How expensive is Dubai?

As expensive as you want it to get.

When I told one of my friends about my trip to Dubai, her first question was "isn't hotel there VERY expensive?" My answer was "ummm yes and no. There are expensive ones and then there are the 2 or 3 stars ones"..I remember, whenever I talked about Dubai to my ex-coworkers the expression they had was as if Dubai was the most expensive place on earth. No. New York is way far more expensive than that. Trust me. Believe you me.

Anyway, so, now that we made our 4 nights and 3 days stopover trip..let me go over the damage :

Flight: Being a stopover makes all the difference. From New York to Dubai flight alone can cost up to $1100 give or take. So, that IS expensive. But. There are some other ways to get around that. This is something I figured out on my own and I also read it on bootsnall (a backpacker-RTW traveler's paradise) that you can pretty much get a free flight to an expensive destination if you make it a stopover trip. My flight costs me 1400USD from New York to Dhaka, and it seemed Dubai stopover came almost as free! There was basically no price difference from NY to DHK without the stopover if that makes sense.

But this is an exception. Not everyone who wants to see Dubai will make it a stopover trip, probably make a vacation out of it.

So, the expense sans flight for us was as follow : 2 adults and an infant...

Hotel at Al Barsha 1- 4 nights around $700 - with tax and service charge
Dinners-
4 dinners for 2- @ a local pizzeria (had sandwich and all), @ Hotel room service , @ Meat Co restuarant , @ Karam Beirut restaurant

1 Brunch - @ the Beachcombers- 460 AED ( roughly $130)-splurge category for me.

2 breakfasts- hotel room service (70 AED-roughly $20.00 total )

Round trip cab fares Airport to Hotel- 160 AED (roughly $45)
7 misc cab rides ( from hotel to JBH, from Souk Madinat to hotel-2 times; from hotel to MOE; from Ibn Battuta Mall to Souk Madinat; from hotel to Jumeirah beach; from JB to Dubai Mall; From Dubai Mall to hotel)- roughly $50.00 total

Metro tix for 2- from MOE to Al Ras and then Al Ras to Ibn Batuuta - $9.00

2 tickets to Top of the Burj Khalifa experience 
Misc- tips; bottled water. coffee etc..

So, total it was about $1100.00....for everything mentioned above.