Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year! I just returned from my holiday to Dubai. I know it’s a controversial destination, but I didn’t plan to do much anyway and enjoyed my chilled vacation well.
A couple of small tips:
- I find buying attraction tickets (e.g. Burj Khalifa / View at the Palm / Monorail) on Trip.com much cheaper than the official sites, and you can stack the promo code and credit card cashback etc
- For Burj Khalifa and View at the Palm, consider paying more for the premium entry that gives access to the higher level plus fast track. I wasted more than one hour queueing at Burj Khalifa and bought the premium ticket for View at the Palm, and that’s a totally different experience on another level, both literally and metaphorically 🙂
Picture 1 is the crowded Level 52 and Picture 2 & 3 are the exclusive Level 54. I had my cut-the-queue privilege and barely waited throughout the entire visit.
For dining I wrote about the GHA Local offers tip a few days ago, which I think is pretty valuable. I also came across another interesting and maybe niche dining app – Zomato, that could help too.
From what I understand, Zomato is an India-based company that offers restaurant booking service, promotions as well as food delivery service. Zomato attempted running business internationally outside India but its presence appears to be limited to UAE now.
I found out about Zomato when I was googling a restaurant. With Zomato you get from 10% to 50% off when dining at participating restaurants. Some of the offers are pre-book only, and other ones (instant) can be redeemed outright.
I was quite puzzled when using the offer for the first time, but I eventually figured it out with the help of the waitress. You don’t get the discount from the restaurant directly, instead once you’ve received the bill, open the Zomato app, enter the due amount and pay in-app with your bank card. You’ll only pay the reduced amount, then show the completion screenshot to the restaurant staff as proof of payment.
I used the 20%-off offer twice and it worked quite smoothly. I think I was entered into some Gold Trial on Zomato after my first payment but honestly I had no idea what it was – at the end of the day I’m only here for a few days.
Recent Comments