Closest we could get would be the Royal Caribbean ship we cruised on but this outdoes even that.  And the funny thing is this is “only” 5-star, the view out of our balcony is the picture to the right – the 7-star Burj-Al-Arab (excuse the poor photo, it was done on my phone).

Our hotel has 22 restaurants, a fully equipped gym, spa and even it’s very own waterpark – the Wild Wadi.  You could easily come on holiday to Dubai and never leave the hotel complex, it has everything you’d want.  Small niggle is that we’ve come during Ramadan so that restricts the eating and drinking options but we’re not suffering too badly from that – the breakfast range is enormous, you can have everything you’d normally think of and 3 times that in things you didn’t think of.  Sushi for breakfast anyone???

We’ve eaten in the posh Italian one night and then in the outdoor Pizza restaurant so far.  Tonight is the Tex-Mex place.

We’ve visited the water park twice and today did a guided tour of Dubai.  The stories of the place being a building site are true but this doesn’t really spoil anything, rather just make you want to return as they expand.  We visited the site of the new Dubailand resort – think Walt Disney in the desert.  It’s going to be massive when it’s finished (Tom M had better start saving).

We also visited the first of the Palm Islands, its still being built but already a second one twice the size is underway and there is going to be a 3rd which is SEVEN times the size.  It is impossible to visualise how big a land reclamation project of this size is without seeing it.  We also saw the Burj Tower – the world’s tallest building by about 150m and it’s still going up!!

It must be said there is so much money and investment in Dubai it is easy to see where they get the reputation from.  We’re leaving late tomorrow night for the Maldives so we’ll catch up then.