By Anand HollaThat Dubai is a tourist-tailored cosmopolis is known to all. But how does one carry out a thorough sweep of this city throbbing with boundless energy and savour its myriad sights, lights, sounds, smells and scale – oh, the scale – in just 48 hours?Big Bus Dubai is probably the first option that rushes to mind. This hop-on, hop-off sightseeing tour of Dubai, offered by London-based The Big Bus Company that offers similar enjoyable excursions through 17 cities across the globe including New York, Sydney, Vienna, and Paris, certainly has a knack for compressing the complex into an easy-to-follow crash course.The outing begins on a cheery note. Soon after you buy a pass, you get a detailed map, earphones, and upon stepping inside the cool burgundy-coloured double-decker bus, access to free bottled water, and free Wi-Fi – these days nearly as important as water.You can choose to sit in the air-conditioned lower deck and watch the busy streets through large glass windows, or walk up to the semi-open top, upper deck, which is mindful of all ambience preferences. While the first third of it is an air-conditioned cabin section, the middle section is open air with a sun canopy, and the rear third is fully open just so you totally ‘feel’ the city gushing past you.While there are essentially two options – a 24-hour ticket and a 48-hour ticket – I found even the 48-hour ticket to be rather constraining, given how many must-see attractions Dubai boasts of. It would serve you well to diligently plan the stops as the bus service is operational for just 12 hours starting around 8am. For those seeking more, there’s also the Night Tour option and the Dubai-Abu Dhabi combo, and the rates for all the trips are reasonably priced.The tour takes you through all of Dubai’s popular landmarks. Aided by the concise running commentary in 12 languages that you can plug into at your seat – the commentary, at times, feels sparse, and the Arabian music on loop, a bit too much – the journey takes you through the city’s spectacular transformation from a small fishing village to a modern, vibrant city.The best part, of course, is that you can hop on and hop off as and when you want based on which spots interest you, and return to that spot to find another bus in 15 or 20 minutes. Split into three routes, the Beach Tour, the City Tour and the Marina Tour, the opportunities to wander off into your areas of interest are several.The Beach Tour packs in an interesting mix such as Creek Park (where you can take a sightseeing ride on the cable car), Old town (Downtown Dubai), Dubai Fountain, Jumeriah Mosque (the only mosque open to non-Muslims), Burj Al Arab (often called the world’s only 7-star hotel), Souk Madinat (a chic Arabian market inside the luxurious Madinat Jumeirah hotel), Wafi (mall, hotel, residences), and a bunch of shopping malls such as Burjuman, Mall of Emirates, and Dubai Mall (world’s largest mall, which takes at least half a day to explore).The standout of this leg of the tour is a tough contest between marvelling at Burj Al Arab and taking in the magic of Atlantis The Palm. The latter wins because if you have a 48-hour ticket, you get free entry into its Lost Chambers Aquarium.As the folks at Big Bus say: “With 10 chambers and some 65,000 marine animals, experience the beautiful Lost Chambers that bring the myth of Atlantis City to life. Get an insight into life in the ocean and discover sharks, cow nose rays and clownfish, along with arachnids, snakes and the world’s largest freshwater fish, the Arapaima.”The City Tour treats you to a Dubai you wouldn’t usually get to see in the context of contemporary media or pop culture. The low-on-style, high-on-substance Dubai Museum tells the rise and rise story of the city, through the century. Other stops in the route such as the Old Souk, Heritage Village, Shindagha Museum, Gold Souk, and Spice Souk, allow you to connect with the soul of this place.Head to the Abra Station and take a ride for a Dirham in any of the parked Abras (traditional wooden boat) to the other side of the Dubai Creek. Once in Deira Dubai, you may feel quite cut away from the Dubai you knew. This is the traditional commercial centre of Dubai and also its oldest part, but it feels more outdated than old.The Marina Tour does what it says – focuses on the sea-side. From the eye-soothing Palm View Beach to the easy-paced Dubai Marina, this route is for those keen on taking it slow and lounging by the bay.To make you feel like you’ve got your money’s worth, the Big Bus Tour throws in a bunch of freebies such as free cruise on an Arabian Dhow – Dubai Creek (old Dubai) and Marina (modern Dubai) – free ride on a water bus, free Sharjah Tour, free entries to museums, free flamingo lagoon discovery, free Desert Sunset Tour, and free walking tours. The good part is that you can experience some of these like the Sharjah Tour and Desert Sunset Tour within a seven-day period of validating your ticket.As mentioned before, it’s a colossal task to visit so many spots – there are a total of 56 stops in the three routes – in a matter of two days. But if you mark your favourites and hop on the ride, you would have seen, felt and taken back a lot of Dubai.lFor tour details, tickets and prices, you can check out eng.bigbustours.com/dubai