Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah, Kite Beach and the Desert Dunes

Twenty kilometres south-west of Downtown along the Gulf coast, Dubai shifts into a resort city of sandy beaches, artificial island archipelagos and high-rise waterfront promenades, while forty-five minutes inland in the opposite direction begin the untouched red sand dunes of the Rub' al Khali edge.

Palm Jumeirah and The View at The Palm

Built from reclaimed sea sand and rock armour without steel or concrete in its foundation, Palm Jumeirah extends five kilometres into the Arabian Gulf in the shape of a sixteen-frond date palm surrounded by an eleven-kilometre crescent breakwater. Because the island is so vast and flat at street level, you cannot tell it is shaped like a palm tree while driving on it. To see the full geometry from above, ride the elevated Palm Monorail (from Palm Gateway station at the base of the trunk) to Nakheel Mall and take the lift up to The View at The Palm on Level 52 of the Palm Tower (240 metres high), whose open-air 360-degree terrace looks straight down the trunk, across the villa-lined fronds and out to Atlantis on the outer crescent.

Dubai Marina, JBR and Kite Beach

• Dubai Marina Walk: an artificial 3.5-kilometre canal carved from the desert shore and lined with a seven-kilometre traffic-free palm-shaded pedestrian loop. Come two hours before sunset to walk around the yacht basins from Dubai Marina Mall to Marina Promenade, or take an evening boat cruise out of the canal mouth past Bluewaters Island.
• JBR (The Walk and The Beach): one short footbridge seaward from the Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residence combines a lively outdoor beachfront boulevard of cafés and gelato stands with a wide public beach and a pedestrian bridge across the water to Bluewaters.
• Kite Beach and Souk Madinat Jumeirah: further north toward Downtown in Jumeirah, public Kite Beach offers clean white sand, a 14 km coastal running track, food trucks and kitesurfers against the backdrop of the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab. For the closest unobstructed evening view of the Burj Al Arab without a hotel reservation, walk the lantern-lit waterways and wind-tower terraces of Souk Madinat Jumeirah at dusk.

Choosing the right Desert Safari (Conservation Reserve vs Open Dunes)

Not all desert excursions in Dubai are equal. Budget mass-market operators often take convoys of fifty SUVs to small, heavily trampled roadside dune patches near Lahbab with loud quad-bike pens and crowded buffet camps. For a genuine desert experience, book an operator licensed to enter the fenced, 225-square-kilometre Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR) (comprising roughly 5 percent of Dubai's total land area): you travel in vintage 1950s open-top Land Rovers or conservation 4x4s at low speeds to spot wild Arabian oryx, sand gazelles and desert monitors among undisturbed red dunes, followed by a falconry display at sunset and a quiet Bedouin-style dinner under dark skies. Pair your desert afternoon with Day 3 of our itinerary.