Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai is one of the few destinations on this list with a genuine nonstop option from a wide range of US cities: Emirates flies direct from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington Dulles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and several other gateways, with flight times running from about 12.5 hours from the East Coast to just over 14 hours from some other cities. Several of those routes fly the double-decker A380.

Inside the city, the Burj Khalifa's observation deck and a desert safari — dune driving followed by a Bedouin-style camp dinner — cover the two activities most families ask for first. Dubai also works well as a stopover rather than the final destination, since Emirates' hub schedule makes it an easy one- or two-night add-on en route to India, the Maldives, or East Africa.

Summer in Dubai is genuinely extreme — regularly over 110°F between June and August, with humidity that makes most outdoor activity impractical. November through March brings warm, dry, comfortable weather and is when the large majority of family bookings here happen.

Dubai works well as a nonstop stopover or a standalone trip — the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall anchor the newer downtown, while the Gold and Spice Souks in Deira preserve a version of the city from before the skyline existed. The Museum of the Future and Dubai Frame are recent additions worth building into a first visit, and a desert safari (dune driving plus a Bedouin-style camp dinner) is one of the most commonly booked half-day trips out of the city.

Three to four nights covers the city comfortably, or one to two nights works well as a stopover en route to destinations further in Asia or Africa. It suits travelers who enjoy modern architecture and shopping alongside a dose of traditional souk culture, and its nonstop US connections make it one of the more logistically convenient long-haul destinations.

Getting there: About 12.5 to 14.5h nonstop — Emirates flies direct from a dozen US cities. We compare that routing against the alternatives before booking, and help plan the trip's dates around November to March.

Dubai's transformation from a modest pearling and trading port to a global city happened almost entirely within a single lifetime — oil was discovered in 1966, but Dubai's own reserves were always modest, and the emirate deliberately diversified into trade, real estate, finance and tourism rather than relying on oil the way some Gulf neighbors did. The Burj Khalifa, at over 828 meters, has held the title of world's tallest building since 2010, and its design deliberately references Islamic architecture — the tower's spiraling floor plan draws from the Hymenocallis desert flower and from traditional minaret geometry. Dubai's older identity is still visible in Al Fahidi (Bastakiya), a restored historic quarter of wind-tower buildings predating the skyline by a century, and in the Dubai Creek's abra boats, small wooden ferries that still cross between the Deira and Bur Dubai spice and gold souks for a fraction of a dirham. Emirati cuisine — distinct from the international dining the city is better known for — centers on dishes like machboos (spiced rice with meat or fish) and harees (a slow-cooked wheat and meat porridge), both rooted in Bedouin and maritime trading traditions and worth seeking out specifically, since they're easy to miss amid Dubai's global restaurant scene.