Dubai tops global report as best city for a quick weekend trip

City is also good for international travellers to explore on long layovers, says study

A Staff Reporter

Published: Mon 15 Aug 2022, 4:53 PM

Dubai has secured the top spot as a whistle-stop weekend hop or layover that offers the same fun as a longer getaway but over a shorter period of time.

According to the latest findings by Holidu, the UAE's glitzy city Dubai took the top spot overall, followed by Marrakech in second the position.

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Florence stands at third spot, and Seville has sealed the fourth spot, with Adelaide being the fifth.

Source: Holidu

Cairo in Egypt is the city with the most tours available to tourists, with a staggering 8,357 trips on offer. This effectively means tourists won't have to struggle to book any excursions that they might want to do in their short window.

Abu Dhabi has the least amount of rainfall, with only an average of 42mm of rain a year, so tourists are unlikely to have their plans cancelled here. In Europe, Athens has the least rainfall, with 365mm a year.

When it comes to being able to explore an entire city on a quick trip, Zanzibar City, Adelaide, and Geneva city centres are all under 16km2 and so are super easy to navigate by foot.

It's said many recent studies highlight that people are taking more short trips than ever.

The benefits lie in the fact that this type of travel enables one to visit more destinations and take more trips in a year.

The report says, "these... aren't just restricted to weekend breaks either, and also refer to layovers of more than one day in an extra destination at the beginning or end of a longer trip."

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As per the findings, Dubai International Airport is a very popular connection on flights between the East and West, making it an ideal place to use as a layover and a couple of extra days exploring.

The report also says, "The city is not short of things to do either, with Tripadvisor showing over 4,200 tours available – putting the city in 5th place overall for this metric."

The report is prepared on certain yardsticks like population density per sq/km, size of the city in sq/km (double weighted), price of a taxi per km, average delays at the main airport, drive time to/from the airport, number of available tours on Tripadvisor, average annual rainfall in mm.