United Arab Emirates

A country that decades ago stood out from the rest of the Middle East is today a country that both delights and shocks everyone with its grandeur. The desert sands have been replaced by greenery and splendid modern architecture, with magnificent buildings and mosques. The fabulous wealth and splendour of the cities, the tree-lined boulevards, the magnificent shopping malls, the amusement parks, the motorway networks that criss-cross the country, all this, alongside the golden sands of the desert and the blue of the sea, is the essence of this country, a combination of tradition and modernity.

The duty-free Arab Emirates is a shopper's paradise, and its shopping centres are real luxury cities with a very rich décor, restaurants, bars and even lakes and rivers. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the most spectacular emirates, where the most futuristic projects are limited only by the imagination of the architects. Here, construction is always at full scale. The place is complemented by ever taller and more modern buildings.

Huge sums of money are invested in sport, tourism and banking. Luxury hotels, congress centres, modern sports centres, exclusive shopping malls should also delight tourists and attract millions of interesting people from around the world. The Arabs are truly impressive!

The United Arab Emirates is also an ideal offer for families - built with madness and fantasy, complete with water and theme parks. Wild Wadi, Yas Water World, Aquaventure, IceLandWater, Dreamland and Kidzania Dubai are all wonderful places to spend a day of amazing experiences.

Dubai is the world's most famous emirate, with an impressive rate of development and one of the fastest growing cities in the world. A dynamic place full of positive energy, where the fantastic ideas of some of the world's most famous architects come to life. One of them is the construction of artificial palm trees and islands in the shape of a world map. The hotels on the famous Jumeirah Beach are breathtaking: not only luxury, but also magnificent architecture.

The emirate's flagship is the Burj Al Arab , the Arab Tower, a sail-shaped hotel and the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which offers a spectacular panorama of the city from its observation deck. A well-known meeting point for tourists is "The Walk", a 1.7 km long promenade with shops, restaurants, street performances and more. And shopping in Dubai is the subject of its own catalogue: shopping malls as big as the city, packed with shops, cafes and restaurants. One even has a ski centre.

Attractions: the graceful silhouette of the Burj Al Arab Hotel, dedicated to the dhow (a traditional wooden cargo ship) sail, as famous a symbol of Dubai as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Completed in 1999, this exquisite hotel is located on an artificial island and has its own helipad and fleet of Rolls Royce limousines. Behind the spectacular lobby, with its gold-leaf luxury and eye-catching fountain, there are 202 suites. The Burj al-Arab (literally "Tower of the Arabs") is worth a visit to admire the interior, which is as striking as it is ornate outside. The mood is set in the 590-foot-high lobby, which is decorated with red, blue and green schemes and highlighted by columns covered in gold leaf. The atrium of the lobby is high enough to accommodate the Statue of Liberty.

The Burj Khalifa is a stunning feat of architecture and engineering, with two observation decks on the 124th and 148th floors, and a restaurant and bar on the 122nd floor. The world's tallest building penetrates the sky at 2,715 ft (828 m) and was inaugurated in January 2010, six years after excavations began. Up to 13,000 workers toiled day and night, laying the new floor in just three days.