Dubai Gold Souk, Dubai

It's truly an incredible experience to see so many gold and jewelry shops all in one place with pieces that go way beyond your imagination that you rarely see anywhere else in the world. The art and craftsmanship of these pieces are truly exuberant and one of a kind and just to witness this itself its absolutely worth a visit to the Gold Souk in Deira, Dubai. You can spend a whole day here being amused by the pieces. There is a wide variety of stores catering to different palettes such as Indian, European, Middle Eastern etc. While the experience is incredible, I felt that the prices to be much higher than what I can find outside. I found out later on that the reasons are many. 1, being a popular tourist stop, the prices are higher than usual as they know many people might be willing to pay a premium to get a piece as a souvenir or for the fact that they came with an intention to buy gold in Dubai, probably not knowing other lesser known areas which may have a much lesser premium. 2, the stores in general provide better rates for people or rather businesses who by gold in bulk. Therefore for a simple retail buyer the prices that are quoted and later reduced after some bargaining, is still much higher than what a person/business buying in bulk can secure. 3, the margins placed on the making charge is much higher than what you normally find in the market. This was a bit surprising to me as I understand most pieces found here are machine made/cut than handmade, which should translate into a lesser premium. We went to the souk with the intention of buying some pieces, but we ended up getting nothing as we felt the prices were way beyond what we were used to. Nevertheless we thoroughly enjoyed the experience of witnessing a place like no other which I would recommend everyone out there to enjoy!

Would be better if the let you browse a bit more than trying to drag you into their stores. Dating that there is so much variety to choose from if you have the time