Dubai International Financial Centre
Downtown Dubai
Dubai’s stock exchange and leading international financial institutions are housed in a complex of six buildings surrounding an impressive central 80m…
Must-see attractions in United Arab Emirates
Downtown Dubai
More an art showroom than a classically curated gallery, Opera caters to collectors of artistic heavyweights in genres as varied as pop art, calligraphy…
Dubai
This gallery seeks to make art accessible (even to collectors without seriously deep pockets) and as such sells limited edition prints alongside original…
Dubai
You can't miss this place, mostly thanks to the plethora of super-car police vehicles parked outside. Part of Dubai Police Academy, this small and…
Dubai
A green oasis in the centre of the city, this pretty park hugs the new Dubai Canal (which has diminished its size somewhat) and comes with a jogging track…
Sharjah
Among the most beautiful of Sharjah's 600 mosques, with its architecture based on traditional Ottoman design, Al Noor has a dream setting overlooking the…
United Arab Emirates
This sprawling village recreates the Hatta of yore. It's housed in the ruler’s restored historic fort with a majlis (reception room), a traditional…
Sharjah
This wildlife centre packs four venues into a 1-sq-km package, including a natural-history museum, a botanical museum and a children's farm where kids get…
United Arab Emirates
Like a kooky mirage, a pyramid-shaped structure rises from the desert sands some 45km south of Abu Dhabi on the lonely highway that leads to the Liwa…
Abu Dhabi
There was a time when no self-respecting Gulf city would be seen without a giant concrete coffeepot. Those days have gone, for better or for worse, but a…
Bur Dubai
Until the completion of a new temple in Abu Dhabi in 2020, only a tiny and ageing double-shrine, tucked behind the Grand Mosque since 1958, serves the UAE…
United Arab Emirates
The long strip of wide sandy public beach that trails along the Corniche Rd is decently clean and well maintained (though it can’t compare to the…
Sharjah
This teensy museum was Sharjah's first school, and three rooms have been set up to show what classrooms would have looked like 70 years ago while framed…
Abu Dhabi
These two shady parks straddling 4th St and spreading along the Corniche fill up with families, joggers and picnickers in the early evening. The…
United Arab Emirates
Khor Fakkan's long corniche, meandering for several kilometres from the port to the Oceanic Khorfakkan Resort, is flanked by well-tended gardens with…
Dubai
One of Dubai's oldest parks, pocket-sized Al Khazzan has been given a total reboot and is now entirely solar-powered, giving it the right to the title to…
Bur Dubai
One of the emirate's oldest and largest parks stretches for 2.6km along Dubai Creek and is mostly popular with Bur Dubai expats, who arrive on weekends to…
Downtown Dubai
This bi-level space is the first gallery in the Middle East dedicated to cartoon and animation art from across the entire spectrum of media, from paint to…
Downtown Dubai
Housing an eclectic combo that includes a community theatre, edgy concept stores and galleries, this enticing cobblestoned complex wraps around its…
Sharjah
Close-up views of maritime creatures from the UAE's west and east coast – without getting your feet wet. Moray eels lurk, blacktip reef sharks prowl,…
Abu Dhabi
Stare up – access is limited to residents – at this 92-floor, 382m landmark tower which forms part of the World Trade Center and is Abu Dhabi's tallest…
Abu Dhabi
This square, trapped between busy main roads, offers good views of the tower-clustered skyline of the western Corniche Rd. Photos of the square's little…
Bur Dubai
The distinctive ornate flat dome and slender minaret of this snowy white mosque watch over the Al Fahidi Historic District. Non-Muslims may only visit the…
United Arab Emirates
Today sitting rather incongruously in the middle of a traffic roundabout on the busy Corniche Rd, this mud-brick watchtower was built as part of Ajman's…
Abdullah Hamaid Al Rumaithi Mosque
Abu Dhabi
Squeezed between looming towers, this mosque is one of two that bookend a plaza hidden off the main roads. Keen photographers should come here at sunset…
Downtown Dubai
Since 2008 this contemporary gallery has built up its reputation as a go-to space for experimental and cutting-edge art from the region, South Asia and…
Dubai Marina & Palm Jumeirah
A lovely park for families with a 3.2km jogging track, playgrounds, an adult exercise zone and plenty of grassy areas for picnics or relaxing. There is…
Downtown Dubai
Escape the heat and bustle by stepping into this cool Japanese art space with changing exhibitions that range from exquisite silk kimonos to photography…
United Arab Emirates
Ajman's dhow-building yard is one of the few left in the region, making both traditional wooden dhows and modern fibreglass versions. In the cooler months…
Downtown Dubai
Lawrie Shabibi has energised the local art scene since 2011 by promoting the works of innovative contemporary talent from the Middle East and North Africa…
Abu Dhabi
Spread over three distinct areas, Al Nahyan Park, Family Park and Urban Park, Al Markaziyah Gardens forms a broad band of recreational lawns parallel to…
Abu Dhabi
One of many popular, shady parks in Abu Dhabi, this park offers a respite from the heat of the Corniche in summer. There's a jogging track (20-minute…
Abu Dhabi
This park in the heart of downtown offers two multipurpose playgrounds, a mini climbing wall and basketball and football areas; and there's an erupting…
Abu Dhabi
In common with all mosques in the city, this beautiful mosque stands in nonalignment with the grid system, honouring the direction of Mecca instead. It is…
Downtown Dubai
Compared to its cloud-touching cousins, the 149m-high World Trade Centre seems small today, but when completed in 1979 was actually Dubai's first…
Abu Dhabi
Shaped like two parallel sand dunes – smooth and curvaceous on the windward side, steep and rippled on the eroded side – this award-winning building by…
Bur Dubai
This colourful cluster of Lego-style buildings in Creek Park was designed for kids to playfully explore scientific concepts, the human body, space…
Abu Dhabi
This iconic 27-floor building, with a 'golf ball' as its crowning glory, makes an excellent landmark for navigating the city's grid system. Built in 2001,…
