What do you do with a seven hour layover in Dubai? Well…seven hours gives you enough time to store your bags, leave the airport, hang out in the city for about 2 1/12 hours and then return to the airport to get checked back in without stressing yourself out too much. SO! That’s what we did! On our flight to Sri Lanka we had a seven hour layover in Dubai. Thanks to Emirates, we were able to make the most of this tight layover and have a few quintessential Dubai experiences!

Once we landed we checked our bags with Emirates. They then arranged for a chauffeur to take us to the Dubai Mall.

At this point it was about 8:00 PM but because we had slept so well on our flight we were fine. The ride to the mall was pretty quick, maybe 15 minutes. We aren’t typically “mall” people but apparently the Dubai Mall is one of the largest and most opulent in the world so naturally we had to see it.

The mall is GINORMOUS. I cannot overstate this enough. It is the largest mall I have ever seen and is packed with every single high end store you could imagine. Plus every other store you would find anywhere in the world. All in one place, laid out beautifully and opulently. It is pretty overwhelming in its scale and scope.

There is also an enormous aquarium, much of which is visible from just walking around the mall.

We browsed in a few shops and ate some Thai food in the food court (we were having our main meal back in the Emirates lounge and so didn’t want to eat too much here). What I found the most fascinating was the people watching. Sure, there were a million shops and merchandise eye candy but seeing such a diverse mix of people milling around was more interesting. Women in full veils, expat families with babies in strollers, groups of Arab teenagers having a fun night at the mall, even the call to prayer broadcast over the sound system in the mall. I watched one large family having dinner and the mom, who was fully veiled, reached across the table to hand something to one of her children. As her hand came out of her veils it revealed a heavily jeweled sleeve to a gown she was wearing underneath as well as glittering bracelets dripping off of her wrist. SO many jewels. It was really unexpected and I loved witnessing it. We stopped into a little pharmacy and grabbed some allergy meds and packs of tissues (which were the strangest tissues ever because they were SCENTED with a rose scent which just makes you sneeze alllllll the harder! Seriously. Do NOT scent tissues. It doesn’t help anyone). We walked around through the two story Apple store. We saw every high end home decor store you could find in one place and of course I wanted everything. Eventually we made our way outside to see the Dubai Fountain show in front of the Burj Khalifa. The Dubai Fountain is the largest choreographed fountain show in the world and goes up every 30 minutes in the evening. We happened to make our way out there around 9:15 and saw all of the crowds gathering. Luckily we were able to secure a good spot and watched the show 15 minutes later. The music was kind of Bollywood-like and the water sprays were awesome. The air was warm and mild, the Burj Kalif was glittering right in front of us – it was perfect.

A few thoughts about the Burj Khalifa: It is so much larger and more spectacular to see in person than photos can convey. Trust me, it is worth the hype. Standing in front of the tallest structure in the world was something I will never forget. We elected NOT to go to the top because it was nighttime and we wouldn’t have been able to see anything other than twinkling lights below. If you ever have a layover where there will still be daylight make sure you go to the top. Also, it glitters at night and I wish I could have captured how stunning it appeared to us on the ground.

Once we were finished with the fountain show and drinking in our view of the Burj Khalifa we hopped in a taxi and went back to the airport. We picked up our bags, went through security and headed into the business lounge where we took showers, ate a very late dinner and relaxed until our 1:50 AM flight to Colombo. The airport was packed and busy and fully functional at this late hour. Every single shop was open and you would have thought it was 10:00 AM. I only purchased one souvenir while in Dubai but I thought it was pretty fantastic:

Our seven hours in Dubai were packed and full and I wish we had had juuuuuust a little more time. I have heard that sometimes with a long layover in Dubai people head into Abu Dhabi (it’s an hour and a half drive). Here you are able to see the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and even drive out into the sand dunes. I would have liked that but again, no time. We loved our brief experience and seeing the Burj Khalifa in person was definitely worth it. Thanks Dubai; I think we need to come back and explore you and your surrounding areas a bit more someday!