In Dubai, international brands are often lower than in their country of origin. Add Indian and Asian wares, local Arabian treasures and the cheapest source of gold in the world for a shopper’s paradise. Keen prices are accompanied by a staggering choice of brands and models.

Shopping can take many forms in Dubai. Either stroll through air-conditioned malls and exclusive hotel arcades, or explore the 'strip' shopping areas, Al Maktoum Street for watches, the Satwa for clothing, the Karama for designer copies, Al Fahidi Street and El Nasr Square for electronics, the stretch between Falcon and Ramada Roundabouts for computer systems and software and so on. Among the most popular is the Al Ghurair Centre, in the heart of the city on the Deira side. The same operators have recently opened the sumptuous Ben Juman Centre on the Dubai side. Whilst the Al Manal centre near Al Nasr Square is exclusively for women and families. Other centres worth checking out are Markas Al Jumeirah and neighbouring Magrudy Centre, The Centre in Deira, Al Mulla Plaza, Wafi Shopping Mall, Al Dhiyafa and the Hanaraub Centre. A haven for some of the finest shopping in the world, Dubai's annual shopping fair that debuted in February 1996, provides six full weeks of remarkable activity. From state-of-the-art shopping malls to the atmospheric souks. Dubai has everything from the most luxurious purchases to more practical items.

Some of the best examples of traditional architecture in Dubai can be found in the mosques and prayer houses. Chief amongst these is the beautiful Jumeira mosque completed in 1983, A Muezzin (crier) can heard calling the faithful to prayer from the soaring, ornate minarets.

More than one visitor has mistaken the lush greens and freshwater lakes of the Emirates Golf Club and Dubai Creek Golf Club for a desert mirage. Man-made oases of rolling green fairways, bunkers and lakes materialize miraculously from a desert haze with superbly designed clubhouses at their epicentres.

There is a wildly eccentric flavour to a desert camel race that makes it irresistibly entertaining to watch. However, camel races are not staged for the tourist, they are both a passion and a serious business in Dubai conducted nearly every weekend in the cooler months.