22 reasons why the UAE is the best place in the world to live
It’s a thank you letter as much as it is a love note…
Before you load up the contrarian canon and commit to ‘draft one’ of the negative comment barrage, allow me to issue a disclaimer. No country – past, present or future – has or ever will be objectively perfect. But there’s real tangible value in the pursuit of perfection.
The Safety
Abu Dhabi was recently ranked as the safest city in the world (for the eighth consecutive time) in the Numbeo Quality of Life Index. Three other UAE cities (including Dubai at fifth) also featured in the top ten of that mid-year, 2024 survey. And if that’s all a bit number-heavy and you’d like to know how it translates into thoughts and feelings, try this: women frequently report that they feel completely, uniquely safe walking the street at night, which is up there with the most important yardsticks I can think of. Video evidence? Influencers feel compelled to repeat social experiments where expensive luxury items – bags, wallets, phones, Lamborghinis – are left vulnerable in public places to see if they’ll be snaffled away by hypothetical lurking scallywags. Spoiler alert, the swag invariably remains unpilfered.
The tolerance
The tolerance
The UAE was the first country to carve out a state ministry for tolerance (now known as the Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence). It’s a fundamental value of the UAE, and a core virtue prized and practised by the late founding father Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Here you’ll find the freedom to practise your religion without the threat of persecution and enjoy protection from bigotry and hate. This is no gimmick, protections are often enshrined in law and defended through the judicial system. And there have been sweeping reforms here recently (specifically for the non-muslim community and tourists) in other areas of social justice. They’re completely unprecedented in the region and relate to subjects such as divorce, cohabitation, possession of narcotics and children being born outside of wedlock. Religious freedoms are protected, with worship spaces permitted for all major religions; women are given their own private spaces on public transport; and the laws that are in place to protect citizens, residents and visitors.
It has a depth of culture
It has a depth of culture
Top of my list of most infuriating, born-of-ignorance assumptions about the UAE is that: ‘it has no culture’. Absolute nonsense. If you’re looking for a new clutch bag, and you spend the entirety of your search in the microwave section of Jumbo Electronics, you’re unlikely to secure the bag. You’re just not looking in the right places. You can interact with fascinating examples, as well as talk with charismatic experts on Emirati culture at places like Dubai’s Al Fahidi district or the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU). Add to that the UAE’s thriving art scene – there’s the gallery district of Alserkal Avenue; Louvre Abu Dhabi; the Abu Dhabi’s Qasrs (which are also your Qasrs); the annual arts festivals; street art of Karama, City Walk and La Mer; there’s an opera house; a Golden Visa programme to make incubating promising international talent easier; the local music ecosystem spans the gamut of underground to homegrown pop stars; and there are museums of the past, museums of the future and museums of culture (shhh, that’s arguably culture). If you have the impression that the UAE has no culture, it’s probably because that’s what you want to believe, which, ironically, is a singularly uncultured way to view this part of the world.
The Food
The food
It’s almost impossible to draw comparisons to the manner in which the UAE’s cuisine scene has grown over the past decade. It’s evolved from a gravitational mass, attracting talent and famous restaurant names from overseas – to an incubator and celebrant of homegrown culinary genius. Just check the globally recognised good food guides. You can see it in every vein of the functioning body of work. From the grassroots supper clubs and the scintillating array of international street food – right up to the headline acts dropping new restaurants. There are now culinary ambassadors representing almost every gastronomic region on earth, sharing and learning from each other, feeding the collective palates of a populace craving the next tasty thing. Just as the city’s own growth has been on an Exocet curve of exponential expansion, so too has the food scene, organically maturing at astonishing speed.
The weather
The weather
The question of ‘whether or not the UAE’s weather is a world beater’ is an unsettled debate, even within its own expat community. Some, it turns out, do not like it hot. But for me, it was one of the key attractions that lured me away from my country of birth. The year-round sunshine is essentially therapy for the grey cloud trauma of my formative years. It also comes in, incredibly handy if you’re planning a picnic, some alfresco gain-getting, a round of golf, a day at the beach, a terrace event, or even just when deciding what to wear on a given day. There’s no need to consult and cross-correlate multiple weather apps for 99 per cent of the year. You can be pretty certain what you’re going to get. And isn’t life always better in the sun?
There’s something new to see every day
There’s something new to see every day
Cities don’t just grow, they evolve, they develop, they’re continually remade as avatars of their own image. But there are few urban centres that sprawl with the speed, heart, height, foresight and grandeur of the UAE. Manmade islands bloom like archipelago algae off the coast; record-breaking towers ceaselessly spring up through the desert sands; there’s an endless churning conveyor belt of new dining concepts, entertainment venues, beach clubs, malls, manufactured landmarks, parks, recreational hubs, night clubs, concert venues, music festivals, theme parks, water parks, transport infrastructure, and sports facilities. Blink and you’ll miss a quantum leap of engineered innovation.
The (lack of) tax
The (lack of) tax
No scandalous loopholes, no creative Cayman Island accounting, the majority of UAE residents pay zero income tax on their earnings. VAT is set at 5 per cent, corporation tax is zero on incomes of up to Dhs375,000 (and only a flat 9 per cent on amounts over that). It’s a bank heist without the heist.
The multicultural mix
The multicultural mix
According to a 2024 GMI survey, the UAE’s population is 88.5 per cent expat. That ratio of citizen-to-migrant represents a rare and fascinating statistic amongst the global demographic. This multicultural make-up, along with the protective mantra of tolerance being issued by the leadership, gives the UAE a unique cultural profundity and inspires a diverse cosmos of talent and ideas. Fringe benefits of the passport stamp bonanza mean a vibrant art scene; a strong spread of international street food; cross-cultural learning and sharing opportunities; raising children that are respectful of other traditions; more fertile ground for outside-the-box innovation; and a vastly enhanced chance of acing your Duolingo streak.
The vision of the leadership
The vision of the leadership
In less than the span of an average human lifetime, the UAE has transformed itself from a bustling but bijou hub of commerce to an international nexus point of trade and future-building. Sure, its relatively compact size helped and the discovery of coveted natural resources offered an opportunity, but these factors alone give no guarantees of success. Arguably the most important factor in the unprecedented pace and extent of the UAE’s rise to global prominence was the clarity of vision behind the drive to build and thrive. And it’s a vision that has itself evolved, along with the country’s shifting set of skylines, with a focus now firmly aimed beyond the horizon.
The stargazing opportunities
The stargazing opportunities
For the entirety of their existence, humans have stared into the space above their heads and attempted to draw meaning from the yawning black chasm. Some of us see the fingerprints of deities and intelligent design, or alien worlds and ancestral planes; others – Big Dippers, constellations of the Zodiac and celestial excuses for a suspiciously wide range of personality flaws; or for a scientist – the light that reaches their eye might be the last exile of a star long-burned cold or another phantom clue to the mystery behind the origin of everything. Whatever you see when you look up into the pixel-flecked firmament – the UAE is a wonderful place to practise this ancient pastime. Our skies are relatively unblotted by clouds for most of the year, and when we move away from the incandescence of the city, the stars multiply in number and brightness. For more on this, check out our full guide to getting the most out of the UAE skies.
The record-breaking mentality
The record-breaking mentality
You might have a pretty stacked trophy cabinet. But the UAE hasn’t turned up to the party with participation medals either. At last count – it has more than 400 Guinness World Records in a dizzyingly diverse range of categories. There are the famous ones – tallest building, deepest pool, largest mall and observation wheel, the fastest police car currently in service; but there are some equally impressive leftfield and wholesome ones too. Take for example the work of Emirati AlDhabi Rashed AlMheiri, who at eight years old became the youngest person to publish a bilingual book. Dubai is the holder of the record for the most number of nationalities on one plane (145 on an Emirates A380). It’s home to the world’s longest painting (10.85km), largest jigsaw puzzle, vertical maze (not Madinat Jumeirah), Christmas ornament, flown flag and flower garden.
The ambition
The ambition
You hear a lot about ‘the American dream’. The idea that, with a bit of talent, some hard work, and the glint of a sparkling idea in your eye, you can completely change your circumstances. Build a business empire, elevate your social standing, turn your wishlist of whims into concrete reality. In 2024, this feels more like a UAE dream than anything else. No other country is doing more to support entrepreneurs, remove barriers to success, reward effort and encourage enterprise. Dreamers, especially those who dream big, are being actively headhunted to come and make a life here. It’s a country filled with stories of bootstrap business people and homegrown magnates. A place of inspiring spires and creative fires, where impossible is a dirty word. And maybe it won’t work out this time, but we’ll take lessons from our failure and tomorrow we’ll try again.
The hospitals look like hotels
The hospitals look like hotels
A niche bullet point to slap in amongst all the profound broad brushstrokes, but I’m including it because I believe it’s demonstrative of something deeper. I grew up in the UK’s NHS system – a much-cherished universal public health provision and I’m eternally grateful for what it’s done for me, what it continues to do for millions of Brits, and to its tireless staff and pioneering health-led care. But the first time I walked into a UAE hospital, it felt like a completely different genre of building. There was a piano in the lobby. Sorry reception. But it did really feel like a lobby. I didn’t find a cocktail bar, but i couldn’t shake the suspicion there was one somewhere. I made do with a smoothie bar. My wife delivered both of our children in private rooms that were more chic suite than ward partition. And I am fully aware that there are comparative negatives attributed to an insurance-based system. I know it’s the product of the market economy, rather than an act of chaste philanthropy, but a lot of care has gone into the planning of our healthcare facilities. And in terms of guest, sorry – patient, experience the UAE has nailed it.
It’s invested in the future
It’s invested in the future
The UAE is at the razor’s edge of almost every future tech division Chat GPT would care to list. It’s a heavyweight in the spheres of artificial intelligence, food security, health, land reclamation, climate science, blockchain and metaverse development, space travel (Hope Probe, 2050 Mission to Mars and two Emirati astronauts and counting), it was a pivotal player in the control and subdual of the global pandemic, it has pioneered vertical farming practices, renewable energy projects and autonomous transport programmes. And it’s not just the materials, it’s the minds guiding the achievements and dreaming big that are the resource most worth celebrating. The UAE doesn’t just make stuff, it’s making the future, right here, right now.
The landscape
The landscape
But it’s all just deserts and urban sprawl isn’t it? First up, the deserts are top tier topography. The wild romance of unending golden hills, the spice-planet-core aesthetics, a grand fractal jigsaw of oceans that once were. It’s the rugged biome, forever in flux, forever rewriting its own story. And the UAE’s cities are a work of art too – hypermodern altars of tomorrow, buildings that reach up and pierce the sky. But to believe that the vistasphere begins and ends there, is the stuff of geographically ignorant folly. We have coral reefs, towering mountains, verdant wadis, date palm forests, paradise beaches, wetlands, mangroves, lakes, valleys, islands, peninsulas; there are leafy suburbs, farms, parks, golf courses and causeways, cliffs and fossilised dunes. There’s even a black run-equipped ski slope if you know where to look.
The beaches
The beaches
With an average of 722 days of sunshine each year (shhh, don’t Google it) – the UAE gets more than its fair share of blue skies. It has the infrastructure to enjoy them too – with thousands of miles of public beach and private beach clubs, along its coast and around its islands. But it’s not content with calling it a daycay just yet. There’s a directive in Dubai, part of the 2040 Urban Master Plan that calls for an increase in the length of public beach space by 400 per cent. In Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, they’re constructing manmade archipelagos and taking uninhabited islands and giving them granulated glow-ups.
The size
The size
You could fit 118 UAEs into the United States of America with careful packing and a dollop of toum for lubrication. And at that size, it’s a doddle to navigate. The space feels knowable, accessible, easily and invitingly explorable – you can hop in your car and streak through multiple neighbouring states in a couple of hours. You could go for a breakfast bike ride along the Arabian Gulf on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island before chasing turtles around the Indian Ocean-lapped shores of Fujairah at lunch.
The history
The history
We understand that it might seem like the city erupted overnight, its recent growth is almost unparalleled – but its bones are old. Really old. The UAE has excavated archaeological sites that date back to the Neolithic period, and the rich tapestry of craft and custom, of storytelling and innovation that evolved in the intervening millennia between then and now can easily be seen in the preserved traditions and artefacts of that journey. At Buhais Geological Park in Sharjah, you can find stone tools dating back 200,000 years, that’s beyond the timeline reach of what’s conventionally referred to as ‘modern homo sapiens’. They’re not the oldest things there by a long shot. You can also find geological artefacts from 93 million years ago – the Cretaceous period, an age of marauding dinosaurs, volatile geology, polar rainforests, and presumably really laggy internet.
It’s incredibly family-friendly
It’s incredibly family-friendly
With the UAE having a relatively young and professional population, families were always going to be one of the more common household units. And the UAE has leant into its role as domestic helper. The ratio of soft play square footage to desert is almost 1:1 (slightly creative accounting there, but let’s roll with it), there are world-class indoor and alfresco theme parks, holiday festivals, kids’ camps, waterparks and pee-wee sports teams. You’ll find family-friendly beaches, brunches, hotel stays and menus across the country, parks and entertainment complexes. The school network is vast and varied, growing in number and talent quota each year. And, because kids are our most precious commodity, the UAE has managed to transparently streamline the process of vetting and getting a nanny you can trust.
ushuaia-dubai
The nightlife
Big fish little fish cardboard box. No these aren’t nightclubs, these are the shapes you through in da clubs. And it’s at this point I’d like to issue a formal boomer patois apology to anyone under (and indeed over) the age of 30. Dubai’s soirée scene is red hot right now, as ably demonstrated by our biggest-ever Nightlife Awards this year. We now have a thriving, whatever the collective noun for superclubs is – guestlist? Unsmiling bouncer? Expensive water?, of superclubs, we have some of the World’s 50 Best bars, a rare and sparkling ensemble of speakeasies, the greatest DJs on the international circuit make beatlines for Dubai to headline festivals and tear up club nights. The local scene also seems to have carved out its own niche of and late-night beach clubs where it’s rosé and tanning oil all day and hands-in-the-air fun-fuelled fiesta all night. Sleep? Sleep’s for those bored of life habibi.
The let’s share in success attitude
The let’s share in success attitude
Have you heard of tall poppy syndrome? It’s a social phenomenon observed in communities where, when someone stands out from the crowd – they’re mercilessly cut down by their peers. The famous or successful are ‘brought down a peg or two’, to stop them ‘getting too big for their boots’. It’s an evolutionary quirk of an antiquated culture – where homogony is prized above aspiration. You see it in countries all over the world, but one place you’ll struggle to find much evidence of it, is the UAE. Tall poppies are praised here, celebrating success is woven into the fabric, it’s more of a fairground helium balloon bunch syndrome, because when one rises we all rise.
It’s easy to get fit
It’s easy to get fit
Sure there’s the fabled ‘Dubai stone’ that’s acquired when you first get here, just from the sensory bamboozlement of incredible food being delivered from kitchen to face, anytime day or night; but once you’re plugged in and past the initial overstimulation, the UAE also makes it incredibly easy to drop those dress sizes too. To start with – with the weather we get here, the world is your gym for nine months of the year – with purpose built tracks and tracts for cycling, running, swimming, surfing, SUPping, climbing, walking, parkour-ing, kayaking and pretty much anything else that will get those Apple Fitness rings closed. There are Fitness Challenges, world class gyms, white-collar boxing events, free-to-use municipal equipment, fitness hotels, wellness everything, nutritional gurus, yoga festivals, and it feels like there’s at least one Pilates studio born every minute. Fitness is our passion.
I might be biased, but I’m submitting evidence for every single one of the reasons I’ve made the claim in the headline. The UAE is the best place to live in the world right now.
And more than that. I propose that the UAE is, in fact, the front-runner for actively seeking new ways to improve the lives of its residents, citizens and tourists. This is the case for coming to the UAE habibi…
It’s safe
الإمارات الأولى عالمياً حسب تقرير جالوب للأمن والنظام ٢٠٢١ في تجوال السكان ليلاً بمفردهم. الأمن نعمة..والأمان طمأنينة وسكينة وحياة.. إذا تجولت المرأة بمفردها في أي ساعة من ليل أو نهار دون خوف فاعلم أنها في الإمارات .. “رب اجعل هذا بلداً آمناً “..آمين ..وأدم عليه سكينته وطمأنينته
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) November 17, 2021
Abu Dhabi was recently ranked as the safest city in the world (for the eighth consecutive time) in the Numbeo Quality of Life Index. Three other UAE cities (including Dubai at fifth) also featured in the top ten of that mid-year, 2024 survey. And if that’s all a bit number-heavy and you’d like to know how it translates into thoughts and feelings, try this: women frequently report that they feel completely, uniquely safe walking the street at night, which is up there with the most important yardsticks I can think of. Video evidence? Influencers feel compelled to repeat social experiments where expensive luxury items – bags, wallets, phones, Lamborghinis – are left vulnerable in public places to see if they’ll be snaffled away by hypothetical lurking scallywags. Spoiler alert, the swag invariably remains unpilfered.
The tolerance
The UAE was the first country to carve out a state ministry for tolerance (now known as the Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence). It’s a fundamental value of the UAE, and a core virtue prized and practised by the late founding father Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Here you’ll find the freedom to practise your religion without the threat of persecution and enjoy protection from bigotry and hate. This is no gimmick, protections are often enshrined in law and defended through the judicial system. And there have been sweeping reforms here recently (specifically for the non-muslim community and tourists) in other areas of social justice. They’re completely unprecedented in the region and relate to subjects such as divorce, cohabitation, possession of narcotics and children being born outside of wedlock. Religious freedoms are protected, with worship spaces permitted for all major religions; women are given their own private spaces on public transport; and the laws that are in place to protect citizens, residents and visitors.
It has a depth of culture
Top of my list of most infuriating, born-of-ignorance assumptions about the UAE is that: ‘it has no culture’. Absolute nonsense. If you’re looking for a new clutch bag, and you spend the entirety of your search in the microwave section of Jumbo Electronics, you’re unlikely to secure the bag. You’re just not looking in the right places. You can interact with fascinating examples, as well as talk with charismatic experts on Emirati culture at places like Dubai’s Al Fahidi district or the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU). Add to that the UAE’s thriving art scene — there’s the gallery district of Alserkal Avenue; Louvre Abu Dhabi; the Abu Dhabi’s Qasrs (which are also your Qasrs); the annual arts festivals; street art of Karama, City Walk and La Mer; there’s an opera house; a Golden Visa programme to make incubating promising international talent easier; the local music ecosystem spans the gamut of underground to homegrown pop stars; and there are museums of the past, museums of the future and museums of culture (shhh, that’s arguably culture). If you have the impression that the UAE has no culture, it’s probably because that’s what you want to believe, which, ironically, is a singularly uncultured way to view this part of the world.
The food
It’s almost impossible to draw comparisons to the manner in which the UAE’s cuisine scene has grown over the past decade. It’s evolved from a gravitational mass, attracting talent and famous restaurant names from overseas – to an incubator and celebrant of homegrown culinary genius. Just check the globally recognised good food guides. You can see it in every vein of the functioning body of work. From the grassroots supper clubs and the scintillating array of international street food – right up to the headline acts dropping new restaurants. There are now culinary ambassadors representing almost every gastronomic region on earth, sharing and learning from each other, feeding the collective palates of a populace craving the next tasty thing. Just as the city’s own growth has been on an Exocet curve of exponential expansion, so too has the food scene, organically maturing at astonishing speed.
The weather
The question of ‘whether or not the UAE’s weather is a world beater’ is an unsettled debate, even within its own expat community. Some, it turns out, do not like it hot. But for me, it was one of the key attractions that lured me away from my country of birth. The year-round sunshine is essentially therapy for the grey cloud trauma of my formative years. It also comes in, incredibly handy if you’re planning a picnic, some alfresco gain-getting, a round of golf, a day at the beach, a terrace event, or even just when deciding what to wear on a given day. There’s no need to consult and cross-correlate multiple weather apps for 99 per cent of the year. You can be pretty certain what you’re going to get. And isn’t life always better in the sun?
There’s something new to see every day
Cities don’t just grow, they evolve, they develop, they’re continually remade as avatars of their own image. But there are few urban centres that sprawl with the speed, heart, height, foresight and grandeur of the UAE. Manmade islands bloom like archipelago algae off the coast; record-breaking towers ceaselessly spring up through the desert sands; there’s an endless churning conveyor belt of new dining concepts, entertainment venues, beach clubs, malls, manufactured landmarks, parks, recreational hubs, night clubs, concert venues, music festivals, theme parks, water parks, transport infrastructure, and sports facilities. Blink and you’ll miss a quantum leap of engineered innovation.
The (lack of) tax
No scandalous loopholes, no creative Cayman Island accounting, the majority of UAE residents pay zero income tax on their earnings. VAT is set at 5 per cent, corporation tax is zero on incomes of up to Dhs375,000 (and only a flat 9 per cent on amounts over that). It’s a bank heist without the heist.
The multicultural mix
According to a 2024 GMI survey, the UAE’s population is 88.5 per cent expat. That ratio of citizen-to-migrant represents a rare and fascinating statistic amongst the global demographic. This multicultural make-up, along with the protective mantra of tolerance being issued by the leadership, gives the UAE a unique cultural profundity and inspires a diverse cosmos of talent and ideas. Fringe benefits of the passport stamp bonanza mean a vibrant art scene; a strong spread of international street food; cross-cultural learning and sharing opportunities; raising children that are respectful of other traditions; more fertile ground for outside-the-box innovation; and a vastly enhanced chance of acing your Duolingo streak.
The vision of the leadership
In less than the span of an average human lifetime, the UAE has transformed itself from a bustling but bijou hub of commerce to an international nexus point of trade and future-building. Sure, its relatively compact size helped and the discovery of coveted natural resources offered an opportunity, but these factors alone give no guarantees of success. Arguably the most important factor in the unprecedented pace and extent of the UAE’s rise to global prominence was the clarity of vision behind the drive to build and thrive. And it’s a vision that has itself evolved, along with the country’s shifting set of skylines, with a focus now firmly aimed beyond the horizon.
The stargazing opportunities
For the entirety of their existence, humans have stared into the space above their heads and attempted to draw meaning from the yawning black chasm. Some of us see the fingerprints of deities and intelligent design, or alien worlds and ancestral planes; others – Big Dippers, constellations of the Zodiac and celestial excuses for a suspiciously wide range of personality flaws; or for a scientist – the light that reaches their eye might be the last exile of a star long-burned cold or another phantom clue to the mystery behind the origin of everything. Whatever you see when you look up into the pixel-flecked firmament – the UAE is a wonderful place to practise this ancient pastime. Our skies are relatively unblotted by clouds for most of the year, and when we move away from the incandescence of the city, the stars multiply in number and brightness. For more on this, check out our full guide to getting the most out of the UAE skies.
The record-breaking mentality
You might have a pretty stacked trophy cabinet. But the UAE hasn’t turned up to the party with participation medals either. At last count – it has more than 400 Guinness World Records in a dizzyingly diverse range of categories. There are the famous ones – tallest building, deepest pool, largest mall and observation wheel, the fastest police car currently in service; but there are some equally impressive leftfield and wholesome ones too. Take for example the work of Emirati AlDhabi Rashed AlMheiri, who at eight years old became the youngest person to publish a bilingual book. Dubai is the holder of the record for the most number of nationalities on one plane (145 on an Emirates A380). It’s home to the world’s longest painting (10.85km), largest jigsaw puzzle, vertical maze (not Madinat Jumeirah), Christmas ornament, flown flag and flower garden.
The ambition
You hear a lot about ‘the American dream’. The idea that, with a bit of talent, some hard work, and the glint of a sparkling idea in your eye, you can completely change your circumstances. Build a business empire, elevate your social standing, turn your wishlist of whims into concrete reality. In 2024, this feels more like a UAE dream than anything else. No other country is doing more to support entrepreneurs, remove barriers to success, reward effort and encourage enterprise. Dreamers, especially those who dream big, are being actively headhunted to come and make a life here. It’s a country filled with stories of bootstrap business people and homegrown magnates. A place of inspiring spires and creative fires, where impossible is a dirty word. And maybe it won’t work out this time, but we’ll take lessons from our failure and tomorrow we’ll try again.
The hospitals look like hotels
A niche bullet point to slap in amongst all the profound broad brushstrokes, but I’m including it because I believe it’s demonstrative of something deeper. I grew up in the UK’s NHS system – a much-cherished universal public health provision and I’m eternally grateful for what it’s done for me, what it continues to do for millions of Brits, and to its tireless staff and pioneering health-led care. But the first time I walked into a UAE hospital, it felt like a completely different genre of building. There was a piano in the lobby. Sorry reception. But it did really feel like a lobby. I didn’t find a cocktail bar, but i couldn’t shake the suspicion there was one somewhere. I made do with a smoothie bar. My wife delivered both of our children in private rooms that were more chic suite than ward partition. And I am fully aware that there are comparative negatives attributed to an insurance-based system. I know it’s the product of the market economy, rather than an act of chaste philanthropy, but a lot of care has gone into the planning of our healthcare facilities. And in terms of guest, sorry – patient, experience the UAE has nailed it.
It’s invested in the future
The UAE is at the razor’s edge of almost every future tech division Chat GPT would care to list. It’s a heavyweight in the spheres of artificial intelligence, food security, health, land reclamation, climate science, blockchain and metaverse development, space travel (Hope Probe, 2050 Mission to Mars and two Emirati astronauts and counting), it was a pivotal player in the control and subdual of the global pandemic, it has pioneered vertical farming practices, renewable energy projects and autonomous transport programmes. And it’s not just the materials, it’s the minds guiding the achievements and dreaming big that are the resource most worth celebrating. The UAE doesn’t just make stuff, it’s making the future, right here, right now.
The landscape
But it’s all just deserts and urban sprawl isn’t it? First up, the deserts are top tier topography. The wild romance of unending golden hills, the spice-planet-core aesthetics, a grand fractal jigsaw of oceans that once were. It’s the rugged biome, forever in flux, forever rewriting its own story. And the UAE’s cities are a work of art too – hypermodern altars of tomorrow, buildings that reach up and pierce the sky. But to believe that the vistasphere begins and ends there, is the stuff of geographically ignorant folly. We have coral reefs, towering mountains, verdant wadis, date palm forests, paradise beaches, wetlands, mangroves, lakes, valleys, islands, peninsulas; there are leafy suburbs, farms, parks, golf courses and causeways, cliffs and fossilised dunes. There’s even a black run-equipped ski slope if you know where to look.
The beaches
With an average of 722 days of sunshine each year (shhh, don’t Google it) – the UAE gets more than its fair share of blue skies. It has the infrastructure to enjoy them too – with thousands of miles of public beach and private beach clubs, along its coast and around its islands. But it’s not content with calling it a daycay just yet. There’s a directive in Dubai, part of the 2040 Urban Master Plan that calls for an increase in the length of public beach space by 400 per cent. In Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, they’re constructing manmade archipelagos and taking uninhabited islands and giving them granulated glow-ups.
The size
You could fit 118 UAEs into the United States of America with careful packing and a dollop of toum for lubrication. And at that size, it’s a doddle to navigate. The space feels knowable, accessible, easily and invitingly explorable – you can hop in your car and streak through multiple neighbouring states in a couple of hours. You could go for a breakfast bike ride along the Arabian Gulf on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island before chasing turtles around the Indian Ocean-lapped shores of Fujairah at lunch.
The history
We understand that it might seem like the city erupted overnight, its recent growth is almost unparalleled — but its bones are old. Really old. The UAE has excavated archaeological sites that date back to the Neolithic period, and the rich tapestry of craft and custom, of storytelling and innovation that evolved in the intervening millennia between then and now can easily be seen in the preserved traditions and artefacts of that journey. At Buhais Geological Park in Sharjah, you can find stone tools dating back 200,000 years, that’s beyond the timeline reach of what’s conventionally referred to as ‘modern homo sapiens’. They’re not the oldest things there by a long shot. You can also find geological artefacts from 93 million years ago – the Cretaceous period, an age of marauding dinosaurs, volatile geology, polar rainforests, and presumably really laggy internet.
It’s incredibly family-friendly
With the UAE having a relatively young and professional population, families were always going to be one of the more common household units. And the UAE has leant into its role as domestic helper. The ratio of soft play square footage to desert is almost 1:1 (slightly creative accounting there, but let’s roll with it), there are world-class indoor and alfresco theme parks, holiday festivals, kids’ camps, waterparks and pee-wee sports teams. You’ll find family-friendly beaches, brunches, hotel stays and menus across the country, parks and entertainment complexes. The school network is vast and varied, growing in number and talent quota each year. And, because kids are our most precious commodity, the UAE has managed to transparently streamline the process of vetting and getting a nanny you can trust.
The nightlife
Big fish little fish cardboard box. No these aren’t nightclubs, these are the shapes you through in da clubs. And it’s at this point I’d like to issue a formal boomer patois apology to anyone under (and indeed over) the age of 30. Dubai’s soirée scene is red hot right now, as ably demonstrated by our biggest-ever Nightlife Awards this year. We now have a thriving, whatever the collective noun for superclubs is – guestlist? Unsmiling bouncer? Expensive water?, of superclubs, we have some of the World’s 50 Best bars, a rare and sparkling ensemble of speakeasies, the greatest DJs on the international circuit make beatlines for Dubai to headline festivals and tear up club nights. The local scene also seems to have carved out its own niche of and late-night beach clubs where it’s rosé and tanning oil all day and hands-in-the-air fun-fuelled fiesta all night. Sleep? Sleep’s for those bored of life habibi.
The let’s share in success attitude
Have you heard of tall poppy syndrome? It’s a social phenomenon observed in communities where, when someone stands out from the crowd – they’re mercilessly cut down by their peers. The famous or successful are ‘brought down a peg or two’, to stop them ‘getting too big for their boots’. It’s an evolutionary quirk of an antiquated culture – where homogony is prized above aspiration. You see it in countries all over the world, but one place you’ll struggle to find much evidence of it, is the UAE. Tall poppies are praised here, celebrating success is woven into the fabric, it’s more of a fairground helium balloon bunch syndrome, because when one rises we all rise.
It’s easy to get fit
Sure there’s the fabled ‘Dubai stone’ that’s acquired when you first get here, just from the sensory bamboozlement of incredible food being delivered from kitchen to face, anytime day or night; but once you’re plugged in and past the initial overstimulation, the UAE also makes it incredibly easy to drop those dress sizes too. To start with – with the weather we get here, the world is your gym for nine months of the year – with purpose built tracks and tracts for cycling, running, swimming, surfing, SUPping, climbing, walking, parkour-ing, kayaking and pretty much anything else that will get those Apple Fitness rings closed. There are Fitness Challenges, world class gyms, white-collar boxing events, free-to-use municipal equipment, fitness hotels, wellness everything, nutritional gurus, yoga festivals, and it feels like there’s at least one Pilates studio born every minute. Fitness is our passion.
