Dubai Guide
Introduction to Dubai
Dubai is like nowhere else on the planet. Often claimed to be the world's fastest-growing city, it has metamorphosed from a small Gulf trading centre in the 1960s to become one of the world's most glamorous, spectacular and futuristic urban destinations, fuelled by a heady cocktail of petrodollars, visionary commercial acumen and naked ambition. In many ways, modern Dubai is a panegyric to consumerist luxury – a self-indulgent haven of magical hotels, superlative bars and restaurants and extravagantly themed shopping malls. If it were less opulent and prodigal it might be merely tawdry, but the sheer pizazz with which Dubai has carried through its plans to woo the tourist and business dollar lifts it to a hitherto undreamt-of level of contemporary chic – testament to the ruling sheikhs' determination to make Dubai one of the world's essential destinations in the twenty-first-century.
Perhaps not suprisingly, Dubai is often stereotyped as a vacuous consumerist fleshpot, appealing only to those with more cash than culture, though this cliché does no justice to the city's beguiling contrasts and rich cultural make-up. There's far more to Dubai than designer boutiques and five-star hotels, a fact amply demonstrated by the old city centre, with its string of vibrant commercial districts centred on a higgledy-piggledy labyrinth of old-style souks, interspersed with fine old traditional Arabian houses lined up along the banks of the breezy Creek, whose serene waters provide Dubai with many of its most unforgettable views, as well as a living link with its maritime past. It's here, too, that you'll get the best sense of Dubai's remarkable ethnic diversity – this is one of the world's most genuinely multicultural cities, with streets full of Indian and Pakistani traders, West African gold dealers, Filipina maids, Russian bargain-hunters, robed Emiratis and tanned expat Europeans.
The best time to visit is in the cooler months from December through to February, when the city enjoys a pleasantly Mediterranean climate, with average daily temperature in the mid-20°Cs – although room rates (and demand) are at their peak during these months. Temperatures rise significantly in March and April, and in October and November, though the heat, in the 30s is still relatively bearable.
From May to September, the city boils – especially in July and August – with average temperatures in the mid-30s to 40s. Although the heat is intense, even after dark, room rates at most of the top hotels plummet by as much as 75 percent.