Sorry if this question is slightly off-topic: I'm thinking of cashing in some SkyMiles for the FC Emirates award JFK-DXB (mainly to check out the cabin and service everyone speaks so highly of). Anyway, I'm wondering what there is to do once I get to DXB? I'm not super-wealthy, so I won't be staying at places like the Burj (in fact, that's another thing - I have to figure out where I can afford to stay). 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? Also, I generally try to be sensitive to local culture and customs when I travel overseas - anything in particular I have to be cautious about when traveling to DXB? I wouldn't want to inadvertently offend anyone or unknowingly commit any crimes!

Thanks!

[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".

You can check out www:dubaicityguide.com, pretty useful site to get info on Dubai. They have a pretty interesting if small museum in Dubai, I spent a whole afternoon there as I love museums. The month-long Dubai Shopping Festival starts on Jan. 4, with some pretty serious discounts on everything, not bad if you have a big ticket item in mind. Please post your comments on your JFK-DBX-JFK flights, will be interesting to hear more about their FC product. Thanks and enjoy your trip & visit.

If you are going during the Dubai Shopping Festival, getting a stopover package with EK might be the best thing as their rates are reasonable, they include transfers. In terms of what to do, unless you like shopping, you will get bored in less than a week there are some interesting waterparks and a new indoor ski park (!), and a couple of other "attractions". The site that Caloy recommended, www:dubaicityguide.com, should be quite helpful.

Word of caution: Not sure if you can still use SkyMiles for F class JFK-DXB-JFK awards

There are some threads on FT about this

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...s+Class+Awards


Cheers

Thanks for all the tips! I'll definitely check them out. I also found mention of something called a "sand safari" which sounds intriguing. The www.dubaicityguide.com site is interesting, but not very Safari/Firefox-friendly (do Dubians have something against Apple? )

more inspiration... a good link i got from someone... http://gardkarlsen.com/dubai.htm

Go have dinner at the Park Hyatt (Cafe Arabesque) or at least some drinks... there should be lots of things to do. You could also try some side trips from Dubai (EK has some good deals). I want to check out Muscat, but haven't had the time.

Also - Rodeo Grill at Al Bustan hotel has some of the best steak I have ever had. It is not cheap (USD$60 per steak) but the food is great, the restaurant is nice and the service is excellent. They also have a promotion. If you can guess the weight of your raw steak with 20g, it's free. You get to look at it. It seems impossible, but in a group of 8 of us, 5 of the steaks were free it was some kind of record.

Cheers