Smart Self-Managed Tours

Country guide

United Arab Emirates

A photograph of United Arab Emirates
Photograph · Tonenight · CC BY-SA 4.0

The United Arab Emirates has been one country since 2 December 1971, when seven emirates — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah — federated. It covers 83,600 km² and held 11,027,129 people in 2024, of whom about 11 per cent are Emirati citizens; the rest came to work, and that shapes the food, the languages and the shape of a week more than any monument does. Abu Dhabi is the capital and Dubai the largest city, close enough to treat as one base. The northern emirates beyond them are quieter and far less built.

Cities

Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.

Practical information

Not recorded No country-level practical facts — language, currency, emergency number, plug type — are ingested yet. This section will populate once that data source is added.

Planning a visit

  1. January: no seasonality data recorded
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  8. August: no seasonality data recorded — this month
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  10. October: no seasonality data recorded
  11. November: no seasonality data recorded
  12. December: no seasonality data recorded

Top things to see

Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.

  1. Museum of the Future
    02 2 hr 30 min

    Museum of the Future

    The Museum of the Future is a steel torus standing on a planted green mound beside Jumeirah Emirates Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road, with an oval void cut through its centre.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Dubai
  2. Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
    03 4 hours

    Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve

    The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve is a 225-square-kilometre protected area in the emirate's inland desert, which the reserve describes as 4.7 per cent of Dubai's total land area and as the UAE's first national park.

    • Must see
    • Nature site
    • Dubai

Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·