Dubai

Just back from Dubai. What an extraordinary, wacky place. The 21^st-century building boom shows little sign of slowing. Sneeze and another hotel goes up! I was there to check out the hotels, everything from the gold and glitz of the attention-grabbing Burj Al Arab to the terrific new European-style La Maison d’Hôtes, opened by a delightful French woman who previously ran a small auberge in Brittany. I was ferretting out the small, charming boutique-style hotels that are opening up in the city alongside the marble palaces on the beach and the skyscraper business hotels in downtown Dubai. My discoveries will be going up on the Hotel Guru website soon. Keep checking.