Gazing out over Dubai’s skyline, an eclectic array of megalithic skyscrapers jutting through the clouds, it’s so hard to imagine that this mega-city began as a sleepy fishing village. One of seven emi

Even by the standards of an emirate that shows all the constructional restraint of a toddler with a trunk of Lego, Dubai is in turbocharge mode. Eminent hotel groups are flooding in as superhotels spring up on man-made islands. Yet for all Dubai’s veneration of the new, decades of innovation have left a legacy of eye-catching and, in some cases, surprisingly affordable sanctuaries in which to bed down, whether you’re based in Burj Khalifa-dominated Downtown, the buzzing Marina or amid the sugary sands of Jumeirah Beach and the Palm. Throughout it all, the hospitality ecosystem seems to hum with a customer-is-king efficiency.

When Chris and Marianne Fisher left their five-bedroom home in Telford in January 2020, they thought they were heading off on a 20-month world tour. They never imagined they’d be returning four and a

SARAH DITUM

This week’s dream: the dazzling coral gardens of ...

Are you sure, love? Why not go on a nice holiday with a friend instead?” “Honestly, Mum,” Lucy said, a touch impatiently. “I’m thirty, not a teenager! I want to travel, be on my own for a while. Since