Why I Moved to Dubai + What It’s Like Living Here

I’m always interested in how other expats ended up living in Dubai. So I figured I’d take some time to write a little bit about about why I moved to Dubai!

To give some background, I’m an American woman who moved abroad with my now-husband in 2014. Since leaving the US, we’ve lived in Jakarta, Cambodia, Beijing, and Vietnam. And in early 2022, we moved to Dubai, where we plan to live for the foreseeable future.

Why I Moved to Dubai — It’s still surreal that I actually live here. (Photo by @brynnutela)

Like most expats in Dubai, we moved here for work. Well, kind of. My husband is a professor and he landed a job at a university in Dubai. So his job is what brought us here. And because I work online as a travel writer and editor, it’s easy for me to pick up and move wherever his work takes us (hence the many moves in the past decade!).

Like many Americans in Dubai, we were intrigued by the tax-free situation here and the job offer just seemed too intriguing to pass up. The tax-free thing sure beats the tax situations in many places we’ve lived in the past, including the US.

But because we’d never been to the UAE before, or the Middle East for that matter, we really didn’t know what to expect in terms of what life would actually be like in Dubai.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this sentiment, but I was super nervous and hesitant about this move, mainly because Dubai didn’t really seem like my kind of city. It turns out, though, that it’s actually nothing like I thought it would be!

As a budget-minded, laid-back, animal and nature-loving person, Dubai, on the surface, seemed to completely oppose my interests, lifestyle, and personality. I actually thought I would hate living in Dubai and I had one foot out the door before I even landed here. But our decision to move to Dubai has been such a good one!

It’s tough not to be charmed by Old Dubai.

After being here for a few years, I now realize that there are people from all walks of life who have moved here for a variety of reasons. And while it does take time and effort to find like-minded people in Dubai, I’ve managed to find them.

If you’re like me and think that everyone here is a supermodel, an influencer, or just ultra-wealthy, these are just a few of the many misconceptions people have of Dubai (obviously me included before I moved here!).

While there are definitely pros and cons to living in Dubai, there are so many things that I’m pleasantly surprised by: the multiculturalism, the incredibly diverse food scene, the perfect winter weather, the safety, and (once we got settled) the overall easiness of life here.

Of course, it’s not all perfect. The hot and humid summers are really, really unpleasant. Making friends, especially as someone who works from home, is definitely a challenge for my introverted self. And the increasingly high rental prices where I live in the Dubai Marina mean that we will soon be priced out of living in the neighborhood we’ve come to love so much.

But am I happy about moving to Dubai? I absolutely am!

I’m loving getting to know this city as well as the other emirates in the UAE. I mean, there’s a reason I started this blog!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I love hearing about how other expats ended up making the move to Dubai. I wish I would have heard more stories when I was weighing whether or not to make the move here, which is why I wanted to share a little bit of my story.

I hope that this post can give new expats or anyone thinking about moving to Dubai a little insight into what someone else’s experience is like. And if you want to reach out to just chat or ask questions about life here, please feel free to comment below or email me at [email protected]!