Hi there, went to Dubai 2008 fantastic, stayed at the Jumeirah beach hotel, this is a 5 star plus hotel and you get waited on hand & foot, towels taken to your sunbeds on private beech, if you have sand on your feet when coming out of sea some one will come & wash it off wow, all staff fantastic food brilliant, 21 restaurants in this hotel, all rooms or sea view. Just 1 point you have to pay a deposit on your room which you get back when you leave minus any thing you have signed for i.e drinks & food, if you have paid for all you have you get all your deposit back £1.000 per room & I had 3 did not know about this till I got there, 3 grand opps!!! Im back again in september but staying in the Miramar Al Aqah Beach Resort. Enjoy stay longer in Dubai.

Hi miss-chief1
went to Maldives few years ago (before the sunami). Got to say never been so relaxed. depends what you expect or want from a holiday. Some of the larger resort islands offer sport,scuba,gyms, pools etc. smaller ones like Baros you can walk round in 12 minutes but you can sunbathe, relax, read etc to your heart's content. One thing if you do go book full board or AI as there is limited opportunity for obtaining food other than in the resort restaurants and they can be pricey as is alcohol. Another slant on things is a cruise but not in the big ship style. We went on a small coverted dhoni called Seafarer that took us to outer Atols and virgin reefs fro snorkelling. This was full board but no alcohol as crew are Muslim but we did have the chopice on an evening to stay at local islands or off resort islands when we were taken off the boat to be able to sit, relax and drink on those islands.
We went with Kuoni but otheer tour operators go there. I do not know about booking it yourself.

Thanks for the reply Greekofile.

Where did you stay ? Hotel ? Which are the bigger islands ?

We're now thinking that we could maybe do 7 days in Dubai and 5 on the Maldives perhaps as that would give us a happy medium

Hi again.
we stayed on Baros. we upgraded to a water bungalow which was fabulous. The food was good but limited as only one restaurant for general pur[ose and one where you could pay extra. the reef was difficult to get to in as much as you have to swim thro' shallow waters over coral to get to it but once on it it was magnificent. If we went again we fany Reethi Rah but again it's a small resort which helps to retain authenticity. The names of larger resorts escapes me because we did not look at them in depth as they did not fit our criteria. There are some good brochures in travel agents and if you google Maldived that will bring up loads of info. hope this helps.

As any one been to Fujairah?? im staying in the Miramar Al Aqah Beach Resort.

stayed in the meridian near the dubai marina it was superb, fantastic service, great nightlife (loads of places to go) I would stay for longer in Dubai

why don't you try oman? Oman air have regular flights around the UAE.

Don't come to middle east in this hot season. If you can bear hotness then Dubai is best.!