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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Would you choose Dubai as a holiday destination?

382 replies

Letshopenextyearisbetter · 16/10/2024 09:24

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

OP posts:
Glowupinprogress · 16/10/2024 20:12

Not rtft but no fucking way

FindingMeno · 16/10/2024 20:20

No way.
However if someone paid for me to go, I'd give it a whirl, I'm not gonna lie.

Lucyccfc68 · 16/10/2024 20:24

My sister lived in the Middle East for 18 years and we would go to Dubai for the odd weekend when we visited her. The first time I went was about 30 years ago and it was quite a pleasant place to go. We last went 12 months ago when we used Dubai to transit (we had 2 days there).

OMG how it has changed! It’s all fur coat and no knickers, full of bling, drug dealers and chavs. It’s bloody awful.

DoThePropeller · 16/10/2024 20:28

For example, Turkey is in the top five list of countries with highest levels of modern slaves.

You aren’t going to see much of the world if you rule out everywhere based on this criteria. And you probably wouldn’t judge/think less of a colleague doing a two week all inclusive in Turkey next summer.

Would you choose Dubai as a holiday destination?
TwistedWonder · 16/10/2024 20:32

I have absolutely zero interest in going to Dubai in the same way that I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than go to Vegas

Each to their own but I like places with charm and character not soul less and purpose built

offyoujollywelltrot · 16/10/2024 20:39

pavementgerms · 16/10/2024 19:56

This. Oppressive heat, slavery and exploitation, shallow consumerism, no culture or nature, environmentally destructive. Hellish.

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I'm very queer, and there is no way I would ever set foot in any country where it wasn't accepted.

Even if I were not, women and girls are second class citizens there, so why the fuck would I give tourism to a country like that?

Coalsy · 16/10/2024 20:40

Not if the holiday was free would i step foot in Dubai or its ilk.
Awful places.

AllyCart · 16/10/2024 20:46

Teacherbee85 · 16/10/2024 13:10

It's mumsnet - everyone hates Dubai.

Even though they've never been 🤣

That's about as clever as the "you're just jealous" response, which gets trotted out so often on here.

Badgerandfox227 · 16/10/2024 20:49

Absolutely not, think it’s extremely vulgar, plus I wouldn’t feel truly safe and able to relax.

LadyWiddiothethird · 16/10/2024 20:50

There are a lot of countries I wouldn’t set foot in,Dubai isn’t one of them.Loved it when I went,sitting on the beach at 2am with a mocktail,people swimming in the sea and not a drunk in sight.Felt safe at all times and the shopping is something else,my daughter was in a bookshop for about 3 hours,she has travelled all over the world and declared it be the best bookshop she had ever been in.

username3678 · 16/10/2024 20:52

DoThePropeller · 16/10/2024 20:09

What I find fascinating is how everyone hates Dubai but doesn’t seem to have a problem with Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia etc. All of these places - with some variability within them - have exactly the same issues when it comes to modern slavery, and strict laws, equal rights etc. Does everyone here only really holiday in Western Europe? Feel like the high ethical standards will be ruling a pretty big chunk of the world out.

You make a really good point. From my perspective, it's because there's absolutely nothing there that interests me in addition to the human rights issues.

BellesAndGraces · 16/10/2024 20:53

TheConvalescent · 16/10/2024 09:37

I used to live there, and it's puzzling to me why anyone would go there on holiday. Leaving aside entirely the human rights abuses, the heavy surveillance, and the fact that it's a dictatorship with a heavily self-censoring press and a ruler with a bad habit of kidnapping and imprisoning his own daughters and whose behaviour towards his ex-wife amounted to, in the words of a UK high court judge 'a campaign of fear, intimidation and harassment' to the point where he lost his paternal rights because he can't be trusted to see them -- it's an environmental disaster on the grounds of water desalination and consumption alone.

What was the temperature in mid to late Dubai?

Carlottie · 16/10/2024 20:55

Teacherbee85 · 16/10/2024 13:10

It's mumsnet - everyone hates Dubai.

Even though they've never been 🤣

I've been four times (not for a holiday). No chance I'd EVER go for a holiday, for all the reasons posters have mentioned. Horrendous place.

LoudSnoringDog · 16/10/2024 20:57

It's a soulless place

SallyWD · 16/10/2024 21:02

Nope, it has nothing of interest to me.

xyz111 · 16/10/2024 21:04

It's meant to be one of the safest cities in the world.

HazelPlayer · 16/10/2024 21:05

BrokenBeeWing · 16/10/2024 10:01

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?

That was actually Qatar, I think.

Who won the football world cup contract.

Since everyone is so concerned about women's rights.

Carlottie · 16/10/2024 21:12

xyz111 · 16/10/2024 21:04

It's meant to be one of the safest cities in the world.

Well, that really depends who you are, doesn't it?

BrokenBeeWing · 16/10/2024 21:18

HazelPlayer · 16/10/2024 21:05

That was actually Qatar, I think.

Who won the football world cup contract.

Since everyone is so concerned about women's rights.

Show quote history

I corrected that upthread. It happened in Doha. People being incarcerated and convicted for drug trafficking due to having poppy seeds from bread rolls (!) On their clothing, happened at Dubai airport.

What's wrong with being concerned about women's rights?

MasterBeth · 16/10/2024 21:19

No. It looks shit.

latetonews · 16/10/2024 21:20

Aside from the whole slavery issue; what puts me off is the type of people that holiday there.

latetonews · 16/10/2024 21:21

Unless you're female, gay or one of the thousands of human slaves they import like cattle.

latetonews · 16/10/2024 21:22

xyz111 · 16/10/2024 21:04

It's meant to be one of the safest cities in the world.

Quoting failure so I'll try again...

Unless you're female, gay or one of the thousands of human slaves they import like cattle.

HazelPlayer · 16/10/2024 21:24

BrokenBeeWing · 16/10/2024 21:18

I corrected that upthread. It happened in Doha. People being incarcerated and convicted for drug trafficking due to having poppy seeds from bread rolls (!) On their clothing, happened at Dubai airport.

What's wrong with being concerned about women's rights?

Show quote history

Ah, I missed the correction.

I was being sarcastic i.e. they awarded them the world cup, out of season...after an incident like that. (Or had they already awarded it, perhaps).

The Australians kicked up a minor fuss about it at the time, then it conveniently disappeared and business resumed.

I never heard whether they ever got the mother; they were trying their damnedest. Hopefully not.
(Although she did leave a baby to potentially die. But I doubt she would have if not for their insane laws).

BrokenBeeWing · 16/10/2024 21:26

HazelPlayer · 16/10/2024 21:24

Ah, I missed the correction.

I was being sarcastic i.e. they awarded them the world cup, out of season...after an incident like that. (Or had they already awarded it, perhaps).

The Australians kicked up a minor fuss about it at the time, then it conveniently disappeared and business resumed.

I never heard whether they ever got the mother; they were trying their damnedest. Hopefully not.
(Although she did leave a baby to potentially die. But I doubt she would have if not for their insane laws).

Edited
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