[QUOTE=jimrpa] I'm not a big shopper or anything - usually when I travel, I like to check out the cultural and historical sites. Can anyone here point me someplace that will discuss what there is for a middle-class American to see and do in DXB? [QUOTE]

Jim:

Dubai IMHO is a bit like Las Vegas without the gambling, with plenty of Disney World type attractions and hotels and very little local culture or historical sites as very few people lived there until relatively recently.

In the UAE as a whole, with a total population of 2.5m, nationals are outnumbered seven to one by mainly non-Arab aliens: 1.2m Indians, 600,000 Pakistanis, 100,000 Iranians and contributions from dozens of other nations, including 50,000 Britons. In Dubai, nationals fall to a mere 8% out of a million-plus.

The "Dubai culture" is therefore very westernised and you should feel quite at home there if you're from the UK.

If you want to see the Arab world, I would suggest Syria, Jordan or Egypt (in that order), all of which have historical sites and are more "authentic".