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

Dubai has no soul and it is soul destroying. I used to work there.

Good grief no. I have no interest in ever going there.

I've been once, for work. I was there two weeks and hated it. You can't walk anywhere, there's nothing to do and even though I was staying in a very upmarket hotel, male members of staff twice rang my room and asked if I wanted some "company".

I found it soulless and shallow. The environmental footprint is ridiculous and their attitude to human rights stinks.

So no... I wouldn't go back.

Hands chopped off?? Why are you making this stuff up? You obviously know nothing about the place and are just making yourself look stupid now.

No,no,NO they don't. Where on Earth are you getting this bullshit from?

It's weird that you get irate over criticisms of Dubai but modern slavery doesn't bother you.

It bothers me a lot but the sad fact is we all benefit from the 'modern slavery' of poor people all over the world. Your fast fashion from China? The batteries that power your mobile devices and electric vehicles? All made by modern day slaves. I just get irate at virtue signallers on their high horses about a country when the same people are happy to fill their boots with the products of the thing they find so abhorant.

FYI,MeowCat,I've lived in the Gulf for more than ten years and I too don't like Dubai much for many reasons even though it's a short 45min plane ride away. Many,many countries in this world were built using slave labour and many of them continue to have appalling human rights records. I just find it curious why Dubai seems to bring out the worst in Mumsnetters,their hatred not only for the place but it's people I find quite alarming in it's verocity.

I thought, seeing as you mentioned it in the next sentence, that you meant you had a loathing of sweltering temperatures and therefore loathed the place.

My in-laws have been going annually even biannually for 25 years.
They have been to Dubai more than London.
They would never go to Bicester designer village or seek out Bond Street shops.
They would never go to Sheffield market
They would never go to Chisel beach or Dungeness.
They don't like the chlorine in the local posh health club.
Eating out is treated like a huge deal and not something people with young families should be considering. Restaurants are for the rich.

They would be condescending and 'that not our thing' if you mentioned you'd done any of that.

And yet they adore Dubai, absolutely love it. Of course they always highlight an hour in a souk or seeing some fishing boats as to how they really love old Dubai but how do they fill the the rest of the time? We never see any photos. They have bought back some hideous jewellery. My SIL, unknown to me, got a frumpy weird dress made up for my wedding in pretty much the same colour fabric as my frock. And the grandchildren did get presents, embroidered mirrors and satin covered notepads, the sort of thing you'd find in Sheffield market or a Glastonbury head shop.

It baffles us completely. We guess 70 years ago, they would have gone to the same seaside boarding house without fail. This is their Butlins.

Has no appeal to me at all.
Plus in my line of work I know it is the destination of choice for our local drug dealers.

I thought the same but I'd never been so I stopped for a couple of days on the way to somewhere else. It was exactly what I thought. So devoid of culture. They've taken the best bits of other cities and put them in one place with no historical context so it feels like Epcot.

As my friend described it "it's full of the sort of people you try and avoid at home".

I beg to differ. Owning a smartphone is necessary in modern life for work purposes/ DC's schools etc. CHOOSING to holiday in Dubai is not necessary, it's a choice you make if you don't care about anyone but yourself

I thought it was quite obvious that it was an exaggeration 🙄. Especially since so many pp have contributed to inform you about workers condition in Dubai (among other human rights issues). So go to Dubai if you want to but don't try to justify your choice by comparing it with using. Smartphones.

Everyone on here who is saying they like it because they feel 'safe' - what places feel unsafe to you?

I'm wondering what you are comparing it to? Ie other places like Egypt, Morocco which are popular destinations but many women report being harassed?
Off the beaten track in South America? European cities like Rome or Barcelona?

@KenAdams ha, I said similar yesterday on this post- it feels very Americanised to me, and the worst aspects of Americanisation - all a bit fake- and I didn't like Florida either - I much preferred New York and California , warts and all - even the scruffy bits

I have a friend who loves Dubai - and she's a lovely lady but she does like malls and bling and immaculate places and wouldn't think about the social aspects etc as a big issue- it's just how she is . She's not really into culture either -

@MENoWay yes I know someone like this too- having been myself I suspect what they like is the very flash accommodation ( and ours was fabulous) and malls and guaranteed weather .- because I can't think of anything else that would pull me back - I think for many it's an adult version of Disney Florida. It's also very expensive indeed to eat and drink well and I didn't think was that good either

Read my post I live 45mins away by plane from Dubai but choose not to go because I don't care much for it. All I'm saying is we're all of us in the west guilty of condoning modern day slavery by the devices we use and the items we choose to buy. We buy them because it benefits us,we make that choice. By continuing to make these choices little kids will be forced to mine for cobalt and women and men will work their fingers to the bone for little pay in sweatshops in China and Asia because we choose to buy the things that they make so get off you high horse. Your selective outrage stinks.

That doesn't make any sense. The fact you think only "virtue signallers" avoid Dubai says a lot about you.

This is a thread about Dubai. Start a thread about fast fashion or cobalt mining if you want a discussion on those.

We took our kids to Disney, once, nailed the right moment for immersive fun, age appropriate. The in-laws were all ' what a strange idea, a fairground for several days, what else will you do'.
They genuinely thought that holidays for small children should replicate them in the 70s in cagoles on a Pembroke beach.
SIL has gone for Centre Parks and by repetition has made this happen as a modern alternative.
But Dubai rules, you can stock up on antibiotics their local GP refuses to dish out and get that watch you bought last year repaired.

Owning a smartphone can hardly qualify as a choice today. And it's not about high horses. There are millions of places you can go so why choose one so rotten as Dubai? And ofcourse there are other things you can do like recycling, avoiding fast fashion, etc etc. But this thread was about Dubai not about smartphones so you're hors sujet.

Nope my colleague goes all the time and I just think why. But then she likes shopping and I don't see it as a past time but a chore.

@MENoWay it's very odd I agree. I'm 62 now and I do find some older people I know get very stuck on routine- if they enjoyed somewhere once they will go every single year because they know what they are getting. I'm not like this myself but my H definitely has touches of it coming on!! Mind you he hated Dubai

No! I don't want to be overpaid to have someone shit on my chest.

A place run by materialism and devoid of class and culture.

Although I know some really nice people who have been there.

I wouldn’t go there if you paid me.