This place is for everyone of all ages. I was very surprised to see so many families there, a great place for couples and families. Amazing bars and places to eat. Service was fantastic wherever we went. A great place to relax, shop and experience different sorts of food. A very glamorous place to be, would go back again and would recommend for a break/holiday.

I go to Dubai a few times a year and enjoy it for a getaway with a bit of business. But what's become worse and worse is the traffic. Yes, Dubai's a city but the traffic's so clogged up that business friends tell me that they never take more than one appointment outside the office in the morning, one in the afternoon.

Travelling between Deira and Bur Dubai, the halves of Dubai split by the Creek (a rather understated body of water), can be a nightmare anytime of the day. My friends were taking me back after 10 pm from Bur Dubai to Deira, and we sat in traffic, finally reaching my hotel 90 minutes later.

I had a meeting with a colleague so jumped into a taxi 40 minutes ahead of the meeting. "I don't think you'll make the meeting at 1.15 pm," says the cab driver.

He said he'd been on duty since 6 am and had gone that route before that morning. He said in one case it took two hours and 15 minutes to go from one side to the other in Dubai. There are just two bridges and a tunnel, the latter under repair.

All key arteries, including traffic coming in from Sharjah, feed into the bridge traffic lanes. One wonders whether there's been some horrible road accident that brought traffic to a standstill.

But the exasperatingly slow or no-go traffic seemed to be just lanes of traffic choked with vehicles and no accidents at all in view. Anyway, upon hearing the taxi driver's tale of woe, I decided to go straight back to the hotel as we hadn't even come close to the bridge, and it'd take lots of time before reaching it.

I called my colleague and told him that I'd opted out of going to Bur Dubai that day as I had an appointment in Deira at 3 pm and was sure that I'd miss both the 1.15 and 3 o'clock appointments. Another friend works and lives in Bur Dubai but it took her 90 minutes to get home from work last week.

Moaning on about traffic, I must say that taxi drivers, mostly from the subcontinent, are very professional. In all my many years of taking taxis in Dubai, I've never had a misunderstanding or dispute. However, the emirate is desperately interested in being firmly in the 21st century but serious attention will have to be given to the traffic dilemma which is a bane for tourists and business people, the latter suffering from valuable, non-productive time.

1.Dubai Museum is excellent. It is located in an old fort near the creek. The underground section is particularly interesting in providing a history of the development of Dubai. Note only open afternoons on Friday. After visiting the museum, go the Basta Art Café (near the big Al-Fahidi roundabout, about 100 metres from the fort) which has a lovely shady courtyard. Immediately next to that is the Bastakia Quarter which is a restored series of houses which include the old wind tower houses, designed to use the desert breezes are natural air conditioning.
2.An evening trip into the desert is an enjoyable experience. A number of tour operators offer these, but it seems that Arabian Adventures is the best. The trip includes about 30 minutes of dune-bashing, which certainly has its moments. Dinner is in a reconstructed Bedouin camp. This is not an intimate affair – on the night I went there were about 150 people carried and about 30 four-wheel drives. As well as the dinner, there is also a short camel ride on offer and a henna tattoo. Obviously it is atourist construct so not an 'authentic' experience. The moment that remains in my mind is that at the end of the evening in the camp, they turn off all the lights; it is a wonderful feeling looking up at the stars and the surrounding sand dunes.
3.Enjoy a trip across the creek on a water taxi (abra). The trip across costs only one- half DHR each. The taxis carry 40 people and it can be a bit of a scramble getting on. There are 2 water taxi terminals on the Dubai side and likewise 2 corresponding terminals on the Deira side (for the Gold Souk, go to terminal number 1, which is closer to the mouth of the creek).
4.The water taxi operators will also probably approach you offering a return trip up the Dubai Creek, usually for half an hour (ie just for you or your group). The trip we did cost 50 DHR (all up) although you can probably negotiate a cheaper price.
5.The Wild Wadi Water Park is excellent. It is located next to the Burj Al Arab Hotel. It is very clean, very efficient and very safe. Cost was 150 DHR each, although in the hotel they had discount vouchers of 30 DHR each.
6.There is another theme park called Wonderland, which is near the Wafi City mall. It is a combination of water theme park and more traditional amusement park. It is much older with far less staffing than Wild Wadi, and gives an overall impression of being quite tired. Many of the rides were either permanently or temporarily out of action. It also has a rather confusing pricing system (we purchased the all-inclusive ticket but even that doesn’t cover all activities, as some of them seemed to be independent concessaries.) Having said that, it was quite an enjoyable half day.
7.Ski Dubai, located in the Emirates Mall, is good fun. It is open every day from 10am until about 11pm. Basically there are 2 main runs, on either side of the chair lift, which are about 400m long (there is also a magic carpet and other nursery area for beginners). The two main runs are of an intermediate level (even though the owners claim that the left hand side is a black run). A couple of tips about the chair lift; if you are tall, be careful not to foul your skis around the mid level drop off point – also, of you are getting off at the mid level point, be on the right hand side of the chair lift and give yourself a push off as you get off the chair as it needs some effort to get clear of it. I would recommend taking your own gloves and socks. Your allocated time does not start until you pass through the turnstile at the base of the chairlift for the first time; each time you go through the turnstiles after that, the screen tells you how long you’ve got left, which is handy.
8.The souks (gold, perfume, spice etc) are most atmospheric at night. I thought they were a little overrated but certainly worth a visit (probably the best part is the people-watching).
9.You can only enter the Burj Al Arab Hotel complex if you are either are a guest or have booking for one of the restaurants or bars. At the top level there is the Skyview Restaurant, but be warned it is very expensive (eg mains start at about 300 DHR and bottles of wine start at about 400 DHR) or the Skyview Bar which has better views (but note that children are not allowed into the bar under UAE law). Although the décor will not be to everyone’s taste, I regard it as a must-do experience.
10. The nearby Grovesnor hotel apparently has a great bar on L44, with free drinks (including top shelf for a couple of hours in the early evening). No children though.
11. If you go to the Wafi City Mall –
a.there is a very good area for children at the top level
b.check out the Pharaoh’s Club in an adjoining building, which has indoor rock-climbing , junior gym, etc, as well as a pool area and gardens at the top
c.you must go to an amazing shop called Memoirs which opened in September (next to the Tiffany’s, right next to one of the entrances). The shop is comprised of a series of rooms, with exotic furnishings and staff in period costume. It is more like a museum than a shop. In the library area, don’t miss seeing the trick door. Apparently the shop is the only one of its kind, although the owner is considering opening a second shop in Europe.
12.Think twice about using the public beaches, especially outside working hours. Dubai has a very large number of young male guest workers (the gender ratio is apparently something like 75/25). There is apparently a great deal of ogling and other more unsavoury conduct towards western women at the public beaches. You are probably better off at one of the private beach clubs, especially those operated by the large hotels.
13.Dubai taxis are very cheap. Dubai is very spread out so it is not really a city for walking.

Let me start by saying: I just LOVE Dubai. This city is SO crazy, over the top and mind boggling, every time I visit, be it for work or private (some friends of mine live there) I just can't get over my amazement.

All the projects they're building are just unbelievable. From the man-made islands shaped like palms and a map of the world, the burj-al-arab (most expensive hotel in the world) to indoor ski-slopes. These guys have imaginations run wild!

All in all, there's not one thing I dislike about this place. Well, except one... It is so expensive to stay in Dubai! When I'm visiting for work it doesn't really matter. The boss pays :-). And normally when I visit I can stay with my friends, but last week I needed to find some accommodation on my own.

I was planning to visit the Dubai 7s (HUGE rugby event, which i LOVE) with a couple of friends, like we do every year. But it was SO hard to get a hotel! Not only hard, but EXPENSIVE. Really, the word budget is not in the local vocabulary. So after checking out the different hotels I normally stay in and asking my friends for some help I almost came to the conclusion we should cancel. It was just not affordable. Even through sites I use often for traveling (like[--]) it didn't work.

Finally I thought; Why not rent a house, like we always do for Ski-vacations?! So I went to my travel agent. No luck of course. Then I went online and to my relief I find quite a few sites specializing in this business. They all looked pretty good to me, so I finally chose one ([--]) and booked a 3-bedroom villa for me and my mates.

Fortunately this was quite affordable and we got some privacy (which can be good after a day of "rugby watching"). So we went, had a great trip (and cool villa by the way)!

I would like to say: Dubai; You're a cool city, but PLEASE do something to accommodate the more budget visitor. It'll be worthed!