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

Hell no. I have been before for work and loathed it. There are hundreds of places I'd rather go.

I have friends who love it though and go quite often. Horses for courses.

No, never would. I'd much rather be somewhere snowy any time of the year but especially at Christmas. Can't stand hot weather so worst nightmare for me.

We did pre covid when it was cheaper and we wanted guaranteed good weather, clean beaches and great service. Personally I was also a fan of the lack of drinking culture and evening ‘entertainment’. It also felt incredibly safe, if a little bit Truman Show.
I wouldn’t book to go now as we are in a different phase with DC being older and that sort of holiday being boring, plus the cost has shot up (and it’s a bit too close to all the shit happening with the ME!)

Ewwwww, no
For a myriad of reasons
It being a heated sandpit being the biggest reason

No, it's basically the opposite of what I like in a holiday. The airport is nice for a stopover though.

No. Colleague once told me his kids could eat as much icecream as they wanted. I remember thinking it was a long way to travel for that🙄

Yes, that's another environmental horror. For obvious reasons, you can't grow any food locally, so all food is imported at vast expense, even the bog-standard stuff in supermarkets. And for the UAE outposts of London restaurants, everything is flown in from the UK daily, at even vaster expense and airmiles.

It's the kind of climate and terrain that works with the light footprint of small populations of (sometimes nomadic) herders and coastal fishing communities, which is what the UAE (and before that the Trucial States) had until the discovery of oil. It simply isn't suitable for vast, water-guzzling cities with big populations that need to be fed imported food, and all the greenwashing in the world isn't going to change that.

It's 'incredibly safe' because the imported underclass is kept in labour camps in the desert!

Never. For all the reasons listed above. I won't even transit through, after the awful human rights abuses of female passengers a few years back, who were strip searched and internally examined, when the authorities were trying to identify who had given birth recently. The stuff of nightmares. Didn't someone also get arrested and incarcerated for being a drugs trafficker as airport staff found a poppy seed in their clothing, which turned out to be from a seeded roll?

No, not for me for a multitude of reasons which are listed.

And because people still have their arms chopped off for pick-pocketing. No thanks.

No. It’s not a place I have any desire to visit. Leaving aside all the strong moral reasons, I’d be bored stiff within hours.

Shopping and lounging round a pool is not how I like to spend a holiday

I’d give it a go once for the experience.

I have no interest in Dubai. My ex colleague used to travel there every year and he loved it. I just don't find it interesting enough to bother travelling that far.

I know of someone who's going to Qatar for a 'beach & sunshine' holiday!

Not for me in the slightest.

Dubious ethics and environmental considerations aside, it just looks so dull and soulless. Surely even the most committed luxury goods shopper / pool rat would get bored after a week, never mind two?

Stayed on the Palm next to where a huge penthouse complex was being built (Jan 2018). I couldn’t believe the amount of workmen that were bussed to site. At 4pm a horn was blared for the end of the working day. We would be out walking usually at this time of day when the buses would leave. Within the bus were the workers and each had the same coloured vests on. The next bus different coloured vests and so on. The men looked so miserable. So I googled their working/living conditions and read how many are exploited as they have come from countries where there is a lot of poverty and would come to send money back to their families. The companies that organise their travel quite often charge them astronomical fees and they can quite often work a year or two paying off these fees first. They live within compounds too and are not able to leave. Their treatment and working conditions are in stark contrast to the opulence and glitz of what Dubai offers as a holiday destination. I know that Human Rights issues are abused all around the world but this is on a massive scale. Smoke and mirrors that’s how I describe Dubai. Also, the sea on the palm was really weird too - it had a funny colour and froth floating around in it. Think it happens in between the ‘fronds’/branches of the Palm as it doesn’t get the same tidal movement.

Not for me, it feels like a very soulless place, I went once with a friend whose brother lives there because it was basically a free holiday and just didn't see the appeal.

But if people enjoy it who cares? My BIL has gone there for a bit of sun and shopping this week, and sat here in the horizontal Welsh rain I'm a little envious despite it being somewhere I'd never choose to go!

I will never visit any of the Emirates, all run by racist, misogynistic, raping, lying thieves
Nor Saudi for the same reason but add 'murdering' to the list

No, a ton of ethical problems and also environmental horrors make me uninterested. Soulless.

No. I've been once on a stopover tin Australia and that was bad enough!

Yes.

We have also visited other Middle East countries / emirates including Doha, Oman, Abu Dhabi.

No.

A new colleague who I work extremely closely with was waxing lyrical about how much he loves it there and in all honestly it has really changed my opinion of him.

I enjoy Dubai. If you want luxury brands all in one place, great weather, and amazing amenities. It isn’t to everyone’s taste but it is mine.

This is my main reason. Also a landscape of skyscrapers doesn't appeal to me.