MY sunglasses steamed up a split second after we stepped out of the air-conditioned car. “That means the humidity is more than 80 per cent,” my shopping companion, Maria, said through the haze.
Dubai in the summer is Dubai at its most furnace-like, with temperatures hovering around the low forties. Although many expats leave the Arab state to its languid torpor in the hottest months, this heatseeker of the first degree was undeterred.
In fact, the first thing I did on arriving at my hotel to temperatures of 36C (97F) at 7pm was to open the terrace doors and enjoy the warm breeze wafting past as I gazed at the dramatic Dubai skyline.
Even if you’re not that hot on heat, there is a point to visiting this popular winter short-break destination in the summer. Because it’s low season, airlines and hotels lop more than a third off their normal prices, so the luxury is affordable.
And we’re talking serious luxury, with the cosmopolitan staff dishing up the best food and service I’ve had in the Middle East and on a par with the top resorts in Mauritius and the Far East. Apart from the Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s iconic sail-shaped hotel with its acres of gold leaf, which is the most awful example of bad taste I’ve ever seen, they weren’t the glitzy kind of places I’d been expecting. The gold taps and gaudy furnishings of my imagination were replaced by understated elegance with an Arabic flavour, as epitomised by the One & Only Royal Mirage.
Here, manager Olivier Louis knew exactly how to deal with the heat. “You need to manage your time like the Spanish. Get up early to do things, then have a siesta or stay indoors before 4pm, when it’s pleasant to go outside again,” he said.
Some days I’d fill siesta time with a spa visit. All the top hotels have therapy areas with trickling water and calming music, but the most impressive is the largest: the Six Senses at the Madinat Jumeirah, a labyrinth of paths and courtyards.
Other days, I’d slot shopping into the muggy afternoon hours — the malls (there are stacks of them, all open until 10pm) are all air-conditioned. It was just a case of stepping from air-conditioned hotel to air-conditioned car and air-conditioned mall, all at comfortable levels rather than deep-freeze temperatures that leave you with a nasty cold.
Oh how I shopped, sometimes stepping out of the air-conditioning into the spice souk or the gold souk, one long drag lined with bling. Jewellery, which is about a third off the UK price, is one of a number of bargains you can bag, including cashmere pashminas for about £15.
Back at the hotel by 5pm, I would go out before sunset for a stroll along the beach, watching the cranes building The Palm, a man-made island that will be filled with luxury homes, its fronds stretching into the Arabian Gulf.
There’s plenty of construction going on as Dubai follows its goal of having the biggest, highest and most luxurious buildings and resorts. After The Palm, which is due to be completed next year, another two Palm developments will follow, along with The World, an archipelago of 300 man-made islands in the shape of a map of the world.
Pick your hotel carefully and you won’t be disturbed by this work. There was no noise as I walked along the Royal Mirage beach, which I had to myself at this pleasant time of day. But when I ventured out to the pool at midday, I found plenty of “mad dogs” lazing around on sun loungers, all emphatic that they would return at this time of year and praising the hotels for being geared up to the temperatures, with water and towels being offered around the pool at regular intervals.
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