Dubai Baby

From desert to metropolis to bust – Dubai has had a whirlwind history to reach the glitzy city it is today. A new audio show on the FT view from, sponsored by HSBC Expat, reckons that expats are still flooding to Dubai because it is the easiest place to live in the Gulf.

Source: Flickr

Dubai is an expat hotspot where the arts are flourishing, says long term expat Simone Sebastian. She recounts from her own experiences of working and living in the city and thinks that it’s good that you can do things and find places that aren’t 100% commercially focused. Often perceived as a land of luxury, a shopping haven, full of resorts and gourmet restaurants; beneath it all, inhabitants of Dubai uncover a certain charm that you only discover once you’re in the city.

“Dubai is still young city, a fantasy land in a rough neighbourhood.”

What have your experiences been? Leave a comment in the box below, or on Twitter.

Expat Explorer returns for another year – bigger and better than before! If you want to have a say in what it’s really like to live abroad and share your expat experiences with others, then click here to fill in the Expat Explorer survey for 2012.