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Coverage / United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

Western Asia

An ultramodern federation of emirates rising from the Arabian Desert and Gulf coast. Home to some of the world's most ambitious architecture, expansive desert landscapes, and a dynamic mix of traditional Gulf culture and global ambition.

10 activities · 11 pairings · 17 verified providers

What you can do in United Arab Emirates

Culinary / Cooking

DubaiJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecBehind the glass towers, Dubai's oldest neighbourhoods are the place to eat your way into the region. In the lanes of Deira and Bur Dubai, around the spice and gold souks and the Al Fahidi wind-tower quarter, the food is Emirati, Iranian, Indian and Levantine, cooked by the communities that built the modern city. Frying Pan Adventures, run by long-time Dubai residents since 2013, walks small groups through these streets to family-run cafes and hole-in-the-wall grills, telling the story of each dish. For the Emirati side specifically, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding serves traditional meals, machboos, harees, luqaimat, at communal tables in a restored courtyard house under its motto of open doors, open minds, where the whole point is that no question is off limits. Together they turn a meal into an education in who actually lives here.

Driving Experiences

DubaiJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov Dec Dubai has a higher concentration of high-performance driving options than almost any city outside a dedicated motorsport hub. The Dubai Autodrome in Motor City runs regular track days open to the public, supercar rental companies operate from every tourist district, and a growing number of specialist driving experience providers offer everything from single-seater taster laps to multi-day advanced driver training. The infrastructure is modern, the weather reliable October through April, and the logistics around it are frictionless. For drivers who want to combine a circuit experience with a full city visit, Dubai is the easiest destination on this list.

Flight Experiences

Jebel JaisJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecJebel Jais is home to the world's longest zipline, the Jais Flight, a 2.83-kilometre wire strung across the Hajar mountains and certified by Guinness as the longest on the planet. You launch face-first in a superman harness from a platform high on the mountain and fly for close to three minutes above deep ravines and jagged limestone peaks, hitting speeds of up to 150 kilometres an hour before a second, shorter line brings you back down. Toroverde UAE, the zipline specialist that built and runs the course, also operates the multi-line Jais Sky Tour for those who want more airtime. It is the single most thrilling thing to do in the country, and the mountain air makes it bearable when the coast is baking.

Kitesurfing

DubaiJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecDubai's winter wind turns the Jumeirah shoreline into a genuine kitesurfing city. The heart of it is Nessnass Beach and the adjacent Kite Beach, a stretch of shallow, flat, warm water with steady onshore breeze, a designated kite zone and schools lined up on the sand. It is one of the easier places in the world to learn: you can walk out into waist-deep water, the season lines up with the pleasant months, and a modern city sits directly behind the beach. Kite N Surf teaches with IKO-certified instructors from Nessnass and City Beach, and Kite Zone Dubai runs private and group lessons plus tandem rides from the same stretch. Experienced riders get long, uncrowded downwinders along the Gulf.

Museums & Galleries

Abu DhabiJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecSaadiyat Island holds one of the densest concentrations of new world-class museums anywhere. The anchor is Louvre Abu Dhabi, Jean Nouvel's museum under a vast latticed dome that filters the sun into a rain of light, opened in 2017 as the first Louvre outside France and hung with everything from ancient sculpture to Impressionist and modern painting. Alongside it, the Zayed National Museum opened in December 2025 in a set of soaring falcon-wing towers by Foster and Partners, telling the story of the UAE and its founding father across galleries that blend artefacts with technology. The district keeps growing, with teamLab Phenomena's immersive digital halls already open and the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi on the way, and a single museum pass now links several of them. It is a half-day of art and history in air-conditioned calm, whatever the season outside.

Overlanding / Expedition Driving

LiwaJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecLiwa is where the tidy UAE ends and the Empty Quarter begins, an ocean of sand running unbroken into Saudi Arabia and Oman. This is proper expedition-driving country, not a bumpy hour outside the city. Convoys air down and thread between dunes the size of hills, climb Tel Moreeb, one of the world's tallest driveable dunes at around 300 metres, and camp out where the only light after dark is the Milky Way. Liwa Desert Safari and Liwa Adventures both run guided Empty Quarter trips in rollover-protected Land Cruisers, from sunset drives to overnight expeditions, and offer supported self-drive convoys for travellers who want to take the wheel themselves with a lead guide and recovery gear on hand.

Rock Climbing

Jebel JaisJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecJebel Jais gives the UAE something it otherwise lacks: real vertical rock at altitude, cool enough to climb in the winter months. The headline route is the Jais Via Ferrata, a cabled circuit that runs along the sheer limestone cliffs of the Hajar mountains with a rope bridge strung across a ravine, letting people with no climbing background move through genuine exposure on a fixed line. Toroverde UAE operates the via ferrata alongside the mountain's zipline, and Bear Grylls Explorers Camp runs its own guided via ferrata, abseiling and instructor-led rock climbing from its camp on the cliffs. The rock is sharp Hajar limestone and the views drop away into deep canyons on every side.

Scuba Diving

DibbaJan Feb Mar Apr May Sep Oct Nov DecThe east coast is where the UAE finally has an ocean rather than the shallow, warm Gulf. From Dibba down to Al Aqah and Khorfakkan the Hajar mountains meet the Gulf of Oman, and a string of dive sites sits within a short boat ride of shore. Dibba Rock is the signature site, a horseshoe reef that gathers turtles, reef sharks, honeycomb morays and vast schools of jacks. Snoopy Island and the sunken Inchcape wrecks add easy shore and boat dives. Divers Down, based at Al Aqah since 2001, is the region's most established centre and a PADI five-star operation; Freestyle Divers at Dibba runs PADI, RAID and technical courses and reaches the same reefs. Both are a straightforward day trip from Dubai.

Skydiving

DubaiJan Feb Mar Apr May Oct Nov DecSkydive Dubai offers the most architecturally spectacular freefall in the world: the Palm Jumeirah unfolds below on one side, the world's densest skyline on another, and the Arabian Gulf coastline stretching in every direction. The Desert Campus, active through the cooler months, adds a second dimension, freefall over an immense sand sea ringed by nothing. It is the only destination in skydiving where the built environment is itself the spectacle.

Witness / Attend

Best months at a glance

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Culinary
Driving Experiences
Flight Experiences
Kitesurfing
Museums
Overlanding
Rock Climbing
Scuba Diving
Skydiving
Witness / Attend

Upcoming events in United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi Grand PrixDec 3–6, 2026confirmed