In many ways, Dubai is about as unreal a city as they come. It's a flashy desert metropolis that many have compared to Las Vegas without gambling, a place where people from around the world come to bask in the sun, have fun, make money, and be part of a fascinating urban experience. You can easily spend all your time in Dubai and not run out of things to do. In fact, Dubai offers so much to visitors -- luxury resorts, beautiful beaches, incredible shopping, endless indoor and outdoor activities, great dining, exciting nightlife -- that it's unlikely you'll want to leave. But for all its appeal, Dubai is not the only place you should visit while in the UAE.
For starters, you'll need to sign up for a desert safari. Whether it's an evening dinner in the sunset-lit dunes or an overnight trip to a Bedouin camp under the stars, an outing to the Arabian Desert should be front and center on your itinerary. A trip to the picturesque mountain enclave of Hatta, with its traditional village and freshwater rock pools, makes for another wonderful day trip. And you'll love Musandam, the peninsula near the UAE border with Oman in which dhow boats for hire weave their way along beautiful waterways set between jagged cliffs of the Western Hajar Mountains. Each of these destinations feels like a trip back in time, offering a sense of serenity in the region's most scenic areas.
You'll find other Emirati towns worlds removed from Dubai, as well. Abu Dhabi is the wealthy capital with a pristine and less hedonistic air than Dubai. It's here that you'll get the best sense of traditional Emirati life in a cosmopolitan setting. Sharjah, by contrast, is the cultural capital of the UAE, a city steeped in conservative values and most different from neighboring Dubai. Come here to understand more about the country's religious and cultural influences. If you want to visit a true desert oasis offering more moderate temperatures than elsewhere in the country, travel to Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. This and other Emirati cities tend to share little resemblance with Dubai and are far more like the traditional hamlets you'll find elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf.
The UAE is relatively small, and most places can be reached as day or overnight trips. Tour companies offer excursions to each of the destinations discussed below. If you want to do it on your own, the UAE's highway network is excellent, petrol is comparatively inexpensive, and traveling by car is generally safe. Just watch out for extremely fast drivers, occasional blowing sand, and lost camels checking out the road.
