Stephanie Holmes checks into a huge junior suite with palace views.

Speakers boom in the dark, smoky room. It's 2am and the club is packed with sweaty, gay men getting their groove on to Madonna - and I'm one of them.

This city projects itself as a modern, sophisticated and welcoming spot for Western tourists. But when things go wrong, they go doubly wrong here.

Woman arrested after alleging rape is told she's free to go after case collapses.

My favourite thing about travel is its potential to surprise ...

A British tourist allegedly gang-raped in Dubai faces a prison sentence and needs $42,200 for legal fees after police accused her of having "extra-marital sex".

Kiwi pilot Richard Smith describes what its like to fly an Emirates A380 superjumbo ahead of the aircraft flying regularly from Auckland to Dubai.

Cabin crew training kicked in when an Emirates plane cashed in Dubai in August, said the airline's president Sir Tim Clark.

Best of NZ Herald Business 2016: Big western airlines were decades old in 1985 when Sir Tim Clark joined a tiny Middle Eastern start-up Emirates.

The 140,000-square-metre adventure park is one of two major theme parks opening this year in Dubai.

Graham Reid spends 24 hours in Dubai International's famously huge and busy terminals.

Dubai's new rainforest hotel will make for a unique guest experience.

Christopher Adams runs into an alarming situation in a Middle Eastern market.

There's more to Dubai than luxury hotels and liquid lunches. Dig deeper and you'll find a side to the emirate no one talks about.

Dubai's newest real-estate wonder has all the amenities of a luxury hotel - plus views of the bottom of the sea.

Toni Mason loses her heart to a graceful hunter in the deserts of Dubai.

A 10-minute taxi ride, or 30 to 40-minute walk, will take you to the city's downtown area, where Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa are located.

A new skyscraper will surpass the Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest building.

Ewan McDonald heads to the UAE to live the high life.

Business reporter Christopher Adams is spending 17 hours in the air flying to Dubai. Here's what he could be doing for 17 hours instead.

Emirates has changed the aviation game in New Zealand by announcing it will fly to Dubai without stopping in Australia.

Ultra-longhaul flight will take 17 hours.

Hundreds of Dubai's tallest buildings are infernos waiting to happen, says leading fire safety expert.

New Year partygoers escaped an inferno in a 63-storey Dubai hotel yesterday.

Josh Emett dines out in Dubai and discovers the best creme brulee he has tasted.

Once upon a time Patricia Greig had the good fortune of a luxury stopover in Dubai.

Emirates Aviation University and Airways New Zealand have opened a purpose-built air traffic control training facility in Dubai.

In the desert beyond Dubai's glittering and manic metropolis, Ewan McDonald unleashes his inner petrolhead ...

In Dubai, Peter Calder looks on enviously as the well-heeled browse among $12,000 bottles of wine.

Both places were called home by the vast foreign workforce drawn to the United Arab Emirates. Both caught fire last week.The similarities end there.