Dubai is the perfect family friendly winter holiday destination

Dubai is the perfect family friendly winter holiday destination. It’s famous for the world’s largest mall, world’s tallest building, and all the other biggest and best things. But we fell in love with the beautiful beaches and the amazing desert. And our little baby Liam took his first international flight with the United Arab Emirates being his first country he’s visited.

Winter In Dubai

We were so lucky to stay with our friends who had recently moved to Dubai from South Africa. We visited Dubai for our two-week Christmas school break in December and January. February is the coldest month in Dubai, but December and January are the next coolest. (Look at their weather for the year.) I do not like the heat, being born and raised in Seattle. So I was a bit worried about the weather in Dubai. But the weather was absolutely perfect. It seems like Christmas and February school holidays would both be the perfect time for our family to visit Dubai with the average daily temperature being between 70-74 F (20-23 C).

The Best Beaches

The beaches were absolutely gorgeous with the most perfect sand. The girls loved collecting seashells and running into the sea. Our favorite family friendly beaches were Jumeirah Beach, Kite Beach, and Black Palace Beach. Just thinking about them makes me want to book a flight immediately!

Black Palace Beach, known as the secret beach, is a public beach in Dubai. It doesn’t have any facilities, so wear your swimsuit there and pack a picnic lunch. It’s definitely worth finding as it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Jumeirah Beach has absolutely everything you could ever want all in one place. It’s an outdoor shopping and eating area with a gorgeous beach and incredible water playground built into the sea for the kids (and adults). It has cabanas and everything you can think of. If you want all the options, this is the place.

Kite Beach is a perfect medium in between these two beaches. It has a wonderful walking path, sandwich shop, and that same gorgeous sandy beach.

The Desert

My favorite moment in Dubai was driving into the desert. We drove our friend’s car from their house about 20 minutes to the desert. We pulled right off the highway and were suddenly in the rolling sand dunes of the desert.

The car was packed full of food to grill and we set off into the sunset, literally. We drove into the desert sand and parked the car in between a few absolutely gorgeous sand dunes. The kids ran around up and down the dunes and us grown ups walked up to enjoy the view and the vast expanse of sandy hills.

We grilled in the sand, chatted with friends for hours, and enjoyed this perfect place out in the middle of nowhere, yet so close to everything in Dubai. We probably only drove 20 minutes out of the city to enjoy this perfect night. There are desert safari drives you can sign up for and I think it would be fun to try next time. But this night was perfectly free and wonderfully relaxed and on our own time frame.

Shopping

So we went to the largest mall in the world on December 26th….The Dubai Mall. And boy it was busy! Every store was having a huge sale, and they have EVERY STORE. This is where the famous Dubai Aquarium is located. We made our way past the indoor ice skating rink and past all the American stores I thought were only in America (Garrett’s Popcorn, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn, etc) and past the Aquarium to watch The Dubai Fountain. We got an outdoor table at Shake Shack (Chicken burger and peanut butter shake please) and watched the gorgeous water show. That was enough of the Dubai madness for me. After that we went serious beach on our holiday.

Going Back To Dubai

We are already thinking about going back to Dubai either next Christmas or February school holidays. The weather will be perfect for either school holiday and I think a week or two is perfect to do all the fun things in Dubai (and take a quick couple days to Oman like we did). I think we could spend a whole week enjoying the beach alone. It’s also nice to take advantage of the after Christmas sales at these huge malls that have absolutely all the stores. Next time I think it would be fun to see the Souks that we didn’t get time for on this trip.

Sometimes truly relaxing and having a nice holiday is more important that checking all the sights off the to do list. And my friend had made a wonderful to do list for us. We maybe checked half the items off the list, but we really had the most wonderful holiday. And I would definitely come back for the desert safari and more beaches. I’m so impressed with how family friendly Dubai is. It truly has it all.