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LIKE euthanasia and fox hunting, Dubai seems to polarise public opinion. On the one hand you have those that maintain Dubai is a sandy paradise where the sun shines all year around, there’s no crime and luxury comes as standard. On the other, they say that for half the year the temperatures nudge 50 degrees Celsius and the place has absolutely no soul. So who do you believe? I mean, those famous people that have bought property there – David Beckham, Brad Pitt, Jim Davidson – can’t all be wrong, right?
As ever, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Sure, if you turn up in the summer months and go to the beach you will die within 15 minutes. And, yes, the place has all the culture of a Las Vegas casino. But one thing Dubai has got is balls. And sand. As any Dubai guide will be quick to point out, this place builds the biggest, longest, widest and tallest of everything from skyscrapers and shopping malls to rotating ski mountains before throwing its arms open and inviting the world to come and take a look. And for the most part, they do.
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In little more than a decade, Sheikh Mohammed – the Ruler of Dubai, and its self-styled CEO – has turned a sleepy emirate running out of oil into one of the world’s top 10 tourist destinations. In the next three he wants 15 million people to visit new attractions like Dubailand, a theme park double the size of the whole city. But that’s for the future. Right now there’s nowhere else in the world like it, a Casablanca oasis of calm in a region of notorious instability where 200 nationalities rub shoulders, luxury hotels spring up overnight and where you can ski, sand board, go wadi bashing, paraglide or do nothing all in one day.
What has Dubai got? It’s got as much or as little as you want. And lots of sand. Don’t forget the sand. And construction. The place is a giant building site, so one of residents’ chief complaints is the atrocious traffic. You’ve been warned.
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| Bab Al Shams luxury resort/ photo: hotel |
To orientate yourself, the emirate of Dubai is the second largest of the seven emirates within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The city of Dubai is divided by the Creek, an inlet of the Arabian Gulf. Deira, essentially comprising the city centre and the traditional areas comprising the glittering Gold Souk and old-world spice souk, lies to the north of the creek, and Bur Dubai (along the Sheikh Zayed Road business artery towards Abu Dhabi) lies to the south. The traditional way to cross the Creek is by using one of the many traditional abra boats plying the narrow stretch of water (but these days there are several bridges crossing it, of course). So on to our Dubai guide, the best shopping, hotels, and outings.
Dubai business hotels and luxury resorts
Whether you’re looking for swank Dubai business hotels or a gleaming beach resort down Jumeirah, the first thing you’ll need to do is peruse the options. It used to be the case that if you didn’t stay at a beachfront hotel the alternative was (a) book into a Deira flea pit teeming with leprosy or (b) sleep in your hire car. But the area around the main strip of beach hotels past Jumeirah (including hotels such as the stylish Ritz Carlton with its Spa & Beach club, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi, the Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa and the Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Resort) has gone through intensive, round-the-clock renovation – and by that I mean that for two years the hotels have been surrounded by building work of such magnitude that you’d find it difficult to sleep thanks to the sound of drills. Le Royal Meridien, for example, warns on its website that “development work at the Dubai Marina, which can be seen from our land view rooms, may be a cause for noise disturbance”. As a result, other beach-less options have come to the fore.
The Park Hyatt is one such example. Set on the bank of the Creek, the stunning arabesque architecture and peaceful surroundings belie the fact that you’re actually a stone’s throw from the city’s main bottleneck – Garhoud Bridge. This is one of the prime Dubai business hotels. Set amidst 37 acres of gardens, and overlooking Dubai Creek, is the Grand Hyatt Dubai. Among the top Dubai business hotels, it offers 674 rooms and suites as well as 186 long-stay apartments. All rooms feature contemporary decor (with an Arabian touch) and amenities include TVs (25-inch or larger), high-speed Internet access, minibar, and safes that are large enough to fit a laptop. The marble bathrooms have separate tubs and showers, twin basins, and bidets. No excuses for laziness at this hotel; there are indoor and outdoor pools, squash and tennis courts, and a jogging track, all part of "The Grand Spa". The Grand Hyatt Dubai also has vast meeting and conference facilities.
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| Landmark Burj Al Arab/ photo: hotel |
Bab Al Shams is another that hasn’t let a lack of beach hamper it. The fact that this Dubai luxury resort is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by miles of unbroken dunes and a deserted, lightly chilled infinity pool more than makes up for the lack of a small strip of sand skirting a salty, and not altogether clean, body of water. Farther inland on the Dubai-Al Ain highway is the exclusive "eco-tourism" Al Maha Desert Resort, set within a 25sq km desert reserve. This plush Bedouin-style oasis in the dunes is sufficiently off the beaten path to offer a genuine wilderness setting, complete with falconry, camel rides, archery, sand skiing and four-wheel-drive dune runs. Who says the rich can't have fun?
That’s not to say that beach areas are totally redundant. Near the marina you’ll find the recently opened Grosvenor House West Marina Beach by Le Méridien, while the One&Only Royal Mirage is arguably one of the best Dubai luxury hotels. The sprawling resort is stunning with three separate hotels contained within its walls. It has the Rooftop Terrace where you can enjoy a cocktail while watching the sunset over the Arabian Gulf. You can also smoke shisha (traditional water pipe) at the "shisha courtyards". The three different accommodation zones include The Palace, the Arabian Court, and the Residence & Spa, each with distinctive architecture, mood and flair.
Further down the coast, you’ll see Dubai’s most famous erection. The Burj Al Arab, a self-styled “seven-star” hotel, is Dubai’s thrusting, phallic symbol of luxury and business acumen. It features on number plates, restaurant signs, sunglasses. You name it, the Burj adorns it. So proud are Emiratis of their 321m construction that fighter jets are on a three-minute stand-by lest anyone wanders into its airspace accidentally. If you’re not a hotel guest, you pay Dhs150 just to enter (US$1=3.76 UAE dirham). True, the interior resembles the palace of a recently enriched Russian crime boss (in fact, two Russian gangsters were recently shot and killed in a Burj hotel room during a botched diamond deal), but it is still a luxurious experience difficult to top.
The wave-shaped 598-room Jumeirah Beach Hotel next to the Burj was Jumeirah’s original trend-setter at the forefront of the Dubai luxury hotels wave. The place has no less than 18 bars, lounges and restaurants, but some say it’s over-priced and over-rated. “Improvements” have been scheduled for 2007.
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| One & Only Royal Mirage/ photo: hotel |
The Madinat Jumeirah resort has taken the concept of “old Arabia” – with a luxury (and theme park) touch. It includes two hotels, 3.7km of waterways with traditional water taxis transporting guests from their rooms to the restaurants and beach and a retail souk (market) with shops, bars and restaurants (more about this later). The Mina A' Salam boutique hotel has 292 rooms sized at least 50sq m and suites have private balconies with Arabian Gulf views. Neighbouring Al Qasr is a “mansion-style” hotel surrounded by water.
Back in the city, in Deira, top Dubai business hotels (with the distinct benefit of being close to the airport) include the luxurious Renaissance Dubai Hotel with good conference facilities, the contemporary-style Taj Palace boasting “the largest room in the city at 61sq m including balcony”, the 262-room Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel & Towers overlooking the Creek, and the JW Marriott with its award-winning conference facilities. New business suites here offer laptops, all-in-one scanners, copiers, faxes and printers, flat-screen televisions and high-speed Internet. Others business choices include the Hyatt Regency and the Sheraton Deira Hotel.
There’s no shortage of good accommodation in Bur Dubai either. The Fairmont, resembling a (34-storey) traditional Arabian wind-tower on Sheikh Zayed Road (opposite the Dubai International Convention Centre), has 394 rooms and suites with business facilities and 10 dining and entertainment venues. There’s a two-floor business centre and 40,000sq ft spa and health club.
Also on Sheikh Zayed Road is the five-star Dusit Dubai, bringing a Thai touch to Dubai and featuring 321 hotel rooms, suites and fully furnished and serviced one- and two-bedroom apartments. The nearby Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai is a 200m, 43-storey hotel with 301 generously sized guestrooms, good business facilities and a luxurious spa and health club.
Dubai shopping guide and a few extras
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| All that glitters: Dubai Gold Souk |
You can say Dubai was built on sand but really it was built on shopping. The once yearly Dubai Shopping Festival (www.mydsf.com) – usually held for several months at the beginning of the year – was started in the late 1990s to attract more visitors to the emirate and its explosive success has been in no small part down to it.
But while once you could get great bargains, now you’ll have to look harder for prices that can beat other places in Asia. Not even at the awful Global Village, a huge, semi-permanent bazaar selling authentic tat from around the world. In fact, shopping is Dubai’s great fallacy. The designers stock last year’s threads, and prices are no different – sometimes they’re actually more expensive – than back home.
But there are some places worth checking out. Most of Dubai’s shopping is conducted in air-conditioned malls. The best is probably the Mall of the Emirates (tel: [971-4] 409-9000, www.malloftheemirates.com), the biggest mall outside North America that seems to house everyone from Armani to H&M. Best of all, however, is that you’ll be able to go skiing. You might burn like an albino on a sun bed outside, but inside Ski Dubai (tel: [971-4] 409-4000, www.skidxb.com) you can experience “real” snow and a huge slope down which you can ski, snowboard, pull some tricks or just fall over gracefully.
Madinat Jumeirah (tel: [971-4] 366-8888, www.madinatjumeirah.com) on the other hand, tries to take a more authentic approach by modelling itself on a traditional souk. Most of the stuff on sale here is tacky and triple the price you’d get elsewhere in the city, but the Madinat does have a maze of fantastic bars and restaurants to explore (check out Agency, BarZar and the Noodle House) when you get bored of the shopping.
Emirates Towers (tel: [971-4] 330-0000, www.jumeirahemiratestowers.com) on Sheikh Zayed Road (the twin towers you can see from anywhere in Dubai) is where to head when you want to peruse some designer brands or fancy some karaoke. (Harry Ghatto's has “Gold” by Spandau Ballet and “Boys Don’t Cry” by the Cure. Enough said.)
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| Ritz-Carlton on Jumeirah Beach/ photo: hotel |
The BurJuman mall (www.burjuman.com) is by far the most upmarket of Dubai malls, despite being located in a downmarket area of Bur Dubai. There’s little in the way of independent shops in Dubai but there are a few green shoots poking through. Five Green (tel: [971-4] 336-4100, www.fivegreen.com) is perhaps among the best Dubai shopping gems in this genre. Brought to you by the same people that run iBO, Five Green is found around the back of a café in Oud Metha and stocks achingly cool street wear, nicely folded on its white-washed minimalist shelves. They also keep a few sneaky copies of banned magazines like Vice under the desk, if you ask nicely.
But you can’t really leave Dubai until you’ve filled your suitcase with all sorts of fakery, amusing tat and rock-bottom perfumes from Karama. Ask any Dubaian and he’ll know where Karama is. The area’s two shabby, parallel concrete blocks full of stores look like a 1960s Russian experiment in communal living that’s gone badly wrong. But along its stained streets many a bargain can be had. Ignore the incessant catcalls for Rolex watches and “Sexy DVDs” and head to any fashion shop. You’ll be ushered upstairs where you’ll find a bevy of (nearly) perfectly copied handbags, shirts and other accessories.
The perfumes on the other hand are all legit but seem to be criminally priced and about half the cost of their mall counterparts. The authorities are trying to clamp down on the area, what with it being highly illegal, a flagrant breach of intellectual property and, apparently, the main stumbling block in a free-trade deal between the UAE and the US. But if you’re quick, you can still get that pair of “Diesil” jeans for next to nothing.
Some Dubai dining options
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| Dusit Dubai/ photo: hotel |
You’ll need all that fake designer clothing to look the part at Dubai’s many high-class restaurants. A few years ago fine dining would have meant a greasy shawarma kebab, with sauce, after a night out. But then Gordon Ramsay came to town. His elegant eatery at the Hilton Dubai Creek Hotel in Deira, Verre (tel: [971-4] 227-1111) blew the spots off the competition (even the shawarma man outside the Cyclone bar) and set the standard for others to follow. To this day his blend of contemporary French cuisine and sincere, doting service is still the city’s best, but others are catching on fast. (The Hilton Dubai Creek Hotel also has a rooftop pool and all mod cons for business travellers.)
Gary Rhodes’ Mezzanine restaurant (tel: [971-4] 399-8888) at Grosvenor House is a case in point. The modern, white interior, Perspex lime-green walls and chintzy 1940s furniture makes it look like something out of Alice in Wonderland but gets the point of the menu across: modern, continental takes on British culinary favourites.
Pisces (tel: [971-4] 366-8888) at Madinat Jumeirah is also worth a mention, an expensive but unassuming seafood restaurant that hasn’t put a foot wrong in two years. From the sublime to the ridiculous, if you have the money Al Mahara (tel: [971-4] 301-7600) at the Burj is worth a visit, if only for the submarine ride down to the “underwater” restaurant. Of course, you’re really eating in what’s essentially the car park but they make a big show of taking a voyage when you climb into the lift. The pilot even cracked some inappropriate jokes about the ride being a little bumpy because of aftershocks from the tsunami. Still, as much as I’d want to the put the boot into them – mainly because you have to sell one of your kidneys to pay for a meal – their seafood fare is up there with the best in the city.
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| Park Hyatt poolside/ photo: hotel |
Of course, not everyone will be able to afford to eat fine food and down expensive wines. But you can gauge on slightly less fine food and moderately priced wine for far less. For about 30 cents to be precise. The Glasshouse (tel: [971-4] 227-1111), situated right opposite Verre in the Hilton Dubai Creek, is another Ramsay restaurant offering more affordable food for the masses. But go on a Monday night and you’ll be able to enjoy Dhs1 drinks until they have to roll you home. Who cares what the food tastes like?
Oddly, you’ll also be able to find the best curries in the world in Dubai. Over half of the city’s population are from India and Pakistan and there’s no shortage of places to find a decent biryani or madras curry for next to nothing. Gazebo (tel: [971-4] 391-6789) in Bur Dubai is a little more upmarket but you’ll still be able to order the most expensive thing on the menu and have change from a Dhs50 note for a cab home. It is unlicensed though.
Another booze-free joint is Thai eatery Lemongrass (tel: [971-4] 334-2325, www.lemongrassrestaurants.com), located opposite Lamcy Plaza (tel: [971-4] 335-9999, www.lamcyplaza.com) shopping mall in Oud Metha. You’ll be able to tuck into a three-course Thai extravaganza for peanuts. Plus, every dish comes with a vegetarian option.
Dubai nightlife and bars
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| The smart Fairmont/ photo: hotel |
Dubai’s nightlife has grown up in recent years. You’ll still find middle-aged Western men drunkenly hanging off the arm of a Russian, er, friend at old haunts like the Cyclone Club (honestly, it’s not even worth us giving you the number), but the city’s younger crowd is a little more discerning. Dubai’s biggest club is Trilogy (Madinat Jumeirah, tel: [971-4] 366-6917, www.trilogy.ae), a huge three-floored extravagance. There’s something of last decade’s super-club decadence about it – especially the private hanging cages for hire – but the exclusive rooftop bar is one of Dubai’s best. The view of the Burj and the Arabian Gulf is in itself worth the price of an over-priced drink. Better still is the music. While downstairs you’ll find big-name house acts spinning their tunes; upstairs you’ll be regaled with some far more palatable filthy electro. On most nights, anyway.
iBO (Millennium Airport Hotel, (tel: [971-4] 282-1844, www.9714.com), on the other hand, is Trilogy’s better-looking and cooler little brother. Found at the other end of town in a stand-alone site, iBO has a self aware, shabby feel to it (think East London or the Lower East Side) and has by far the most eclectic programme in the city. The weekends are usually packed with cutting-edge DJs from around the world peddling anything from jazz-fusion to drum and bass to funk. Plus local DJs get in on the action too. The monthly Twisted Melons indie night – probably the only place you’ll hear The Charlatans within a thousand-mile radius – is well worth a visit.
But if you like the soundtrack of your night to be punctuated with clinking glasses of Crystal, then head for The Apartment (tel: [971-4] 406-8000). There are not too many reasons to enter the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, but The Apartment does have some merit in the fact that the music is always fantastic: usually variations on a house theme, but they’ve been know to delve into hip hop, drum and bass and sometimes even dub.
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| Wild Wadi water churner/ photo: Wild Wadi |
Chi@The Lodge (Al Nasr Leisureland, tel: [971-4] 337-9470, www.lodgedubai.com) shows what you can do with a club when you kick the hookers out and move the decorators in. Once a sleazy booze pit called The Lodge, a pricey refit later and this outdoor venue is now attracting the dream of European and American DJ talent. Cyclone take note. A dishonourable mention must also go to the Buddha Bar (Grosvenor House, tel: [971-4] 399-8888). Yes, it is a proper one and yes it does have beautiful décor, amazing cocktails and actually-not-that-bad-chill-out trance soundtrack. But it’s all undermined by a clientele of such insufferable arrogance that you’d rather stab yourself in the neck then engage in another conversation with a wealthy – but very lonely – local about his latest Bentley purchase. Still, the Southeast Asian fusion menu is pretty good.
Dubai entertainment, leisure and fun stuff
As you would expect from an expat haunt with more money, space and sunburnt Englishmen than sense, Dubai has a prolific number of golf courses. In fact, the emirate’s insatiable desire for lush, green courses is one of the reasons why the UAE, per capita, consumes more water in the world than anyone else. The oldest, and still one of the best, is the Emirates Golf Course. The “miracle in the desert” was the Middle East’s first grass course and now hosts the Dubai Desert Classic, a PGA event where the best players in the world come and chance their arm.
At the other end of town is the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, where you can play their par three course if you fear you’ll embarrass yourself with the big boys and girls. But the new breed of courses has an added extra: celebrity endorsement. Colin Montgomerie already has a course here, Ernie Els and Greg Norman are having theirs built and Tiger Woods has announced he’ll build one soon. It’s only a matter of time before John Daly will put his name to a course where you’re docked shots for not consuming ten pints and 30 Benson and Hedges by the time you reach the back nine.
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| Stomach-churning downhill/ photo: Verghese |
Other than golf, watersports by the beach and maybe a desert tour, you could try some culture. Dubai Museum (tel: [971-4] 393-7151, www.dubaitourism.ae) in Bur Dubai takes you 30 minutes, if that, to get around and ironically highlights the city’s cultural paucity. But visitors interested in the city’s history might still find it worthwhile.
If you prefer to spend your time looking for the real Dubai that doesn’t exist, revel in its excessive wastefulness at Wild Wadi (Jumeirah Beach Hotel, tel: [971-4] 348-4444, www.wildwadi.com), the Middle East’s biggest water theme park. It occupies 12 acres (right next to the Burj Al Arab) and has just had a refit to pack in more rides. The 80km/h Jumeirah Sceirah death slide – my name for it, not theirs – has long been a crowd favourite. God knows why: I almost lost my lunch on it.
Although Dubai is an emirate, the city sprawl pretty much takes stretches from its eastern border with Abu Dhabi to its western one with Sharjah. But drive south and you’ll soon find rolling sand dunes and arrogant camels who wander onto the semi-deserted highways unconcerned that they might be complicit in a fatal road accident. (Actually, do be careful. Killing a camel may cost you millions of dirhams in compensation, as the animal has protected status under UAE law).
After 40 minutes you’ll notice that the sand has changed colour from a pale yellow to a rusty red as you enter the Hajar mountains and Dubai’s mountain retreat of Hatta. People come to Hatta for three reasons. Firstly, to escape the heat. In the summer it’s cooler than the rest of Dubai plus it has the Hatta rock pools, natural fresh water ponds that provide a blessed relief from the pounding heat. Secondly, to go on a visa run, as it’s situated on the Omani border. The third is to go for a dirty weekend at the Hatta Fort Hotel. You can’t miss it. It’s the splash of green on your left as you drive into the town. It used to have a ‘70s Swedish porn set ambience but they have since opted for a refit, as a result losing some of its charm. Still, it has great amenities including a swimming pool, par three golf course, archery, skeet and clay pigeon shooting and floodlit tennis courts. Plus there’s a harassed camel tethered to a pole outside that is available for short rides. Perhaps the owner was one of the unlucky drivers on the Hatta-Dubai highway.
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| One&Only Palace wing/ photo: hotel |
But back to the sand. Midway back from Hatta you’ll notice a hut next to a massive sand dune and a collection of crazy expats ploughing their four-wheel-drive Toyota Landcruisers at insane angles. You’ll soon realise that the kind of people who boast about doing a spot of wadi-bashing – careering around dried-up river beds and up sand dunes at great personal risk – are the kind of people you’d rather leave to burn in the desert than spend a day with. But with downward angles more vertiginous than the earnings graph of a Hongkong investment fund, it’s pretty darn fun. Cars skeeter down slopes and then up soaring hills, teetering on knife-edges before going over the top. I worked out that petrol was cheaper than a litre of water, so tank up and head on out if self-drive takes your fancy. Per person dune-run charges with an alfresco dinner thrown in are around Dhs250.
Of course, Dubai is only one of the seven emirates making up the UAE. The others are Abu Dhabi (the capital, expensive and dull), Ras al Khaimah (mountainous and on the up), Ajman (tiny but liberal alcohol laws), Umm Al Quwain (sells it self as an extreme-sports centre) and Fujairah (a long drive but has some of the best snorkelling and diving in the Middle East). But the closest to Dubai is Sharjah. The two emirates have had a fractured relationship. An ex-army officer once regaled a story of how troops from Sharjah and Dubai massed at the border for a scrap a mere 10 years ago before being subsumed into a larger UAE army.
If you really want to go to Sharjah
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| Sunrise
at Sharjah docks/ photo: Verghese |
Dubaians see Sharjah as a backward little anachronism – mainly because it’s “dry” and you can get nicked for carrying a bottle of wine – while the majority of Sharjah’s residents have to work in Dubai (where the wages are higher) and live in Sharjah (where the rents are half the price). The result is a near permanent traffic jam that snakes from the border all the way back to Jumeirah and a lot of very unhappy Sharjah residents who have to spend three hours commuting a journey that would usually take 15 minutes.
But despite most Dubaians’ disdain for the place, it has plenty of positives. For one, it has a wealth of museums that Dubai can only dream of. In fact, the Sharjah Biennial is the biggest modern-art event in the Middle East. Because of it, Esquire magazine dubbed the place “the new Monaco”. They might have gone a bit far but shopping here is generally much cheaper too. The Blue Souq on Corniche Road is perfect for picking up Middle Eastern souvenirs like shisha pipes, which are half the price of outlets in Dubai.
The Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife (tel: [971-6] 531-1212, www.breedingcentresharjah.com) outside Sharjah city is the best wildlife park in the region. Here you’ll find local species galore plus the odd cheetah or lion. They aren’t indigenous to Sharjah, obviously, but the emirate has long been a centre for endangered animal smuggling. Whatever gets rescued at customs gets sent here. So what you see when you get there depends on what mood the animal smugglers were in that week.
Good spots to unwind at are the lagoon-side Hotel Holiday International (which plays host to international cricketers and features a large sports TV screen in the lobby) and sister resorts Marbella and the simple yet stylish Lou' Lou'a (with a private beach). The Marbella Resort has a pleasant green coconut-grove setting, also on Khalid Lagoon, with 50 villas. All three are ideal for families and at affordable prices. Also on the beach is the Coral Beach Resort, with 156 rooms, most of which have sea views.
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| Hatta Fort Hotel/ photo: hotel |
The beach-front, five-star Radisson SAS Resort Hotel, Sharjah caters to business and leisure travellers, with free Broadband throughout the hotel and a beach, spa and fitness centre.
If you're a South Asian foodie, check out the biryani at Pak Ghazi, Bank Street, Sharjah (Indian food is across the main road at Rolla Square). Or Saravana Bhavan and Vastanta Bhavan (for South Indian in Dubai). Al Fawar in Sharjah has excellent Lebanese (which is also abundant in Dubai's Al Nasser Square).
Flying to or through Dubai
Emirates airline is a great way to enjoy a Dubai stopover. Their A330-200s have pleasant service and comfy seats (2-4-2 in economy) with PTV and a nose-wheel camera for gripping take-offs and landings. There is also a downward camera. Stewardesses speak Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic and Thai, and it is reassuring to get headphones with ear cushions already attached so you don't have to fumble with them for hours. Travellers receive three stickers, which they can affix to their headrest - "do not disturb", "wake for meal" and, rather hopefully, "wake for duty-free". The inflight payphone costs US$5 per minute and a fax facility is available. It's a pity their Skywards frequent flier programme does not link with THAI, Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines though SriLankan is a partner. Cathay Pacific flies to Dubai via Bahrain.
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