Dubai

Dubai doesn't do subtle. It's a city built to outdo its own record — the tallest tower, the largest mall, the most improbable indoor ski slope in a desert — and yet somewhere between the glass and the gold, the old city still hums along Dubai Creek, where wooden abras cross the water and spice souks smell exactly as they did decades ago.

That contrast is what makes Dubai worth more than a stopover. One day is a desert safari at sunset, dune bashing followed by a starlit dinner in the sand; the next is the view from the Burj Khalifa's observation deck or a walk through the Dubai Mall's aquarium tunnel. Add year-round sun, Jumeirah's beaches and a food scene that spans continents, and Dubai becomes a destination equally suited to a family holiday, a couple's getaway or a long weekend of pure indulgence.