If you’re a jewellery lover, admirer of shiny things, avid cook and spice aficionado, then put a trip to the gold & spice souk at the top of your to-do list while you’re in Dubai. We’ve listed the most important things you should know about the place, to help you feel more prepared once you get there.
Both souks are right next to each other, upon entering you first go through the spice market and then after about a 5 minute walk, it starts merging into the gold souk. Be advised that everything is located outside so if you go during the summer months you’ll have to bare the hot weather.
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At the spice market you’ll be able to find a variety of different spices (obviously), herbs, dry fruits, honey, oils, cashmere, pashminas and various Arabic style trinkets.
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Sellers are very persistent and you will get tons of them calling over to you to check out their stall/store. Some have described this as slightly overwhelming because it is quite intense for a newcomer, so just try to have a good attitude and sense of humour about the whole situation.
Even though it’s not as glitz and glam as other places in Dubai, at the end of the day both the spice and gold souks are modelled in a traditional way. This doesn’t mean that the place is dodgy, on the contrary, it’s extremely safe (as the rest of Dubai is as well).
No tax, which is pretty much any shopper’s dream, right?
You can spot the world’s largest gold ring on display in a shop window as you walk through. It was even featured in the Guinness World Book of Records.
This is the place to practice your bargaining skills because vendors will purposely tell you unrealistically high prices, expecting you to barter back and forth until a much lower price is agreed upon by both parties.
Have a look at the video below to give you a virtual tour of what the gold souk looks like: