Tours in Dubai

Dubai is a city you take in from a car window, a metro seat and the shade of a mall corridor, and then one evening you realise the air has changed. Around dusk the heat lets go, the sky goes the colour of tea, and people start drifting outside. That is the best time to be here, and it is worth planning your days around it.

Start with the creek. Old Dubai, around Bur Dubai and Deira, is where the city still feels like a trading town. You cross the water on an abra, a small wooden boat, and you step off into the souks. The spice souk smells of saffron and dried lime before you see it. The gold souk glitters whether you want it to or not. Wander the lanes of Al Fahidi, with its wind towers and low sand-coloured houses, and you will see how much quieter the city once was.

Then head the other way, to the glass. Downtown has the Burj Khalifa rising over the fountains and the Dubai Mall, and you will see the tower from half the city. The Marina has its walkway and its crowd of evening joggers. Palm Jumeirah, the beaches and the Burj Al Arab are easy to spot from the shoreline. We do not run tours to all of these yet, but a local guide can take a request for any of them.

What many visitors still want is the desert, and it is closer than you think. Drive out past the last towers and the road runs between dunes the colour of rust. Lahbab is known for exactly that deep red sand. You can ride the dunes in a 4x4, try sandboarding, and watch the sun drop from the crest of a ridge. Afterwards comes a camp with dinner and live performances under open sky. It is the part of Dubai that makes the skyline make sense.