Dubai

The Villa Holiday Specialists are delighted to introduce Dubai as the new destination to our portfolio for 2008.

Dubai is a wonderful holiday destination – with world-class shopping, adventure activities and sports, historic sights and family attractions, and all in fabulous sunshine for most of the year.

There are so many magical holiday experiences here – desert safaris and dune-driving, little-known wildlife including 200 different species of migrating birds, sports such as horse- and camel-racing, championship-standard golf courses, and even an indoor ski-centre with a revolving mountain and real snow.

It’s a country of dramatic desert and mountain landscapes with glamorous and historic Dubai city at its heart – with astonishing architecture from ancient fairy-tale souks and mosques to futuristic skyscrapers and giant tax-free shopping malls.

Local Knowledge
The history of Dubai city stretches back into the ancient world – its natural harbour made it a busy stopping-off point on the trade route between Mesoptamia and the Indus Valley, and by the 1800s it was the principal port on the Gulf coast. Today, the traditional souks survive alongside the fantastic tax-free shopping malls – with everything from designer couture to silks and spices. In the specialist souks you’ll find beautiful silver Bedouin jewellery and some of the best-priced gold in the world. There are traditional bakeries and teashops, amazing fabrics, and even a special fish souk in the old Deira district where huge piles of fish – red snappers, barracuda, lobsters and even sharks –are unloaded and auctioned. And you’ll still find plenty of the old city to explore: you can take a river cruise on a wooden dhow, walk around the narrow lanes of the old Bastakiya district with courtyard houses cooled by tall windtowers, or watch ships go by from the 19th-century riverfront house of Sheikh Saeed – Dubai’s former ruler.

Especially for children, there’s a whole range of fun and adventure. Ski Dubai is an amazing snow dome with indoor skiing and snowboarding. There are children’s entertainment centres at The Magic Planet – with ten-pin bowling, an adventure jungle, as well as arcades and a pitch and putt course – and the Encounter Zone, with a Crystal Maze, a 3-D cinema, a rollercoaster simulator and children’s rides. For outdoor fun there’s the Wonderland water park, as well as Dubai Zoo, and lots of public parks and gardens including the lovely waterfront Creekside Park.

And Dubai’s sub-tropical climate means it’s sunny, hot and dry almost all year round. It hardly ever rains and average daily temperatures run from 24 degrees in January to 41 in July.

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