Mecca for Shopaholics

Every year the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosts the Dubai Shopping Festival, where discerning shoppers can find reductions of up to 75 per cent on designer clothes, jewellery, electrical goods and carpets. This year’s festival runs 28 January to 28 February, right in the middle of high season when millions of visitors are expected, so book a hotel well in advance to avoid any hassles.

MALLRATS

You’ll need to be well-rested before you embark on a shopping holiday in Dubai if you’re going to spend your days trawling through the 400-plus shops housed in mega-malls such as The Mall of the Emirates and The Dubai Mall. Each features both high-end and high street labels and they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the emirate’s shopping centres. Despite the taxi-to-everywhere culture, opt for comfortable shoes if you plan to bargain hunt from dusk until dawn. Expect to pay AED 1,200 (RMB 2,230) for a pair of Jimmy Choos and AED 50 (RMB 93) for a manicure.

SOUK IT UP

The most atmospheric shopping is to be found in the souks. ‘Souk’ is an Arabic word for a place where any kind of goods can be sold or exchanged. The most famous souk is the Gold Souk at Sikkat al Khali Street in Deira. This is also Dubai's most famous market for jewellery and gold in all sorts of colours and styles at marked-down prices. Its narrow streets are lined with shop windows sparkling with bracelets, necklaces and earrings in 18-, 21-, and 22-carat gold, sold according to weight.

"As you get close, the fragrances and aroma of spices and seasonings are overwhelming. Cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, incense, dried fruit and nuts imported from all over the Middle East are sold straight out of large open sacks."

The prices are so good because there’s no tax on gold in the UAE. If you have a design in mind, stop here first thing on your trip to have it made and ready by the time you fly home. The cost will be worked out based on the price of the gold, plus the cost of workmanship based on the intricacy of the design.

Remember that bargaining is part of the buzz and if you are paying cash, you can bargain down to the last dirham, but feel free to walk away to check somewhere else before coming back for the best price you have haggled to – it’s all part of the game.

Next door to the Gold Souk is the Spice Souk for a selection of fresh Arabic spices – perfect for cooking up some Middle Eastern dishes when you get home. As you get close, the fragrances and aroma of spices and seasonings are overwhelming. Cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, incense, dried fruit and nuts imported from all over the Middle East are sold straight out of large open sacks.

Also next door to the Gold Souk is the Perfume Souk – the scent of the orient plays an important part in Arab traditions. Traditionally, personal perfumes based on natural essential oils were a luxury stored in ornamental bottles. Here you can visit a perfumer to try out the different smells or have them advise you on which oils are most suitable for your skin and lifestyle.

MAGIC CARPETS

Dubai is a fantastic place to buy handmade carpets, as traders from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan converge on this shopping haven, selling their wares for anything from a few hundred up to thousands of dirhams. Outside of Iran this is the best place to buy Persian carpets; some of them are so exquisite it’s almost unthinkable to have them on the floor.

With a wide variety of carpets available it can be difficult to determine the quality and price. The quality is judged by whether it is machine or hand made; the type of dyes used, the number of knots and the size as well as the family name of the makers of the carpet.

The price of each carpet is calculated from the amount of knots that it has per square inch and silk carpets are considered more valuable than others. Although there is generally a carpet shop in every mall, for a real experience you can venture out of Dubai to the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah, 30 minutes away by taxi, to the Blue Souk which offers the widest range of carpets at the best prices.

ART SPHERE

In recent years Dubai has become a hub for arts from all over the Middle East. Whether you want to have a look or perhaps start your contemporary Middle Eastern art collection, these are some galleries worth checking out.

Art Space Middle East: www.artspace-dubai.com

The Third Line: www.thethirdline.com

B21: www.b21gallery.com

GETTING AROUND

There are 6,000 retail outlets and 40 shopping malls participating in the festival. The time it takes between malls can be anything from 10 to 20 minutes in a taxi depending on the time of the day. If you can help it, avoid rush-hour, when traffic comes to a complete stand still.

A metro line opened in Dubai last autumn, but it’s mainly for travelling cross town, rather than getting between shopping malls, and this is not a city with sidewalks made for walking! Taxi rides start at AED 3 (RMB 6) during the day, are metered and a ride from the east to the west of the city with normal traffic should come to about AED 70 (RMB 130).