Dubai has always been a shopping as well as tourist destination, liked by people both from the east and west. It took less then a century for the growth to generate to it’s present shape under the leadership of the Al Maktoum family. The dynamic transformation from an old fishing village to a world class global city was fast. You can go shopping spree here as well explore the golden beaches to the heritage sites. Here you have enough locations to relax far from the hustle and bustle and at the same time you get the pomp and splendor of the modern city living. The extravaganza and glitter of the city add more charm to it.
One such way to relax in the city is the Big Bus Tour, the open-top big bus tour of Dubai. You can glimpse the old and the new Dubai at the same time. This is surely the best way for a first-time traveler to enhance the knowledge of Dubai and observe the developmental pace of Dubai.
A peep into the History of Big Bus Tour
It was started in London by Richard, Eleanor and Des Maybury with two buses in the beginning. The customer service, entertainment and the local knowledge made this tour successful and soon ended up in becoming a class open-top bus operator in the world. London itself had 80 such buses running successfully.
Dubai wing started operating in the year 2002 and has around 46 buses in its fleet. Even though it is mainly possessed by the Maybury family, in 2007 the company decided to join hands with the UAE based Al Fahim Group, which will surely take up the project further by value enhancement.
Attractions of the Big Bus Tour
The popular Big Bus Tours or dubai wonder bus tour are the Beach Tour and the City Tour. It is noted that the beach tour will unfold to you the modern Dubai and the City tour – the historical Dubai. Dubai Beach tour will take you to places like Jumeriah beach, Jumeirah Mosque and Mall of the Emirates and other small malls. The City tour will take you to places like – The Dubai Gold Souk, Al Fahidi Fort, Bastakia Quarter and Dubai Old Souk.
Beach Tour will take just over two hours(if there in no stops in between) and the City Tour just an hour and a half. All tours have live commentary in English. There are also translated pre-recorded commentaries available in certain other languages like Arabic, German, French, Italian and Hindi. The Dubai city tour starts and ends from Wafi City Shopping center. The Beach tour starts and stops from very close to the Dubai Air Port and shopping center in Deira.
These tours allow you to explore places at your own. You can get down at places and hop to the next bus after exploration or shopping. The ticket you get is valued for 24 hrs. An intersection of these tours can be made at Wafi City and City Center at Deira.
By dialing the number 971 (UAE Code) 4 (Dubai Code) 340-7709 (Local Number) you can get up-to-date timings and schedules of trips. Also the websites provided below will give you information on the latest details.
Night Tour on the Big Bus Tour Dubai
Another attraction is the night tour. It is unique and new sight seeing experience where you can familiarize with the city that never sleeps. The night sight seeing experience is wonderful experience as it unveils the city to you which is lit in golden color. The tour starts from Deira city center at 7:30 pm and returning back at 9:30 pm, another point is Souk Madinat Jumeirah at 8:30 pm, returning at 10:30 pm. The highlights of the tour are –
- Deira City Centre
- Wafi and Raffles Hotel
- Sheikh Zayed Road
- Burj Dubai
- Dubai Mall
- Mall of the Emirates
- Atlantis on The Palm
- Souk Madinat Jumeirah
- Burj Al Arab
- Jumeirah Beach Road
- Jumeirah Mosque
- Al Dhiyafah Street
- Downtown Bur Dubai
- Dubai Creekside
- Maktoum Bridge
Don’t forget to carry a note pad and pen, you can note down the names of the places you have missed and hop on the next bus to enjoy that. Having sun screen lotion and a hat with you will be handy as if the inside is full, you may have to sit in the upper deck. So wish you a happy journey!
www.bigbustours.com/eng/dubai/default.aspx www.dubaicityinfo.com/Tours/dubai_big_bus_tour.aspx