Young family moving to Dubai

Hi everyone,
I am already an expat from the UK. I have lived in Spain and currently we are living in Malta. Our next post looks like it will be Dubai. We are coming for a look round next month and am very much looking forward to it. We have a 3 year old daughter and would in time like to increase our brood. I wanted to know what areas I should be looking at for a young family to live in, taking into account pre schools/junior schools etc. Would I also need to get a car as well as my husband or is public transport ok? Can anyone recommend any websites for renting or for general information. Thankyou in advance :)

You are coming right at the start of peak summer, that would be a good experience by itself!  Dubai has expanded a lot and many areas are available for European, UK or American expats.  There are a number of British managed pre-schools, so have a feel of those before deciding which place to stay; another consideration would be the place of work.
A car is essential to live here, although public transport is pretty good (metro rail, bus, taxi).  Car gives the flexibility.  Easy to buy or rent, all the usual suspects like Hertz, Budget, Avis, Fast, and a host of other international car rental companies are present.  You can have a long term lease or a short term hire.  Don't forget to bring your UK and international driver's license to start with, you will get Dubai driver's licence in a few days.

Thankyou for your response. My husbands office is located by business bay/safa park area, just looked that up on a map not sure if you would class jumeriah as a suburb (sorry totally new to me). I'll get a feel for things when we visit I'm sure. I have seen that a lot of family's seem to live in developments with everything on site. Is this the way to go? X

Hello lindseyb,

If your husband will be working by Business Bay then an area called Mirdif will be perfect for you as it is only a 10 minute drive away from Business Bay, 15 minutes from Dubai Airport and 30 minutes or so to the centre of Dubai.

Mirdif is well established, shopping malls, schools, gyms etc. with a big British expat community.

Check out this website which you may find of use:

http://dubaipropertiesgroup.ae/rent/shorooq-mirdif

Good luck!

Thankyou so much I'll look at that link now, really appreciate the help as this a little different than us just moving around Europe :)

You are most welcome!

Jumeira is close to Safa Park, these are on one side of Sheikh Zayed Road (the highway E11 to Abudhabi); Business Bay is on the other side close to Burj Khalifa and Downtown Dubai.  Either Jumeira or Downtown Dubai would be fine to stay.  Mirdiff has some problems like aircraft noise, as it is too close to the airport.