Would you choose Dubai as a holiday destination?

[Letshopenextyearisbetter]

Colleague told me excitedly she has booked to go to Dubai with her family for two weeks. I said ‘Oh wow!’ But really I was thinking 😬
I realise we all like different things, but just curious if you’d choose to spend your money on going to Dubai? I can personally think of some really lovely places to go for that amount of money, especially over Christmas

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/middle-east/united-arab-emirates/report-united-arab-emirates/

I'm a woman. I travel very frequently & very regularly on on own including to places like China as well as extensively through Europe, solo trips mainly for work.

I also travel with my dh & dc on holidays though never to beach resorts as I'm not into those holidays.

I have never once been 'hassled' by anyone on any of these trips & over the past 2 years I've been to Latvia, Belgium, Sweden (twice), Denmark, Germany, Italy (multiple places, multiple times) London, Slovenia, and France. I have not felt unsafe anywhere I've been.

So I guess I don't really get the posters taking about loving Dubai as you don't get hassled like you do in European destinations.

I went to Dubai for the first time last Easter and absolutely loved it. Everything is brand new and fit for purpose, it felt very sad safe, taxis were extremely cheap to get about, the food was amazing, it's very luxurious, there is culture (if you want it), not too long a flight and minimal jet lag and the weather is pretty much guaranteed!

No, it's not on my list of places I want to go but everyone is different.

There is a lot of incorrect information on this thread. I've lived and worked in the UAE for 6+ years.

Unmarried couples can live together and holiday together. Alcohol is legal, its just harder to buy and expensive in Dubai compared to other Emirates. Being drunk in public is not allowed and neither is driving with alcohol in the blood. All food is not imported, there are many farms especially in Al Ain region and most chicken, dairy and vegetables and fruit that can be grown using hydroponics are grown locally. Some fresh produce is imported from KSA, which has a similar climate and landscape!

I prefer AD to Dubai and so does everyone I know who has lived in both. Dubai is so busy and we've seen the sights so now just go for a weekend a few times a year.

If you want the winter warmth but not the glitz, you're better off going to AD and enjoying the coast, mangroves, history, peace and quiet there.

As a woman, I always feel safe here and I also appreciate that women's spaces are protected- no unisex bathrooms or changing rooms in UAE.

@Maria1979 are there any other countries apart from Dubai that you wouldn’t visit?

I’ve travelled all over the world, stopped off in Dubai a fair few times.

What I want to know from all of the ‘how can people be so morally bankrupt?’ posters, is where IS acceptable to go on holiday? Where in the world has no human rights abuse, where has good laws that don’t persecute certain people/groups? I’d love to know where these utopian societies are, because Dubai is certainly a concrete jungle, and nobody has to like it - but countries all over the world (including the UK!) have some disgusting laws and practices. I can think off the top of my head, of many other seemingly acceptable destinations who have the same laws and shitty problems that Dubai has.

I’m not saying everyone should love Dubai, I’m saying I don’t get the points people are making. Have you seen what we’re doing to the environment in the UK? Rape and sexual abuse, child abuse, domestic violence are all practically legal! All the naysayers, where did you last go that was a foreign country and that has a great track record?

FWIW I believe modern slavery, abuse of the environment, abusive corrupt rulers, persecution of LBGTQ+ peoples, suppression of women’s rights etc etc etc is despicable. Just not sure where else has a wonderful record on such matters.

Interesting that you comment on the differences between Dubai and Adu Dhabi.

In many ways, historically, societal and.cultural they are very similar

One important but little know difference is that the people of Dubai don't like the Flintstones but the people of Adu Dhabi do.

What I want to know from all of the ‘how can people be so morally bankrupt?’ posters, is where IS acceptable to go on holiday?

I’ve often wondered that. Gay marriage and male homosexuality are still against the law in Jamaica China has an appalling human rights record and as I mentioned upthread, woe betide anyone who criticises the regime in Cuba.
However one hears little criticism of people visiting these countries.

Honestly, it doesn’t put me off. These workers have done an amazing job and my hat goes off too them. It would be nice if they didn’t need to be forcibly worked (to death in some instances) but to dismiss their hard work would be a grave injustice. So I acknowledge and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Jesus Christ.

That has to be sarcastic.

Norway
Austria
Switzerland
Cornwall

Not saying I'm right but these seem pretty decent.

Add all Scandinavian countries: Finland, Denmark, Sweden. Also Island. These countries are among the least corrupt according to studies.

Lots of countries have dubious practices, but I have a very specific objection to the UAE and the Al Maktoum lot. This also extends to the Al Saud’s of SA.

Absolutely reprehensible, murderous people and not somewhere I’d ever visit.

Norway
Austria
Switzerland
Cornwall

All credit to these places, and obviously it’s the ideal to have good practices on human rights etc but my question really is more - where are the naysayers holidaying? Does everyone here, saying Dubai is disgusting, go to only Scandinavian countries and Cornwall? That’s what I was getting at. I’ve never been criticized openly for going anywhere in the world except for my small stop overs in Dubai on the way to somewhere else. The ‘somewhere else’ never gets criticized!

Absolutely not. Not a chance. Even if you paid me to go.

They still stone women. And the abuse of migrant workers is horrifying.

I'm almost tempted to go for the sheer weirdness of it, but I think the problem with holidaying in Dubai is that you'd have to spend a lot of time at close quarters with the kind of people who want to live in Dubai. A friend of mine recently came back; her husband wanted to stay out there long-term but she managed to talk him out of it.

She says it was full of exactly the sort of people you'd imagine - vapid types who want to do zero except shop and sit by a pool, and wealthy tax-dodgers with a "poor-me" mindset - you know, constantly moaning about how oppressed and put-upon the rich are in the UK, expected to do nasty things like pay taxes on their wealth, saying their kids were discriminated against for going to private school...

Still waiting to hear where people do go on holiday? What countries are all of the Dubai haters going to, and what are their records on human rights etc?

Not (initially) actually intending to be goady, and not fussed by people disliking Dubai, just more bemused at the lack of scrutiny on other countries with similar records. Nobody batted an eyelid when I went to Malaysia, and that is under sharia law. I’ve been to multiple countries where same sex relationships are illegal, nobody ever points this out when I say I’ve been/will go there.

The point I keep trying to make is that I don’t understand why it’s a collective upturned nose at Dubai all the time, and little scrutiny of anywhere else.

Also just to add that a lot of people are getting their info from hearsay, ‘some woman at the office has been’ and wot not. They don’t stone women in Dubai but absolutely not defending their actually horrible laws and abuses, just stating facts.

They still stone women

Of course they do.

My “banned list” is (and some of these you can’t visit anyway) would be along the lines of:

Saudi
UAE
Iran
Iraq
Afghanistan
Yemen
Syria
Oman
Lebanon
Bahrain
Qatar
Jordan
Libya
Pakistan
Russia
Belarus
North Korea
A fair chunk of Africa but I can’t be bothered to
list them all.

I do visit places that aren’t perfect, because nowhere is. But the Saudi/UAE lot are near top of my ”run by absolute cunts” list.

@Idontlikeyou That's pretty close to my list too.

Those expressing faux surprise - there is quite a lot of the world still to see without going to places run by despots and dictators. I tend not to want to give money to people and places that I know despise and hate me.

Particularly if that hatred is based on my race, religion or sex.

@Idontlikeyou
What about Cuba and China? Would you visit those countries?

I have been to both in the past. They are in a lower level of group for me, I don’t like the regime but it’s not on the same level.