If you are new in Dubai, you have seen it all around. If you live in Dubai since a few months, they told you. Emaar is the leader in building and the most trustful developer in the city. They even have an app. So, what is U by Emaar?

We have a lot of apps in our phone, even too many. So why another one?

Emaar is the best developer in UAE. It has a long history, and it is the owner of the Burj Khalifa. Moreover, the entire Downtown area is dominated by its buildings. Another area the company is building is the Creek.

Emaar is characterised by its modern buildings and by the quality of its development. If you are searching for a new home (check our article here), Emaar is the name for quality.

Sure, Emaar properties are not cheap, but they come with benefits. Quality is one, another one is the App.

U by Emaar is an app created by Emaar to make your life easier in town. In fact, on the app, not only you can book restaurants around the city, but also you have a cashback. In fact, Emaar is offering you a cashback in terms of accumulated points to use in another venues.

You need to know that Emaar is not just a developer, it is also the owner of different hotel chains. For example, all the Address hotels are owned by Emaar. Vida hotels and Manzil are others. Therefore, the app allows you to book and get the discount in all the restaurants in those hotels. Cashback included.

How can you get the app?

If you are an Emaar resident, you can download the app and register. You need to upload your contract and Ejari. This allows you to get already the first Tier of loyalty, the black one.

Otherwise, if you are not a resident, you can just download it and you will start from the most basic tier of loyalty. However, using this discount code is going to give you immediately benefits:

Step 1: Click on the link below to download the U By Emaar app
Step 2: Register using your mobile number and enter the referral code (VYJL12D2)

Download the app now: https://bit.ly/2XP80Jq

The latest possibility to access to a high tier of membership is to get the U by Emaar credit card. Emirates NBD offers this option. For every purchase you make, you get points to use in the Emaar Venues.

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Dubai has seen a huge increase of number of visitors and residents in the past few years. Different events made the city really popular. However, the more people arrive, the more expensive are airline tickets. Therefore, let’s see how to fly cheap to Dubai.

Dubai has been on the news since they started with the vision of creating something extraordinary. The government has approved incredible projects to make the city on the map. In the bast 2 decades, the city has shifted from a pearl fishermen small town to becoming one of the most urbanized cities in the world.

Firstly, projects such as the Burj Al Arab, the palm islands (yes, there are 2) or the Burj Khalifa made the news globally. In fact, these projects were so big that everyone around the globe starting to talk about it or to make documentaries.

I remember 2010 and watching on Discovery channel the series on the Dubai Airport operations or the construction of the palm.

Lately, the city has benefitted from a nice strategy to fight Covid and on its open business bureaucracy. Dubai has become lately a global city, a city that everyone knows or has been. The years when it was considered an exotic place with other traditions are gone.

However, it is also true that the cost to reach the city is more expensive day by day. Dubai is home of the Dubai Airport, the busiest international airport in the world. Moreover, Emirates is based in Dubai, connecting the city to the world through its modern fleet of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777.

Therefore, the classic idea is to try to book an Emirates flight.

Emirates is however a premium airline. Its motto is Fly Better. This is no Ryanair or a low cost. Flying with Emirates means having in mind to pay a bit more to “Fly better”. No shock that the tickets are expensive. Even if, sometimes there are offers or great deals to take.

An option when you are looking on how to fly cheap to Dubai is to check which airline is flying to Dubai Airport. Try to search for NON-Emirates companies flying to Dubai Airport. You can use websites such as Booking.com or Skyscanner to do so.

At Dubai airport there is also based Flydubai, the low-cost company of Emirates. However, this low cost is service different markets compared to Emirates and might be possible that your route is only operated by its mother company Emirates.

A good advice is to search for Dubai as a city and not Dubai Airport. In fact, in Dubai there is a second airport, the Dubai Al Maktoum airport, which is the base for some low costs airlines.

However, the best strategy for flying cheap to Dubai is actually NOT flying to Dubai.

Seems strange but, because it is less famous and wants to attract more tourist, Abu Dhabi offers better deals. Abu Dhabi is the base of Etihad Airlines. The company wanted to be a competitor of Emirates in the past. However, due to the past struggling years, It has changed its business model shifting to a middle class airline. Its prices are more competitive and there are more offers. Moreover, Abu Dhabi is only 1 hour driving to Dubai and any taxi from Abu Dhabi Airport will drive you to Dubai for around 200aed.

Try to search for low-cost airlines serving Abu Dhabi. Recently WizzAir has created a base in Abu Dhabi and is offering its low cost tickets. WuzzAir is definitely a low cost, so do not expect to have food or TVs onboard.

The last option would be to search from Sharjah Airport. Sharjah is another emirate, neighbour or Dubai. The city is only 40 minutes driving from Dubai and any taxi will drive you to Dubai for around 150aed. Sharjah airport is the base of Air Arabia, a low cost operating in the region. Try to search the options of this airline or any other airlines that might operate a flight to Sharjah.

The last suggestion to how to fly cheap to Dubai would be flying during the week if you can or replanning your visit to low season.

The post HOW TO FLY CHEAP TO DUBAI? appeared first on Entrepreneurs in Dubai .

Whenever you arrive in Dubai and you get a place to stay, the next thing to thing is which is a cheap supermarket in Dubai to go for your groceries?

Let’s start saying that is normal initially to spend hundreds of dirhams for a couple of items. To all of us happened at least once to buy one milk and one bread for 100aed.

It is normal because you are new in town and you don’t know how to buy items in a cheap supermarket in Dubai.

In Dubai there are all the supermarkets you want, from local stores to discounts, from a specific food store to the huge hypermarkets. You can find Indian supermarkets, Italian, French and Arabian all over town. There are organic supermarkets but also exotic ones. What about the difference between the local 24h daily supermarket and the huge hypermarkets.

So let’s summarise what you can find:

Daily shops. If you leave in a really densely populated area, you probably have in your building or just hundreds meters away a Daily shop. Most of the time they are open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Usually you can find a few products and they are perfect if you are missing something for your dinner receipt. They are usually expensive.

Local supermarkets. Local supermarkets are spread around town. You can find a Spinneys or a Choithram in almost every areas of town. Most of the time you can also find Carrefour, Grandiose or Geant markets in your area. You can fins a bigger selection compared to the daily shops and they are usually a bit cheaper. However they are less spread around and you might need to walk a bit or drive a couple of minutes. They are not usually open all day. However all supermarkets are working 7 days a week.

Hypermarkets. The cheap supermarket in Dubai is definitely a hypermarket. These are usually at a car distance. You can find them in some malls or around town. Most of the time you need to drive there. These are the supermarkets where you can find every imaginable products and with family boxes and offers. We can mention here chains like Carrefour, UnionCoop and Lulu.

Discounts supermarkets. Spread around town there also supermarkets that offer discounts or products without brand. These are good for all the products that you want to get and you are not really caring if they are from a know brand or not. You can save a lot in these markets. One of this is VIVA supermarkets.

Culture markets. There are also around town, with no chain, supermarkets focused on a particular culture and country of products. You can find Arabian supermarkets, Indian, British and others around town. you can find here the products you are buying at home or the exotic products you might need to cook a special dish.

Online stores. There are shops only ONLINE where you can buy special products. For example you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables on NRTC Fresh or Italian food on Casinetto.

Order supermarkets online. You can use APPs to order your groceries from the daily shops or from the local supermarkets around you. The most common is INSTASHOP, but you can use also Careem APP. They are going to the supermarket on your behalf and delivery at home your products in around 1 hours. You can also buy a huge grocery from Carrefour hypermarket but it will take at least 24hours to be delivered.

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Whenever you arrive to Dubai to move or just on a trip, holiday or business, you probably ask yourself if you can drink water in dubai. Well, maybe you asked yourself this question or maybe not, however is good to analyse the issue.

Dubai is located in the Middle East, a really arid area of the globe. A region between Africa and Asia. Most of you know that in most of Africa you cannot drink tap water and you should always drink bottled water. The same can be said for some asian region, including India, Pakistan and other areas of south-east asia.

Therefore, it is quite common for people to have this doubt. Can you really drink water in dubai from the sink? At the end Dubai is really in the middle between all those countries where is better to not drink it.

The short answer is… YES you can. However, it is quite uncommon for people to do so.

The reason why not so many drink water in dubai from the sink is again in Dubai Geography.

Dubai is characterised by its extreme weather, really small rain and a massive heat all year long. So, most of its infrastructures have to fight this extreme weather. Dubai municipality does a great job in maintaining all the pipes and connections, however, it is a daily fight against nature.

Moreover, dubai is sandy, being located in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately the sand is really thin and has the bad habit of going everywhere it can. Pipes than can have sand infiltrations and can be rusty bey the sun. Water goes in them as might come to your sink together with sand and some rust.

You can drink it but the suggestion is to filter it again. To do so, you can use a water filter or a pitcher.

Another solution is to drink water from the bottles. We need, and we will write another article about bottled water so keep being updated by subscribing to our newsletter.

One of the reason why people drink eater in dubai by bottle is the fact that tap water is actually coming from the sea.

Yeah, you read it correctly!

Even if it is not salty, water comes from the sea to your sink on a daily base.

This process is called desalinisation and Dubai is a pioneer in the art of transforming water from the sea in drinkable water.

Dubai, being again in an arid region of the world has limited or zero access to clean water so has to transform the water from the sea to use it in the city.

The process consist in cleaning the water from the elements that might be in the ocean and from it salt.

This process is mandatory, the water is pure and drinkable, however someone says that in removing all the elements, minerals are removed as well. Therefore, drinking bottled water helps in absorbing your daily needs of minerals.

The choice is your, however I personally drink bottled water and I use the sink water for showering and to cook.

The post Can you drink water in dubai? appeared first on Entrepreneurs in Dubai .

I have lived in Dubai for more than 7 years at this point. I have seen the city changing and growing fast. More and more people are coming to live in Dubai. At the same time, a lot of entrepreneurs are deciding to move in Dubai and to start their businesses here. This is the reason for why this blog, a guide for all of them.

Data are clear, every day hundreds of new entrepreneurs are coming to Dubai. With them, their questions and problems are coming as well.

The more people are coming, the more I receive messages and questions about helping in setup in Dubai.

This is the reason for why this blog. I want to create a precise guide to offer help and suggestions to you. Do not make the mistakes I made once I moved here.

When you decide to move to a new city, most of the time you do not know where to start. Therefore, what you do is asking the people you know already there for help.

I really believe in the power of helping others. At the same time, I feel there is not a precise point of contact for the entrepreneurs in Dubai to understand better what they need to make business and to live a peaceful life.

It is true that other solutions are already out there. For example, consulates or business councils are really helping entrepreneurs in dubai to connect and to do network. This blog wants to be different. This is the fast guide you can consultate in a couple of clicks to solve all the small problems you might face on a daily base.

For example, where to buy good water, which are the first steps to rent an apartment or just how to get discounts in nice restaurants.

Yes, we are also going to offer you business suggestions and sharing our experience.

Our Mission is: SOLVING all your daily life annoying questions and problems as an entrepreneur in Dubai.
So you can focus on what matters the most: your business!

I created this blog with in different HACKS in mind.
The HACKS are the answers to all your daily questions you have, for which I have already found an answer during my life here in Dubai.

Different Hacks are related to all the questions I have asked myself through the years. Including, all the questions the new comers entrepreneurs in dubai have asked me in the past years.

I am summarising the most common Hacks in the following categories:

BUSINESS HACKS: This category is going to include all the suggestions i have for you to setup your business properly in Dubai. This section includes all the answers to the questions related to setup a new business, accounting, taxation, VAT declaration, and everything you need to know.

CITY HACKS: This category will include all the answers related to how to move around the city like a local. Understanding the different areas of the city, getting to know where to go or what to do.

HOUSE HACKS: Finding a place where to live is the first big problem when you move to dubai. Probably, just as big as setting up a business. This category helps you in understanding what you need to know, what you to do and how you can avoid being scammed.

LIFE HACKS: This section is going to help you in addressing all your concerns about how to live a healthy life. For example where you can buy what, which recommendations you need in this extreme weather and how to maintain a good work-life-dubai balance

However, you can always just read the latest from the Blog Section, where all the articles are going to show.

Do not forget to subscribe to the newsletter to receive all the answers in your email.

The post Why this Blog – Entrepreneurs in Dubai appeared first on Entrepreneurs in Dubai .