Creek is the historic district of Dubai, holding many hidden gems of the city. The Old Souk is one of the many beautiful secrets hidden within Dubai Creek.
Read on to discover the history of Old Souk, as well has how to go about it.
The Old Souk is within a 3.3 Km walk or an 11 minute taxi/Uber ride from Golden Sands Hotel Creek.
Bur Dubai is the home of Dubai’s textile industry with the existence of the Old Souk dating back to the 19th Century. Dubai began focusing on the Creeks potential wealth in trade in the 19th Century and the textile Souk was one highlight.
The Old Souk is a deep cultured traditional Arabic shopping experience, displaying textiles, Arabic style attire, neatly woven baskets and straw accessories, a variety of non-branded stylish clothing and footwear. The fabulous culture filled shopping fulcrum offers an insightful history of Dubai’s trade activities making the area an exciting tourist attraction.
Structure and Experience
The Old Souk presents a beautiful architecture of tall wooden doors with wooden roofs, sand-colored walls designed around sand colored stone buildings, which exude an aura of the Old Dubai ambience.
The Old Souk shopping experience is filled with colour drawn from the hand woven and machine woven fabric, numerous shops and stalls, uniquely designed footwear and multiple versions of straw products other accessories such as buttons and lace. The Old Souk is not fully defined without mentioning other non-textile products such as perfumes, spices and authentic dried fruit. The shopping fun is the elevated by the low affordable prices offered to shoppers, allowing one to bargain for even lower prices and exit the Old Souk with a load full of fabulous items and souvenirs.
The best way to reach the Old Souk is a surreal ride across the Creek via the Abra (Traditional Arabic Water Taxi).
Reaching the Old Souk.
The charm of Dubai is preciously hidden in the southern side of Dubai’s Creek area in Bur Dubai. The Old Souk is also sometimes referred to as the textile Souk. Abra Taxis and the Dubai metro system has allowed it to be easy to reach the Old Souk, with hassle free transport available at the lowest of rates right through the day. The ride also avails a wonderful memorable experience for shoppers headed to the Old Souk. The deep cultured shopping hub is open from Saturday to Thursday, between 10am and 10pm giving tourists, residents and local merchants ample time to enjoy a history filled shopping encounter. However, Friday’s are only for those who enjoy shopping in the dusk hours of the day as the timing begin at 4pm stretching up to 10pm.
The best way to reach the Old Souk from Golden Sands Hotel Creek is via the Abra; the traditional Arabic water taxis. Take a surreal ride across the Creek - easily available across the Hotel, with a minimum fee of a few Dirhams (AED), this is the best way to experience the journey. Get off at the Old Souk Abra Station within a 10 minutes.
Under 3.3 km away from Golden Sands Hotel Creek, one can easily stroll to the Old Souk in the pleasant Winter weather. Alternatively a taxi or an Uber ride will take you to the Old Souk within 11 minutes,