Must visit: this hotel in the middle of the Dubai desert

When you think of Dubai, you think of a metropolis with the tallest tower in the world, but may I point out the terracotta sand dunes that the Emirate also has? And when you combine that with five stars and an infinity pool that seems to blend into the desert, you never want to go home. Bab Al Shams is where you need to be. You drive from Dubai from flowered roundabout to flowered roundabout (how do you do that in that heat?) and end up in a kind of mirage. Your hotel room comes out of Aladdin's lamp, it's so thousand-and-one-nights. And when you order a cocktail in the pool at the bar, seeing a lumpy animal in the distance crossing a sand dune, looking forward to that endless breakfast tomorrow morning, then you know that life is good.