Dubai

Dubai is the easiest big holiday from India: a three-hour flight lands you in a city of record-breaking towers, vast malls and beach resorts, with the desert starting where the suburbs end. Days can be as full or as easy as you like, from the observation decks of the Burj Khalifa in the morning to a water park in the afternoon and a dhow dinner cruise after dark.

Most of our Dubai trips include a day in Abu Dhabi, about an hour and a half down the coast, for the marble Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the hand-carved BAPS Hindu Mandir, with Ferrari World and the Yas Island parks for families with teenagers. The desert safari, with its dune drive, camel rides and dinner under the stars, is the evening almost everyone remembers.

Dubai suits first-time international travellers, families with children, honeymooners and senior couples alike. Indian and pure-vegetarian restaurants are everywhere, Hindi is widely understood and Jain meals are easy to arrange. We plan the pace around you: sightseeing in the cooler hours, the hotel pool after lunch, and the big sights timed around the evening fountain shows.