Rough Guide DIRECTIONS to Dubai Book

If you're one of the many people who have fumbled with an ungainly travel guide, only to fail to find what you're looking for, perhaps you should be picking up the Rough Guides series. Rough Guide Directions: Dubai is the perfect exemplar, with everything the traveller will require to ensure that they don't miss a thing in the city, from accommodation to restaurants and bars and (of course) shopping. Dubai is in many ways quite unlike most cities on the planet, changing with breathtaking rapidity in the last 20 years or so. No longer a minor Gulf trading town, it is now in one of the most jawdroppingly wealthy of cosmopolitan destinations. Every aspect of its gaudy pleasures is examined here, and (as one would expect from this publisher), we are told the truth; and there is never an attempt to gloss over aspects that some might find controversial (as, for instance, this sentence: ‘This is one of the world's most glamorous, spectacular and futuristic urban destinations fuelled by a heady cocktail of petrodollars, visionary commercial acumen and naked ambitions’). It's this clear-sightedness that makes Gavin Thomas’ guide so valuable -- who, after all, doesn't want to know all the truth about the city they are visiting? Everything here is treated with enthusiasm and intelligence, and the carefully chosen photos (notably of the Arabian antiques) are eye-catching. But even here, the honesty shines through: the fact that the city is famous for the kitschest of kitsch souvenirs is celebrated, along with the respectable artefacts. If you're planning a trip to Dubai but not planning to take this guide along with you, you'll be doing yourself a disservice. With the dizzying profusion of restaurants alone, the kind of sympathetic guidance provided here is very valuable indeed. --Barry ForshawRead More