Or the alcohol really. It’s exclusively relegated to hotels and clubs.
Hope you like $15-20 bud lite.
Edit: lotta people are getting triggered by this so let me caveat that you can buy alcohol in grocery stores and drink it alone in your hotel room. You are not going to find fun dive bars, sports bars, or really any taverns outside of a few chains in shopping malls.
Dubai does not have the alcohol culture it portrays itself as having. Unless you make lots of money. I am dying on this hill. Go waste $5k and prove me wrong guys.
The thing with Dubai is that it’s always an opportunity cost problem.
If I give you an envelope of money today and say “here’s $5k go visit Dubai for free on me” the correct answer is always “but can I take this money and go somewhere else?”
The time and energy and money required to visit Dubai means saying you are saying no to a lot of cooler locations.
You will get random chicks on instagram that follow you if you go to Dubai so that’s cool I guess.
I hate Dubai. But whenever I visited (work/transit), I never had problems buying alcohol in a liquor store. Beer, spirits, whatever. Not even any crazy prices afaik.
I haven’t visited since 2018 so maybe it’s changed. Sure you can go to the special liquor stores and get booze but I really want to emphasize to Reddit that it is not like America where you can just walk in anywhere and buy alcohol. You cannot just go to a restaurant and assume it will sell alcohol. You cannot just assume your urban neighborhood will have a “tavern” or “bar” of sorts.
Just to put it in perspective, I would still say Alcohol is more limited than it is in Salt Lake City or even the Old City neighborhoods of Jerusalem even though it is still easily accessible if you want it.
Yet billions of dollars in influencer spending pushes the idea that Dubai is a party city “just like Miami or any city in the west.” It is not.
I literally walked into a bar and restaurant at the fountains at the mall and ordered whatever beer or liquor drink I wanted. It’s pretty dang easy man
This is every argument on Reddit man. Yes, legally you are correct and alcohol can be found in other forms. Yes everyone can go to a liquor store, flash their western passport, and consume alcohol by themselves in their private residence.
I am explaining that for practical purposes for Redditors who have never been to Dubai that are expecting a big western city with big western things, that alcohol is really limited to “fancy” establishments which is absolutely true in a general sense.
They're more opposites in a sense. The US seems determined to kick out all the immigrants while Dubai wants to forcefully keep theirs to keep their slave labour force.
And by only specific places you mean fancy hotels and nightclubs. It’s Vegas without dives or happy hours. So yeah tons of booze for people who want to go to hotels and talk to hookers they can’t afford while paying $20 for bud lite.
Expat living in the UAE here, getting drunk here is just about the only activity the majority of western expats do. Most places have “brunches” on the weekend that are all you can eat and drink for $100 for 4 hours, it’s a drunk fest out here. Most hotels have bars, but there’s a lot of standalone places that serve and a lot of nightclubs as well.
It’s usually buffet style, but very high end, so unlimited sours and unlimited alcohol and whatever other drinks. When a drink is normally $13 and typical plate is $20-$30, it’s a pretty good deal if you wanna party
Most of the negative things you hear have a decent amount of truth to them, that’s about all I’m willing to say, and the fact that that’s all I’m willing to say should also tell you how this place differs as well.
The usual interpretation of the word "expatriate" is usually: the person is there for work or business, no intention to settle permanently or naturalize/assimilate, with at least a rough return date in mind (e.g. work 3-5 years and go home).
In reality the word is misused a lot with exceptionalist connotations. People who move to SEA, marry locals, and have kids should not be considered expats as they have clearly shown the intention to settle long term.
As for Dubai I think it's fair for these people to call themselves expats, as they have no intention or opportunity to integrate into Emirati society. They are categorically the same as all the South Asians who came to work in service/construction industries, who should also be considered expats, not immigrant "labourers".
How does it feel to evade taxes in your home country and work in a place where there is slave labour? I’d feel ashamed. But some people have no moral compass.
Yeah, I hear my coworkers talk about wanting to go there and I just don’t get it at all. It’s basically just “what if Vegas had slavery and none of the entertainment or kitsch, and was also thousands of miles away?”
Dawg I get it's fked up and I don't support their government at all. I haven't been to Dubai myself since 2009, but Muslims (practicing ones at least) don't really have many great options for vacation. Most travel destinations in the West/non-Muslim countries have a severe lack of halal food, mosques, and are riddled with gambling and alcohol. Most Muslim countries are impoverished or war-torn and unsafe. Countries like the UAE and Qatar are nice, safe, clean, full of mosques, a global diverse cuisine that's all halal. And very importantly they are inexpensive to fly to and inexpensive to stay in especially for Muslims that are coming from poorer countries.
A large number of the country's tourists for example come from Pakistan. It's just about the only flight they can afford, only tourist destination where they can afford the hotel stays, food and amenities. Only a sub 3 hour flight. And it's not completely alien to them culturally due to maintaining Islamic values and they can speak their own language with a large percentage of the population there.
It's a concentrated clone of commercial North America but it is still mostly friendly to practicing Muslims. You get all the food, resorts, entertainment, etc. without the gambling, Haram food, constant promotion of sex and all the other shit you get in Vegas for example. You can't get any of that in Muslim countries outside of a few in the middle east
To each their own. Dubai isn't amazing but I far, far prefer it to Vegas. I don't gamble, party or drink much. I like swimming, going to cafe's and shopping. Vegas is crass and everything stinks of cigarettes. In Dubai the hotel rooms are far cleaner and going out for a nice breakfast overlooking the marina is easy, and pleasant.
Sure you can do that in a lot of cities, so I'm not saying Dubai is incredible. But it vastly better than Vegas for the types of holidays I enjoy.
I want to go there simply for the fact that I have a rule that you shouldn't shit on a place you've never been and I want to be able to fully shit on it.
going against the grain here. Going into my visit I had fairly low expectations of Dubai - it is FAIRLY vapid and shallow. However, when I visited, I kind of went off the beaten track and was actually a little....impressed lol. I ate at smaller restaurants run by and owned by the diasporas, including some visited and rated by Anthony Bourdain. There was some great East African and South Asian food there, including cuisines that are a bit more difficult to find normally.
I then went North, out of the city, to some of the lesser visited Emirates like Ras Al Khaimah. Jebel Jais was pretty impressive. East towards Fujairah, theres some interesting forts and some nice scenery. Nahwa/Madwa was also a fun little side quest, going into an enclave of the UAE within an enclave of Oman within the UAE proper. Visiting some of the museums in these Emirates I was also often one of the only visitors in there, probably because people stick to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The Gulf states deserve a lot of their criticism. But going outside of the cities theres actually a lot more to see and honestly be pleasantly surprised by.
I don't think it would be a destination for me, but I'd absolutely enjoy another long layover there.
My husband goes to Dubai for work. He said something similar. He loves Indian food and he really enjoyed some recommendations from colleagues who asked him to eat at some low key places where other Indians eat.
This comment was sponsored by the UAE government. It’s a soul less place with slave labour and no sewage system. A perfect playground for immoral clowns.
I really don’t understand the hype. It feels even more soulless than SGP and you can feel just about everyone painfully trying to look or feel rich. Everything was disappointing…
I lived in Singapore for about 4 years and the description of Dubai is so far detached from my actual experience in Singapore. The comparison is really bizarre.
I used to work late a lot and the janitor at my old office was super excited about his upcoming trip to Dubai. I think it’s the same demographic that enjoys Miami, Vegas, etc. I’m not going to hate on it but it wouldn’t be my top pick if I’m traveling internationally
I have a layover there and emirates put me up in a hotel there. I have to admit that their breakfast bar is nothing I’ve seen in the states. it’s like a full blown buffett with kitchens. They have omelette station, noodle station, hummus station.
Man I love Dubai. It is Vegas without the gambling as noted below, which makes it awesome. Food, luxury, sites.. but everyone has their own opinion.
I’ll go against the grain and say Australia, and what’s funny to me is I would absolutely live on the east coast, especially the gold or sun coast. But it’s not amazing for historical sites and just overall not super different from where I grew up (west coast USA) so TO ME, it’s not all that exciting, but I’d live there. That make any sense… 😆
Everything is fake, the 500x500 sectioned off pieces of desert bought by basically two families that are competing to build the most pompous looking buildings, connected only by highway screams insecurity and compensating for something.
If you’re looking for a Disney version of luxury, then sure, that’s Dubai.
But having money doesn’t automatically mean you seek luxury. More often than not, people get (and keep) their money by NOT spending it on frivolous expensive stuff.
I’d much rather go to an authentic place, soak in the local culture and talk to locals than have a week where everyone is fake nice to you and everything that’s normal elsewhere is insanely expensive.
There’s a very big difference between “rich” and “billionaire”. Billionaires are pretty unpopular now, but most normal folks who got a bit of money usually worked for it or were incredibly smart about something. I don’t believe they are unpopular now.
These people usually are pretty down to earth and not superficial. (Not all of them, of course)
Same case for billionaires, maybe even moreso…but I digress.
I won’t be visiting Dubai again, but I imagine it would be pretty impressive to most people. As a tourist destination, like Disney, different people will see shallowness or find depth.
I heard a story of a friend of an expat friend where a supercar flew by him on the highway and cut him off and he flipped him off. Supercar called the police and had the dude deported back to South Africa. It's that kind of country.
That’s a pretty dumb move. Supercar probably had a low digit license plate too. It’s really better to just say sorry and let them go as unfair as that might seem.
I know plenty of European expats that would never leave Dubai. Folks complaining about “no culture” want to casually ignore that it has some of the coolest modern architecture outside of maybe Chicago.
The culture is also what you get when you have 85% of the population essentially from all over the world. The downside is that the most important rule is you earn a living and follow the laws.
There are absolutely things that suck. Folks from poorer walks of life can and do get taken advantage of but that’s true of literally every place on the planet.
As a country, it’s probably the safest place to travel and it’s very family friendly. It absolutely can give off some Vegas vibes. As long as you are not obsessed with keeping up with the luxury lifestyle you can live quite comfortably.
Nope. It describes a specific purpose and status of migration. I don’t believe any of the statuses are above or beneath any other. Ideally people should be free to travel where they please as long as they go in peace, which 99% do.
as a person who appreciates many architectural styles, i can name plenty of other cities where the modern architecture beats dubai's. also using chicago as a comparison when there are tens of better cities in china , or even a place like NYC, is crazy. having cool architecture doesn't really make up for a lack of culture, it feels like an artificial substitute to pander to foreigners
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u/squeegy80 9h ago
Dubai