Dubai travel info

At six in the evening people line the railing of the lake outside Dubai Mall. Burj Khalifa lights up all 828 m above them, the music starts, and the fountain jets climb to the height of a 50-storey building before collapsing at once. It repeats every half hour and the phones still go up every time.

Twenty minutes north on the Red Line it's a different city. Along Dubai Creek, old coral-stone houses with wind towers still stand, and one dirham buys you a seat on a wooden abra that reaches Deira in five minutes. Step off into the smell of spice sacks, gold shop windows and traders calling you in. The skyscraper city started on this narrow strip of water.

In summer Dubai is an oven: July and August average 42°C by day and 31°C at night, and the mall air-con is busier than the beach. November to March is the season. Many nationalities get a visa on arrival, but check the rules for your own passport, and the main rules to remember are that alcohol belongs in hotel bars and malls expect shoulders and knees covered.

Dubai International Airport (DXB)

Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai World Central) (DWC)