Multicultural and materialistic, Dubai provides some of the greatest tax-free shopping on the planet and for one month every year it hosts the Dubai Shopping Festival.

If you are fortunate enough to be visiting Dubai in February then your timing will coincide with the annual Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF).

Drawing around 3.5 million visitors from all over the globe, and in particular from neighboring Gulf States, the Dubai Shopping Festival is the long awaited event of the year for those who enjoy a bit of retail therapy. This year it runs from January to 24th February 2008.

For one month every year Dubai opens its doors to the world’s most devoted shopaholics, providing an endless supply of shopping promotions and entertainment including cultural exhibitions, firework displays, souks and bazaars, handicraft shows.

If you visit during the DSF you'll have the additional benefit of visiting the Global Village, a large open area of shops and stalls based on country themes.

Dubai’s wall-to-wall shopping malls offer a huge choice of shopping but during the month long DSF there are special discounts, competitions, cultural events and celebrations. No matter where you are staying you are never far from a mall.

Whilst there are more shopping malls in Dubai than you can count, here is an overview of the most popular ones. All of them participate in the Dubai Shopping Festival by offering extra discounts and special promotions.

Dubai's Shopping Malls

Deira City Center

• One of the oldest and biggest in Dubai but still one of the best. It hosts a wide range of women’s and men’s fashion outlets and includes a Debenhams department store, a large Zara and a Virgin Megastore.

Bur Juman Center – Bur Dubai

• This is Dubai’s most glamorous mall, which underwent a huge face lift in the early 2000s, almost doubling in size. Here you’ll find the best of the best in fashion houses including Dolce and Gabanna, Christian Lacroix, DKNY, Fendi, Hermes and a Saks Fifth Avenue.

The Mall of the Emirates

• A relatively young shopping mall but what it lacks in experience it makes up for in size and choice. The opulent mall is one of the most popular and can keep you occupied all day. It hosts a wide range of fashion houses, including the UK’s exclusive Harvey Nichols. It also houses the famous “Ski Dubai” where you can go from beach to piste just by crossing the road. Skiing in the desert has to be one of the all-time life experiences.

Jumeriah Emirates Towers Shopping Boulevard

• Part of the towering Emirates Towers complex, if you are looking for haute couture then this exclusive shopping boulevard plays host to designer boutiques such as Gucci, Armani, Pucci and Jimmy Choo.

The Mercato Mall - Jumeriah

• Visiting this mall transports you from the desert sun of Dubai to the watery world of Venice. Like many of Dubai’s shopping malls the Mercato is themed, based on Floretine-cum-Venetian architecture and gives a great view of Jumeriah beach, just across the road from the mall. With its Italian restaurants and open air cafés it would be easy to forget you are in Dubai if it wasn’t for the crowds of Emirati ladies dressed in their Abayas. (black outer coat), laden with their designer purchases.
• Another mall based on a Venetian theme, is just down the road, at the Souq Madinat Jumeriah. Here small Arabic boats (Abras) ply the Venetian-style waterways of the complex.

Dubai Gold Souk - Deira

• It’s hard to resist the lure of gold when visiting this city, as its namesake suggests, Dubai is the City of Gold. During the shopping festival most of the city's 600 gold shops offer good discounts and special offers. The gold price fluctuates daily according to the gold market. Even if you are not intending to buy, the Gold Souk is a must-see for first-timers to Dubai.

Dubai is one of those unique cities that successfully manages to juggle its wealth and materialism with its own traditions and cultural heritage. Many would be forgiven in thinking that they are in a little LA when traveling down the skyscrapered Sheik Zayed road, yet visit the areas of old Deira and around the Dubai Creek and you are transported back to a world with old fashioned shopping souks, gold shops and textile and spice markets.

Opening Hours

If you are planning to hit the shops then don’t forget, as a Muslim country, Friday is the busiest day as it is a holiday - the equivalent of Sunday in the west. Whilst the main shopping malls open from 10am to 10pm, Saturday to Thursday, they usually open half-day, from 2pm on a Friday, when the malls are at their most crowded.

Avoiding the crowds

During the Dubai Shopping Festival the city swells to such an extent that Dubai hotels are full and traffic congestion increases, especially around the busy malls. Your best bet it to take one of Dubai’s efficient taxis to alleviate parking problems. However, on your return taxi queues can be long, especially on a Friday, the busiest day. Instead of standing in the queue, just walk a block or two outside the respective shopping mall and flag one down on the roadside.

Another way of avoiding the crowds is to plan a visit during the summer, around July and August. At this time a mini and much less crowded version of the Dubai Shopping Festival takes place, entitled Dubai Summer Surprises. There are still huge discounts, special events and competitions during this time, as the city endeavors to attract visitors during its hottest summer months when may of the expatriates escape the heat of Dubai during their long summer vacations.

What To Buy

Aside from the obvious attractions such as gold, carpets, Arabic souvenirs, perfumes and spices, Dubai has some of the best haute couture shopping in the world. This is largely due to the Emirati ladies penchant for handbags, shoes and designer clothes, and shopping is their favorite pastime. Textiles are also amazingly cheap as Dubai is the main (tax-free) trading zone in the region. To attract shoppers and beat the competition, during the shopping festival most retail stores and market stalls offer some kind of special promotion.

For more information, the Dubai Shopping Festival has its own official website.