Our last Home for the Holidays feature for 2011 is Dubai, the home of Co-Founder Sharmila Murat.  As an expat, Dubai is every bit as glamorous as you’d imagine it to be.  The restaurants and social life are centered around lavish hotels, where gilt and gold only begin to describe the opulence of your surroundings.   And if there was any doubt about the correlation of beauty and wealth, just head to the Armani Hotel.  You can feel and hear the energy in the air, with the music pumping and the celebratory clink of champagne glasses. What are people celebrating?  Just how good it is to be alive.

Sharmila’s recommendations are the definitive guide to Dubai.  You’ll ski in the morning, ride dune buggies in the desert in the afternoon and indulge like Middle Eastern royalty at night.  Just don’t end up in a compromising position, like two Brits did on a beach a few years back.  With all the exuberant celebration, Dubai is still culturally conservative at its core.

Our Galavante Co-Founders live all over the world, but at the end of the day, home is where your heart is.  I’ve traveled quite a bit this year – over 120 days in 14 countries.  For me, home is where my husband is, whether that’s on the trip we took to Montenegro, an Italian villa in Tuscany or our fine city of New York.

All the best to you this holiday, wherever home may be to you.