anew metro line. First car on the metro is women only.
I don't have a specific recommendation, but I do have a strategy.
Another thing I would like to add to Dave’s post, when you see TripAdvisor’s logo (owl eyes) on a website, it’s a good sign.
I felt very safe getting around Dubai on my own, even in the evening, unlike my time in say Turkey. It’s easy to cover many places on your own, as the transport links are good. Most hotels run complimentary bus shuttles to the major sights, the metro is prompt and efficient (although not extensive), with women only carriages if required and taxis line up at all the hotels and are cheap. I enjoyed pottering around the creek and taking the water taxi across to see what life was like 40 years ago before the development bug arrived. Don’t buy spices at the souk - the supermarkets are a tenth the price and it’s the same stuff.
We did a great tour of the UAE that was called the 7 Emirates Tour.
Can't remember the name of the company. It was a great tour.
Here is one that I found on the internet.
http://www.anatoliatravels.com/7_Emirates_Tour.htm
Just. Forgot to mention, there are 'pink cabs' women drivers for women passengers. You could most timely also negotiate all day rates for car and driver if you know where you want to go and don't need the tour guide knowledge.
gina's modified post has been sent for review by the Community Guidelines Department since the link was added. Caution suggested unto then.
nice spam try rashed
sent off for zappage.
You know that's a bit naughty on here
this thread has only attracted spam since mid-May
