When there in the early 90’s worked in Jebel Ali and Sharjah, one place i have never had any desire to return to.

+1 Konabunny

It’s not great, it’s not paradise but there are worse places to be in the world, albeit I’m not factoring in John Terry and Gavin Henson into the discussion. At the very least the weather’s better than Devon, and I’m writing this from down the road in Abu Dhabi which is great place to be.

My mate lived out there for a while and seemed to quite like it. He’s not really the type to worry about social issues too much and just did lots of biking and driving 4x4s in the desert etc. Doesn’t appeal to me at all though. Trips to Oman he did looked cool.

To those on here that like it though – maybe you are the type of expats that everyone else is referring to as a bad thing about Dubai. 😛

My brother in law and his family (kids of 7, 5 and 2) are due to move out there soon. I think he’s mad – are there any redeeming features? I don’t think I would want my kids going to school out there.

My friend lives in Dubai with his wife and 2 children. He says the schools are excellent with small class sizes. He is out there for 3 years.

I would not like to live there personnally.

Spent a week in Abu Dhabi with work. I will try to avoid going back at all costs….just horrid in almost every respect.

Alex 222…. blood diamonds blah blah. As bad as it is, and I’m pretty sure the diamonds bought in Dubai have a similar history to any other, did u question the process by which the aluminium was extracted from the earth for the bike you ride? It certainly wasn’t Welsh miners protected by UK health and safety laws so if you have a conscience stop consuming, live under a tree and grow your own food using fertilizer from your own body

imnotamused Strange way of justifying your purchase but kudos for openly being so unpleasant.

I think Emirates is the best airline we’ve ever flown with and I can think of worse airports to spend (transit) time in.

Did a weekend there in 95 before they started going bonkers with the building and glad we visited then. Would I go back again? Absolutely not, for all the reasons already cited.

Spammer.

Emirates is an OK airline but their food is awful. I’m using them in February for Cape Town and will be wasting five hours of my life flying east them back west again but I’m saving £500 over Air France. Could have done it for £500 less than that with Turkish but the timings are seriously inconvenient and they don’t fly to Cape Town so I’d have wasted more time and money on a JNB-CPT domestic flight.

As for Dubai – well, all of those Gulf cities are horrid but Dubai has more going for it than Doha and a couple of other places in the region. When I first started travelling around the Middle East I was surprised to find out that the real middle-eastern (Levantine) Arabs really despise the Gulf Arabs.

I’ve holidayed there a couple of times over Christmas and the New Year. Principally because it was warm with only a 8 hour flight and it was the only time I could get away from the business. I simply went to relax and unwind.

Ex pat’s by and large are the same in whichever country they reside. It’s the type of individual rather than the geographical position. My sympathy goes to the local who have to put up with the boorish behaviour.

You won’t holiday there because you perceive yourself in having higher morals but probably consume cheap goods made elsewhere by child labour or by exploited workers. You buy them because they are cheap. You consume petrol and oil based products which perpetuate the disparity and support oppressive regimes.

Then again it’s we as individuals where we decide the draw the line of moral indignation. You will do all/some of the above but I won’t holiday there.

Then again they could turn the clock back fifty years, no healthcare, infrastructure or economy. Would that be better?

As with most destinations you can find the good side and the darker side of human nature.

Devon is a great place as well. 🙂

You won’t holiday there because you perceive yourself in having higher morals but probably consume cheap goods made elsewhere by child labour or by exploited workers. You buy them because they are cheap. You consume petrol and oil based products which perpetuate the disparity and support oppressive regimes.

Same applies if you holiday in Devon and buy your wetsuits from the local Tesco.

Not everwhere has the same social standards as the EU.
Thats why I prefer to buy from the EU when I can. However, standards will only be raised in developing countries IF we in the west trade with them and only trade with the top 25% of ethical companies in each country, that way we engourage a race to the top. This is up to businesses to drive as much as it is up to consumers.

As for Dubai, yes its very fake and against nature, but its bloomin impressive what a huge amount of ill spent oil billions can achieve!

Emirates is an OK airline but their food is awful. I’m using them in February for Cape Town and will be wasting five hours of my life flying east them back west again but I’m saving £500 over Air France. Could have done it for £500 less than that with Turkish but the timings are seriously inconvenient and they don’t fly to Cape Town so I’d have wasted more time and money on a JNB-CPT domestic flight.

You obviously don’t spend nearly enough time airtime, if you think Emirates is just “OK”. Emirates is constantly a pleasure to do business with.

Flew with emirates, the plane was fantastic but the staff weren’t.

Missed the connection from Dubai to Sydney as it was delayed by 2 hours from Dubai to Manchester earlier in the day, so was late on our Manchester to Dubai flight.

We only just missed it but the airline didn’t hold the plane. Had to spend ten hours in the airport, customer services involved a McDonald’s voucher and nothing else, just what you want.

The next flight then was via Bangkok, where we had to wait another 2 hours for the onward flight, originally we were going direct from Dubai to Sydney.

Had to phone ahead at my cost to Australia to notify hotel that we wouldn’t be arriving as originally planned.

Flying back, when checking in, staff on the desk were totally uninterested, carried on talking amongst themselves while checking our bags. Did try to complain and got some free miles, which I won’t be using.

Flew Singapore airlines instead, planes aren’t quite as modern, but the staff and customer service is fantastic.

Our new member of staff goes to goa via Dubai for Christmas. Her friends that she stays with in Dubai have pet lions. They even recognise her when she turns up and demand a fuss.
Obviously not like normal places.

I wouldn’t go near Emirates airline again. I was flying to Oman via Dubai and they cancelled the flight three times in a row until they had a full flight, meaning that I arrived in Dubai at midnight and didn’t fly out until 9 in the morning. I was re-booked three times in those 9 hours purely so that they wouldn’t have to provide accommodation. Thank christ it was just me and not me with girlfriend and kids. Their ground staff staff treated us like scum throughout the whole process.

And they managed to completely lose my bag, ie gone for good.

My last experience in Dubai itself was intervening when an Emirati slapped an Asian prostitute in the face. Luckily I managed to disappear before he called the police otherwise I’d probably have been looking at a couple of years in jail.

Can’t wait to see the **** place slide into the sea.

You obviously don’t spend nearly enough time airtime, if you think Emirates is just “OK”. Emirates is constantly a pleasure to do business with.

Clearly not with only 28 years of export travel under my belt, including over 85 trips to Nigeria and other parts of Africa and the Middle East!

Emirates are no better than any other airline; they have fancy new aircraft and a stunning hub and masses of resources but their food is grim and when it all goes wrong their ground staff are as powerless as at any other airline to make things any better, unless you are easily placated with free drinks and a fancy lounge. Most of my flying is with AF and they are no better or worse but at least they take pride in their food, which makes a boring flight more bearable.

Its odd isn’t it though – I’ve flown with Emirates 15 times in the last two years and they have never been less than excellent (Manchester-Dubai). I would say the food is rather good as well to be honest.

Emirates business lounge in Manchester is a brilliant place to be.
However the return lounge in Dubai served the most inedible food I have had in a long long time.

The inflight business class food is also very nice, but so it should be for the cost of the flight!