Dubai in 10 days: the old city, the desert, Abu Dhabi

I went to Dubai expecting a shopping mall with an airport attached and found something more interesting underneath - a trading port that has been doing business across the Gulf for two centuries, with a very tall city built on top of it in forty years.

Ten days is more than most people give it. It was the right amount, because I used half of them slowly.

The route

• Days 1–2: Deira and Bur Dubai, the old city
• Days 3–4: Downtown and Marina
• Day 5: desert
• Days 6–7: beaches and Jumeirah
• Day 8: Abu Dhabi
• Day 9: Al Ain or Hatta
• Day 10: last morning

Late November. This matters more here than almost anywhere: from June to September the daytime heat makes outdoor plans impossible.

Days 1–2: the old city

Day 1. I started in Deira on purpose, on the wrong side of the creek from the towers. The gold souk, the spice souk, and the abra - a wooden water taxi that crosses the creek for a fraction of a currency unit, packed with people going to work. It is the cheapest and best thing in the city.

Day 2. Al Fahidi historic district: wind-tower houses, narrow lanes, and the Dubai Museum in the old fort. The wind towers are the thing to understand - they funnel breeze down into the rooms and were the air conditioning of the Gulf for centuries before electricity.

Lunch at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, which does a communal Emirati meal where you are explicitly invited to ask anything, including the questions you would feel awkward asking. Genuinely the most useful two hours of the trip.

Days 3–4: Downtown and Marina

Day 3. Burj Khalifa. Book the observation deck online in advance and pick a sunset slot; walk-up prices are much higher and sunset sells first. Pumping concrete 600 metres up required mixes developed specifically so they would not set in the pipe on the way.

The fountain show at the base runs every half hour in the evening and is free.

Day 4. Dubai Marina and JBR: a canal district of towers with a walkable waterfront, and the metro to get there for almost nothing. I took the driverless metro across the city several times just to look out of the front window.

Day 5: the desert

A desert trip is the obvious tourist activity and I nearly skipped it. I am glad I did not, but choose carefully: the standard package is dune bashing in a 4×4, quad bikes, a camp with dinner and dancing. The quieter operators do a smaller group, a slower drive, sunset on a dune and no engines.

What surprised me was the temperature. Clear desert skies radiate heat away extraordinarily fast after dark, and I was cold in a shirt by nine in the evening in a place that had been 30 degrees at four.

Days 6–7: the coast

Day 6. Kite Beach and Jumeirah Public Beach are free, have showers, and look straight at the Burj Al Arab. There is no need to buy a hotel day pass unless you want a pool.

Day 7. The Palm and a slow day. I walked the boardwalk on the outer crescent, which almost nobody does, and had four kilometres of seafront to myself.

Day 8: Abu Dhabi

Ninety minutes by bus, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque alone justifies it - white marble, 82 domes, and what is generally counted as the largest single hand-knotted carpet in the world. Entry is free. Dress rules are strict and enforced: ankles and wrists covered, hair covered for women, and they will lend you a covering at the entrance.

Afternoon at Louvre Abu Dhabi under Jean Nouvel's perforated dome, where the light falls through in what the architect called a rain of light.

Day 9: Hatta

Inland into the Hajar Mountains, about ninety minutes. Hatta is a reservoir the colour of jade between bare rock mountains, with kayaks, a heritage village and mountain biking. It is the opposite of the coast and it is where residents go at weekends.

Day 10

Last morning at the creek where I started, one more abra crossing, and out.

The practical part

• Heat management is the itinerary. Outdoors before eleven and after four. The middle of the day is for museums, malls and lunch, and that is not laziness.
• The metro is excellent and cheap. Buy a Nol card at the first station. Taxis are metered and reasonable; ride-hailing costs more.
• Alcohol is served in licensed hotels and restaurants. Public drunkenness is treated seriously.
• Dress modestly away from the beach and in malls - shoulders and knees.
• Ramadan changes everything: eating and drinking in public during daylight is not done, and hours shift. Check the dates before booking.
• Public displays of affection and photographing people without asking both cause problems. Local law is not a suggestion.
• Cheap and good: the abra, the metro, the beaches, the souks, the mosque in Abu Dhabi, and eating in Deira rather than Downtown.