More cash in the pocket for Dubai Shopping Festival

Shopaholics should hot foot it to Dubai for a treasure chest of bargains available during the annual Shopping Festival, which starts on 28 January and runs for one month until 28 February.

Hayes & Jarvis (hayesandjarvis.com) recommends staying downtown, close to the malls, and is offering a choice of three-night shopping breaks in Bur Dubai priced from £459 per person including return flights from London Heathrow with Qatar Airways.

Bargain hunters can expect price reductions of a least one third on most sale items and the soaring sterling exchange rate will give them more cash in their pockets to spend. Post Office Travel Money, the UK’s largest provider of holiday money, says that holidaymakers will receive over 13 percent more UAE dirhams for their pounds than a year ago.

Top venue is likely to be the Mall of the Emirates, the largest outside North America, where more than 200 shops range from Harvey Nichols to the best known high street fashion chains. But, whether in the air-conditioned 21st century malls or in the more atmospheric souks, British shoppers will be able to bag bargains on almost everything imaginable - from gold jewellery, perfume, haute couture, cars and electronics to handicrafts and textiles.

Hayes & Jarvis is offering bargain packages that provide a choice of B&B hotel accommodation in Bur Dubai or more flexible self-catering stays. A three-night bed and breakfast package at the Ibis Deira, located in historic Dubai opposite the Deira City Centre Shopping Mall, costs £459 per person including flights from London Heathrow with Qatar Airways and saves £47 (9.3 per cent).

Alternatively, a self-catering apartment in Golden Sands is just a short walk from the prestigious stores of the Burjuman Shopping Mall and costs £489 per person for three nights from 29 January, including Qatar Airways flights. Saves £53 per person – almost 10 per cent.