City Centre Deira Mall
Page update - Sep 29, 2022
City Centre Deira is now the 4th largest mall in the Emirate of Dubai, and second only to Dubai Mall in terms of tourist traffic. There are more than 350 stores, more than 50 cafes and restaurants, a cinema and a children's entertainment center on three floors. A great way to spend an evening and make a variety of beach holidays. Especially since you can get from many hotels for free. Let's talk about all this in detail.
As of September 2022, the City Centre Deira Mall is operating normally. Starting September 28, 2022, all the UAE have abolished the requirement to wear masks in shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, cafes. You can now walk around City Centre Deira everywhere without a mask.
Where is it located?
City Centre Deira Mall is located on the eastern part of the Deira district of Dubai City, not far from the airport. Several dozen hotels are within walking distance, and 4 hotels are directly connected to the mall.
How to get there - Free Bus
Attention! Due to covid security measures, free shuttle buses are not yet available. Waiting for its soon restart. But it seems will be no restart, because they even deleted the page about shuttle bus from the official web-site.
There are 4 free bus routes from different hotels to the City Centre Deira Mall.
Route 1. Hotels: Al Bustan Rotana, Copthorne, Le Meridien, Meridien Fairway, Millennium.
Route 2. Hotels: Coral Deira, Flora Grand, Grand Central, Movenpick, Traders Hotel, Asiana Hotel, Holiday Inn Downtown, Dream Palace, Sheraton Deira, JW Marriott Dubai, Star Metro Hotel Apartments, Marcopolo.
Route 3. Hotels: Lords Hotel, Comfort Inn, Eureka Hotel, Metropolitan Deira, Hallmark Hotel, Taj Palace, Nihal Hotel, Metropolitan Palace, Ibis Al Rigga, Semiramis Hotel, Avari Hotel, Zain International.
Route 4. Hotels: Samaya Hotel, Sheraton Creek, Radisson Blu, Hilton Creek, Marriot Hotel, Carlton Hotel, Clover Greek, Al Khaleej Hotel, Riviera Hotel, Emirates Concorde.
If you found your hotel in the list above, ask for the free bus schedule at the front desk. If you haven't found your hotel in the list, then read on for paid ways.
How to get there - paid ways
The easiest way is by Dubai Metro. Get off at the Deira City Centre station on the first (red) line. For the metro lines map and fares please visit our page "Dubai Metro".
You can also take a cab. If you don't get stuck in Dubai evening traffic jams, you'll get there quicker than by subway. The cab ride cost range from 12 to 60 dirhams. The prices vary a lot depending on the location of the hotel (or other place where you ride from).
Dubai is a megalopolis stretching along the coast for 40 kilometers. From the hotel in Deira, you can reach the mall for 12 dirhams. From the hotel in Dubai Marina, for 60 dirhams. See our page "UAE currency" for the current exchange rates of dirham, and the fares are on the page "Taxi cabs in UAE".
Opening hours
Mall:
Monday through Thursday: 10 am to 10 pm (10-00 to 22-00);
Friday through Sunday: 10 am to midnight (10-00 to 00-00);
Almost all stores and restaurants are open according to this schedule.
Carrefour Hypermarket: 9am to midnight on all days.
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Size and other figures
City Centre Deira Mall has 1,300,000 square feet (121,000 square meters) of retail space. This is above average by the UAE standards.
City Centre Deira Mall opened on August 27, 1995, and at that time was the second largest, second only to the BurJuman Mall. Recall that neither the Dubai Mall nor the Mall of Emirates existed then.
Now there are more than 350 stores, including one of the largest hypermarkets Carrefour in the UAE, it is second only to Carrefour in the Mall of the Emirates. The parking lots on the ground floor (GF) and on the roof can take 3,600 cars.
Four hotels are directly connected to City Centre Deira: Pullman Dubai Creek, Novotel Dubai Deira, Ibis Deira, Aloft City Centre Deira. Aloft and Pullman hotels are adjacent to the building of the mall.
City Centre Deira is owned by Majid Al Futtaim. It is one of 12 shopping centers under the brand name "City Centre". In addition to Dubai, there are City Centre Malls in Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt, Muscat, Kurum, Bahrain and Beirut. We have already written about one of them in the review "City Centre Ajman".
Entertainment
The Magic Planet entertainment center is the best place for children in the mall. There are several relatively large rides, bumper cars, a 4D capsule, and two merry-go-rounds. In addition, there are a couple dozen mini-attractions for very young visitors, and about 40 game machines.
There is a large soft play area for children from 3 years old. Price: 40 dirhams for an hour, 60 for unlimited. For the older kids there is a small trampoline center. For one kid on the "maximum program" plan to spend 200-250 dirhams.
VOX Cinema consists of 20 auditoriums, there are VOX MAX, VOX Gold, VOX 4DX, and VOX Kids formats.
VOX MAX are the auditoriums with a screen width of 20 meters (65 feet) or more. VOX Gold are the high comfort auditoriums with large leather seats, see photo below, click on photo to enlarge to full screen. VOX 4DX are auditoriums with moving seats and special effects of splashing water, fog and smells. VOX Kids are children's lounges with brightly colored seats.
A regular auditorium ticket is 30-40 dirhams, Gold is 90-100, 4DX is 130-150, Kids auditorium is 40-50.
You can find there movies in a dozen languages: English, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Malay, Tagalog, Urdu, Telugu and others. People from many countries live and work temporarily in the UAE, everyone wants to watch movies. Read more in our review "Population of the UAE". By the way, that's why there are so many cinema auditoriums in the UAE. 20 is even far from a record.
Where to eat
The administration of City Centre Deira Mall states that there are 58 restaurants, cafes and fast-food outlets. The figure is a bit exaggerated, as the list includes bars and restaurants of Pullman and Aloft hotels. But even without them the selection of options to eat in City Centre Deira is impressive.
Familiar are Burger King, KFC, McDonald`s, Pizza Hut, Subway, Charleys Philly Steak. For those with a sweet tooth, there are Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Cinnabon, and Sweet Factory.
There are two dozen restaurants, of which we will distinguish some of the most interesting. Hatam is an oriental meat restaurant with a wide variety of kebabs and shashliks. Gazebo - one of the best adapted Indian restaurants in the world. Nando's - South African cuisine, famous for its spicy sauce PERi-PERi. American cuisine is represented by TGI Friday`s.
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Where to buy alcohol?
At the moment (September 2022) there is no alcohol store in City Centre Deira.
Stores
Carrefour Hypermarket is an anchor store at City Centre Deira. This is one of the largest hypermarkets in the UAE. It sells not only food, but also toys, household items, even electronics and furniture.
Carrefour has the best selection of date fruits, from the inexpensive ones from Iran or Tunisia to the finest Arabian varieties. It is recommended to go there to buy dates - the most popular gift from the UAE. For a better understanding of dates in the Emirates, read our review "Dates in the Arab Emirates".
In Carrefour, you can buy camel's milk and dairy products, which are another popular gift from the UAE. There you can buy pasteurized camel milk, which you can easily take home. The selection of dairy products is excellent, even camel cheese is available (not all the time). Read our page "Camel Milk and Dairy Products".
There is a Bateel store which sells expensive varieties of dates and special date candies. Prices for dates are higher than in Carrefour, but there are no high-end varieties in Carrefour.
For those who like to buy clothes and shoes we advise to pay attention to Max Fashion and Sun & Sand Sports stores. These are local brands and their assortment is often very different from European stores.
Stop by the Arabian Oud store, located on the second floor, where you will find a wide variety of Arabic perfumes. Read about it in our review "Oud and Bakhur".
Of the major stores, the global brands include Marks & Spencer, Zara, H&M, Ecco, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Diesel, American Eagle, Guess, Lacoste, Levi`s, Pull&Bear, Wrangler, Adidas, Nike.
One trip to the City Centre Deira is certainly not enough to visit all the stores. City Centre Deira has some of the lowest prices in Dubai.
Important tips for visitors
- Parking is free only for the first 3 hours;
- There is free Wi-Fi throughout the mall;
- There are baby changing rooms in all women's restrooms;
- You can take a cart (looks like a car) for your child, the rental price is 10 dirhams;
- Current discounts, promotions and store offers can be viewed at www.citycentredeira.com/offers;
- There is a dress code in the mall, shoulders and knees must be covered. Read about the dress code in our review "Rules of conduct for tourists in the UAE";
- City Centre Deira has six currency exchange counters. UAE Exchange is on the first floor and the other five are on the ground floor (GF). Read our review "How to change money in the UAE";
- To buy a local SIM-card, visit the Etisalat office on the L1 floor, located on the west side of the mall, close to the entrance from the subway. Or go to the DU office on the ground floor (GF) on the east side of the mall. We told exactly which SIM to buy in the reviews "Internet in the UAE" and "Calls from the UAE".
Have fun shopping and entertainment at City Centre Deira Mall, and read our interesting and useful for tourists pages about the UAE (see list of the pages below).
