Travel & Experience
Desert, coast and everything worth the detour, reported first-hand.
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About Travel & Experience
Most Dubai travel writing is a list of superlatives - tallest, largest, first. This section is for the trip you would actually enjoy, which usually means understanding the seasons, going where the crowds are not, and leaving the city for at least a day.
The desert is the real attraction and the most misrepresented. We cover the conservation reserves and what separates a genuine one from a dune-bashing operation, when to go for cool nights and clear skies, what an overnight camp is really like, and the wadis and mountain roads of the Hajar range once you cross into the eastern emirates. The coast gets the same treatment: the public beaches worth the drive, the mangroves, the diving, and the boat routes along the creek that cost a couple of dirhams.
We also write practically, because timing decides everything here. The difference between November and July is the difference between a walkable city and one you experience through car windows. We cover the shoulder seasons, Ramadan travel, what is worth booking ahead, how to move around without a car, and the day trips - Abu Dhabi, Hatta, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah - that repay the effort. Everything is visited before it is written about.