Posted by: Aniket Agarwal
If ultra-luxurious lifestyle, sky high buildings, exquisite tourist attractions weren’t enough, here’s one more reason for you to visit the stunning city of Dubai – The Dubai Shopping Festival. A playground for children, an art gallery for culture seekers and a heaven for shopaholics, the Dubai Shopping Festival, is a jovial place for all kinds of tourists. Take a decent number of leaves before you visit Dubai during the fest, because once you’re here, you wouldn’t want to leave anytime soon.
Travel light, or just don’t carry luggage at all, buy everything new at the festival. Your favourite brands will go on unbelievable discounts, anything from 30% to a whooping 95%. That Louis Vuitton bag, or the Gucci shirt or the Rolex watch you have always dreamed of buying, you can finally buy them here. With this guide, we’ll give you an overview of when, where and what to shop at the DSF. Let’s get going!
When To Visit
Although Dubai is a fun and happy place year around, January is when the magic of Dubai Shopping Festival happens. The festival starts from the last week of December and generally runs till the 1st week of February. If you want to grab on the best merchandise, we suggest you plan on welcoming the new year in Dubai. In the initial days, you will get the best quality, designs and the most popular items on huge discounts. Although many people find the last weeks to be cheaper but you won’t get too many options to choose from like in the initial weeks. So our take is that you keep checking for the official dates and plan on spending more time and less money in Dubai.
Where To Shop
Here comes the best part and we didn’t reveal the location intentionally. It’s EVERYWHERE! Yes, the Dubai Shopping Festival isn’t something that’s organized at a particular place or ground, the whole city is a part of it. From local street stores to high end brand stores in malls, everyone puts in the best decoration and discount to attract customers. “It’s really crazy out there.
The atmosphere, the discounts and the options, everything is just unbelievable”, these are the words of one of our customers who booked the Dubai Holiday Package with us to visit the DSF. The whole city’s atmosphere is quite entertaining, you’ll find street shows, live music performances, play areas for children and much more. To top it all, if you visit Dubai during DSF you can also witness the beauty of the Global Village in Dubai. The global village is where you’ll find over 100 countries presenting their culture, cuisine and apparel to you. It’s a great place to get your hands on some international handicrafts. We got two main places where you can shop till you drop.
The Dubai Mall
The world’s largest mall offers over 1500 shops to broaden your search for the right item. You’ll find almost each and every brand within the mall, it’s more like a mini city in itself. The mall has theatres, food courts, the Underwater Zoo, Ski Dubai and a lot more to do besides shopping. But, since we’re here for shopping let’s talk about that. Like we said, you’ll find over 1500 shops each offering mouth-watering discounts and something unique that’ll make you want to step in.
It’s safe to say that a complete tour of the Dubai Mall during the Dubai Shopping Festival would mean exhausting the shopping budget completely. The place has everything from Clothes to cosmetics, apparels, luggage, home decor, grooming, electronics etc. If you don’t want to spend much time travelling around, looking for places to shop, the Dubai Mall is the place for you. With Dubai Holiday Packages from ineedtrip, you can not only shop your pockets out, you will also get to explore the nearby attractions like the Dubai fountain, Burj Khalifa and more. Visiting the Dubai Mall is anyway one of the must-do activities in Dubai, so shopping or no shopping, you have to go here.
The Souks
Ahh! The best place to experience the culture of Dubai and testing your bargaining skills. There are four souks in Dubai, namely the Gold Souk, Textile Souk, Perfume Souk and the Spice Souk, each offering different luxury. Although the Souks are always bustling with amazing fragrance and lively atmosphere, the shopping experience goes to the next level during the Dubai Shopping Festival. Every shop, vendor in all the four souks puts a discount on his offerings, the place is lit up nicely and you’ll hear vendors calling you out. There’s a fireshow during the weekends in the evenings.
The Souks are known for the variety and quality of items and with the DSF, all of these go on huge discounts. The Gold Souk, is the most famous amongst the four souks, here you’ll find a huge variety of gold, silver, imitation jewellery and gemstones.
The Perfume souk as the name speaks, will offer you fragrances that you’d want to put on every day. The variety of Rose, Sandal, Lily and other ‘itras’ sold here during the DSF have gained immense popularity. The spice souk is for those who like cooking and dry fruits (a weird combo, we know), during the DSF, the vendors put up a display of the colourful spices they offer and the streets are filled with an enchanting aroma.The textile souk, without a doubt attracts the most number of tourists, everything from hand made textiles to machine-made clothes including Kashmiri, Pashmina, Silk, Cotton, Wool go on sale during the DSF. The Souks are the best place to shop once you’re done with branded shopping at the Dubai Mall. Visiting the souks is also one of the top activities in Dubai for tourists.Need help in planning a trip to Dubai? Read our blog on how to plan the perfect Dubai trip from India.
Some other places where you can shop during the Dubai Shopping Festival are:
- the Ibn Battuta Mall
- The Global Village
- Al Rigga Street
- Al Fahidi For
- Promenade at Dubai Festival City
- DSF Desert Camp
- Al Seef Street
- Mall of the Emirates
- Deira City Centre
- Festival Waterfront Centre
- Dragon Mart and more.
What To Shop
We get it, when everything’s on discount it’s hard to decide what to buy. The discounts during the Dubai Shopping Festival are so alluring that you’ll feel like buying everything you see. Here are a few things you can buy during the fest, make a list or just set a budget.
Apparel
The first and foremost thing that comes to our mind when we hear “shopping” is clothes. So, apparel should be the first thing on your shopping list. You’ll get brands like Hermes, Versace, Prada, Armani, Ralph Lauren and every brand you could dream of. The best part is that you’ll get a huge variety from each brand and since apparels are the most sought after items, they are offered with up to 90% discount.
Jewellery
Gold is the most sought after item in Dubai, when jewellery is offered duty free, why don’t you fancy yourself with a designer bracelet or locket or maybe something for your partner. Careful, the lucrative prices will make you want to purchase more than the customs limit, don’t fall in that trap.
Gadgets
Apple, Blackberry, Virtu, Dell, Sony and all other big brands make huge sales during the Dubai Shopping Festival, thanks to the duty free option. You can buy anything from smartphones, laptops, hard drives, headphones and more, so it’s time to update your tech stock.Other items like leather bags, cosmetics, home decor are also sold at decent prices too.Shopping is one thing and sightseeing is another, you can read our blog on the top 10 things to do in Dubai if you want your trip to be full of fun.
Conclusion
So, this was your guide to the Dubai shopping festival. Ineedtrip’s Dubai holiday packages will cover your airfare, hotel, sightseeing, breakfast and a lot more. So that you can focus on shopping while we handle all your booking and travel stress. Here’s something more, all our Dubai packages are on huge discounts. So book your packages now to save more money for shopping in Dubai.
