Dubai and Abu Dhabi: the must-sees for a first trip

At the end of the Al Qudra road, the towers disappear and lakes fringed with ghaf trees appear in the middle of the dunes, with their waterbirds and sometimes an oryx in the distance.

Visit Dubai describes Al Marmoom as the largest unfenced nature reserve in the UAE. It protects part of Dubai's desert, its gazelles, its Arabian oryx and the migratory birds that stop at the man-made Al Qudra lakes.

Come by car for sunset, by bike on the cycle track that crosses the reserve, or on a safari with a licensed operator. Allow half a day including the drive from the centre.

Here you get the desert without the crowds of the dinner-show camps, with a chance of spotting wildlife roaming free.

From the lakeside promenade, you have to tip your head back to follow the silver spire into the sky; from the top, the other Downtown towers look like scale models.

The Burj Khalifa has towered over Downtown Dubai since it opened in 2010. Its At the Top observation decks are on levels 124 and 125, with a third, higher and pricier one on level 148.

The visit takes about 1.5 hours: an exhibition on the construction, a high-speed lift ride, then a walk around the glazed terraces with views over the city, the Gulf and the desert.

From up there, you understand how the city stretches between the coast and the dunes, and where the neighbourhoods you'll visit next sit.

At midday the white marble throws back an almost blinding light; at sunset the domes turn pink and the pools reflect the minarets.

Abu Dhabi's main mosque welcomes visitors of all faiths. Since September 2026, entry costs AED 10 for a visitor, and free guided tours leave at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

You walk through the marble courtyards and the great prayer hall with its chandeliers along a marked route; allow one and a half to two hours.

Visitors of all faiths are welcomed every day, with a marked route and three free guided tours: the best introduction to the country's contemporary Islamic architecture.

Under the huge latticed dome, light falls in shifting patches on the floor and on the water around the museum, like under a palm grove.

Opened in 2017 on Saadiyat Island, the Louvre Abu Dhabi was born of an agreement between the UAE and France. Its galleries follow the story of humanity chronologically, mixing civilisations rather than separating them.

Allow two to three hours for the galleries, then a stroll under the dome, open until midnight. Adult entry costs AED 70; it's free for under-18s.

Gallery texts come in Arabic, English and French, which makes the visit easy whichever of those languages you read.

When the music starts, the jets shoot up from the lake in rhythm, and the whole promenade falls silent for a moment in front of the lit-up Burj Khalifa.

The Dubai Mall, at the foot of the tower, gathers shops, an aquarium, an ice rink and restaurants, linked to the metro by an air-conditioned walkway. The fountain fills the lake between the mall and the Burj Khalifa.

The show is free to watch from the promenade or the Souk Al Bahar terraces. To see it at water level, a traditional boat ride on the lake runs during the show.

Burj Khalifa, dinner and fountain thus fit into a single evening, without getting back on the metro.

Between the beige walls and the wind towers, Al Fahidi's lanes keep the shade and the quiet, a few steps from the abras coming and going on the Creek.

This Bur Dubai neighbourhood has kept the merchants' houses built before oil arrived, with their barjeel, towers that caught the wind to cool the rooms. Today it houses galleries, cafés and small museums.

Wander here for an hour or two, then head to the jetty to cross the Creek by abra to Deira, a few minutes' ride in a wooden boat.

You see the city as it was before the skyscrapers, and the abra is still the oldest form of transport running on the Creek.

The steel ring, set beside Sheikh Zayed Road, is covered in cut-out Arabic calligraphy that lets light through at night.

Opened in 2022, the Museum of the Future has no collection: its floors host immersive installations on space, ecology and health as imagined for the coming decades.

Allow about two hours, with a time slot booked online. The building can also be photographed for free from Emirates Towers metro station.

The facade costs nothing to see; the inside will appeal more to fans of immersive experiences than to lovers of classic museums.

Seen from above, the island really does draw a palm tree: a trunk lined with towers, fronds edged with villas and a crescent shielding it from the sea.

Palm Jumeirah is a man-made island reclaimed from the Gulf, served by a monorail running to the Atlantis hotel at the top of the crescent. The View at The Palm observation deck, in the middle of the trunk, is the one place where you see its whole shape.

The trip up the observation deck takes an hour; the rest of the island is covered by monorail, with a stop on the crescent's promenade or at a beach club.

The observation deck is enough to grasp the island's shape, without paying for a helicopter flight.

Standing in the warm water, you face the white sail of the Burj Al Arab, set on its own island a few hundred metres offshore.

The sail-shaped hotel became Dubai's emblem in the late 1990s. It sits off Jumeirah, a residential district lined with public beaches, including Umm Suqeim, the closest to the hotel.

Spend half a day here: a swim from the public beach, a walk to the Madinat Jumeirah souk, and photos of the Burj Al Arab at sunset.

You swim for free with, across the water, the landmark that appears on every postcard of the city.

On the Deira side, the scent of saffron and incense drifts out of open sacks, then, a street further, the shop windows overflow with gold jewellery.

The two souks are a few minutes' walk from the abra jetty, in the heart of Dubai's old trading district. The spice souk also sells incense, tea, dried fruit and souvenirs; the gold souk lines up hundreds of jewellers.

An hour is enough for both, browsing at leisure: you taste, compare prices and watch the jewellers at work.

The two souks are the natural follow-on from the Al Fahidi walk, across the Creek, and better than the malls for buying spices and incense.

In the evening, the towers are mirrored in the canal, yachts head back to port and the Marina promenade fills with strollers and terraces.

The district was built around a man-made canal, in the west of the city, at the end of the metro Red Line. It continues into JBR (Jumeirah Beach Residence), with its public beach and pedestrian promenade, linked to the metro by tram.

Come for an evening: a walk along the canal, dinner on a terrace, then JBR beach. Boat cruises also leave from the Marina.

The beach, restaurants and the tram close by make it a practical base for a stay that mixes beach and city.

From the glass bridge, old Dubai spreads out on one side and the Downtown towers on the other, like two cities framed by the same picture.

The Dubai Frame is a giant gilded frame in Zabeel Park, between Bur Dubai and Downtown. A glass lift climbs to its panoramic bridge, 150 m up, part of whose floor is see-through.

The visit takes under an hour: a gallery on Dubai's past, the bridge, then an exhibition on the city as imagined for 2050.

The frame sums up old and new Dubai at a glance, and makes a good link between the Al Fahidi visit and the rest of the city.