Nick Bonfield makes his first ever journey to Trump Turnberry to play the recently renovated Ailsa course and experience one of golf’s most iconic resorts

The depth and quality of golf on the continent has never been stronger, so compiling this list has never been harder…

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.

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

THE DIARY

Royal Marbella Golf Resort’s prime location and easy access to the Costa del Golf’s top courses are a winning formula, as Joel Tadman discovers...