A vacation in UAE if you are lazy and on a budget

Need a break from the daily life, but don't want to plan or do anything? The words all-inclusive sound appealing? Want to catch some sun and have a budget? You can have all that in the Emirates, you just need to look in the ones you didn't hear about!

We are usually not fans of all-inclusives. We get bored fast and want to go out and explore, which kind of beats the purpose of an all-inclusive. Having said that, being locked down in the house working during COVID made us rethink our priorities. Lucy wanted to warm up after a cold Prague winter, and we didn't have many options as most of the borders were still closed, so we decided to do the unthinkable and looked for a traveling agency to take care of absolutely everything. The traveling agency was offering just a few destinations, the warmest among them was Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. I made my visa surprisingly fast and we decided to just do it, before another lock down will creep upon us.

Budget

About 1800 USD total, for 2 people, 8 days. Visa, flights, hotel, food and drinks, pickup from and to the airport, a day trip to Dubai and even a free covid test before we go back home. I know that this might be not so 'on a budget', but comparing to the situation we were in and the prices we saw in the country, I think we got off easy.

Ras Al Khaimah

Not Dubai? Not Abu Dhabi? You ask, and rightfully so. At that point of time (and I'm pretty sure that it is still the case now) the famous Emirates are more expensive to visit. So we decided to go to Ras Al Khaimah,the northern most emirate of the UAE, and the 4th Emirate in size.

Like in the other Emirates, there is an enormous amount of options of what to do. Historical tours, castles, abandoned villages, trips or hikes to the mountains, desert safaris, zip-lining and much more. We, of course did not do any of these things (hey, I said we were lazy on this one!). Apart from a bit of mall hopping and a day trip to Dubai, we just stayed in the hotel and decomposed on the beach or pool with our beers.

The hotel

The united Arab Emirates are known for their luxurious everything. This is the case for Ras Al Khaimah as well, if you look around you will easily find accommodations that will make you feel like you are in a movie. On the cheaper end, there are not that many good ones. We stayed at the BM Beach hotel and can just recommend it. The food was great, the beer was cold, and their private beach is amazing for spending the day doing absolutely nothing. For the romantic couples between us, there is also an option to get a very nice romantic dinner table on the beach (for extra cost, of course). The service is at a very high level even though it is definitely one of the luxurious places. And we even found some diplomats staying there.

Our day-trip to Dubai

In the lobby of the hotel you can always find at least one person that will be selling the tours and activities I have listed before. I have found a very nice lady that was extremely helpful with information about everything from tours to car rentals (and being able to speak Russian helped lowering the prices a bit!). We decided that we have enough will power to spend only one day doing anything else except recharging on the beach, and we took the day trip to Dubai. We left the hotel at around noon and the ride was about 2.5 hours, during which the guide had explained many things about the Emirates we were crossing. Once we reached Dubai, the tour bus made some of what I called 'photo tourism', meaning that we stopped in front of all the famous spots in Dubai for 5-10 minutes to take some photos and then went back to the bus. At the end of this bus hopping we arrived to the pier and took a boat ride with dinner, this was definitely the best part of the day for us. After dinner we continued to Dubai Mall and were given about 3 hours to roam around. We did some shopping and enjoyed the dancing fountains in front of the Burj Khalifa before hopping on the bus back to the hotel. We were back at the hotel around 11pm. delighted, and ready to do absolutely nothing more until we go back home.

Final thoughts

This vacation was probably the furthest off what we are used to, but it was nice to try some new things and we did enjoy it. I know that we probably didn't even see the beginning of what this country has to offer, but that wasn't our goal this time, instead we enjoyed a vacation in UAE. I hope you found this useful! If yes, tell your friends. If not, tell me!