Dubai Terminal 3 Lounge Options

BlackEdelweiss

We have a 10 hour stop over in Dubai. Me, my wife and 3 kids aged 14, 10 & 8. Has anyone tried any of the paid lounges or the airport hotel? Are they worth the money or are we as well just passing the time in the terminal?

dancrowley

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

We have a 10 hour stop over in Dubai. Me, my wife and 3 kids aged 14, 10 & 8. Has anyone tried any of the paid lounges or the airport hotel? Are they worth the money or are we as well just passing the time in the terminal?

My then-pregnant wife and I had a 6-hour stopover in Dubai around Christmas time. We availed of the airport hotel and found it money well spent. We'd usually use one of the pay-in lounges or whatever lounge my credit card gets us into, but nothing beats a proper room for a good snooze.

With 10 hours, however, and depending on the time you arrive, I would look at spending the time in the city itself; grab a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and check the place out etc. Time will fly.

Seve OB

take a taxi to Deira. not far at all, maybe 10-15 minutes away and would cost you about €3.
nice to wander around the souks, get a boat over the river

other option go to dinosaur park, again only arund the corner. it is supposed to be excellent

BlackEdelweiss

I never thought of leaving the airport. Does it take long to clear security? Do I need any visa or other documentation?

Dinosaur Park sounded good but it is closed until October. I read up about the souks, sounded like our worst ever holiday in Morocco getting hassled by sellers. Dont think I could convince the wife to go through it again. I like the sound of a boat trip.

Seve OB

I've never been to morocco, but ive been around the souks in Dubai and other places. Yea you get a bit of hassle, but I've always enjoyed a bit of friendly banter. All down to the individual. There are loads of different boat options, but the dhous are mad. cost 1 dirham, about 28c and bring you from 1 side to the other. not a tour or anything, just a very interesting trip between the markets.
depending on your times, there maybe some sort of cruise option up the river you could do.
And depending on your budget...you could head to Dubai Creek golf club right next to the airport. from there you can take a seaplane tour around Dubai with different options going out over the Palm, the desert dunes and all the way as far as Abu Dhabi.

never got to Dinosaur park ourselves, but it does sound really good and it's on the list to do next time

i'm not sure about clearing security as each time we used a company called maribas (I think) who meet you off the plane and walk you straight through to the street and is very quick with no queues. i guess it depends on times of day etc, if you just queued in the general line how quick you can get through. though when we last went, the queue didn't look that bad. i would have said no more than 10-15 minutes

getting back in, we lined up with the unwashed and to be honest, it is really really quick, basically no queues

BlackEdelweiss

As there are 5 of us we would require 2 rooms in the hotel which costs about $600 (NZ dollars) which I dont really want to spend just for a bit of comfort. I would be fine without a sleep and dont mind hanging around the airport or even taking a trip into town with one of the kids but I would love a shower. If we got 1 room in the hotel is there any chance my wife and I could swap places at some stage and I go up to the room for a quick shower or is there specific security measures around the hotel entry to allow only the persons named on the booking into the hotel? On the same note is there any chance of sneaking an extra kid into the room as they are only for 3 people. I cant find a room for 4. A bit of a Sophie's Choice situation otherwise, who gets to sleep in the comfortable bed and have a nice shower and who gets to walk around the airport with me for 10 hours. I would happily pay for a 4th person but it does not seem to be an option.