3 Days in Dubai Itinerary: Creek, Towers and Dunes

At 8am the lanes of Al Fahidi are still cool and nearly empty: a cat asleep on a wind-tower wall, the smell of cardamom coffee from a courtyard. Begin your 3 days in Dubai here, on foot, before the heat and the tour groups arrive around 10.

These restored coral-and-gypsum houses date to the early 1900s, when pearl traders cooled their rooms with those tall wind towers. Wander without a route. Look into the small galleries at XVA, find the Coffee Museum, and book a table for later at Arabian Tea House in its leafy courtyard. Give the quarter two slow hours, not a rushed forty minutes.

From the Bur Dubai textile souk, walk down to the abra station on the water. These wooden boats have crossed Dubai Creek for generations and still cost one dirham, dropped into the driver's hand once you are sitting. It is the cheapest and best ride in the city.

Five minutes later you step off in Deira, right beside the Spice Souk with its open sacks of dried lemon, saffron and frankincense. The Gold Souk is a short walk north, where windows hold kilos of jewellery priced by gold weight plus a making charge you are meant to haggle down. Buy something or just look. Either way, come before sunset, when the light is soft and the lanes are calmer.

Book the Burj Khalifa online a few days ahead and take the first slot, around 9 or 9.30am. A standard At the Top ticket for levels 124 and 125 costs about AED 169 off-peak, while sunset slots climb past AED 240 and sell out first. Morning haze is thinner than people fear, and you share the deck with far fewer elbows.

Forty minutes at the top is plenty. The lift alone, 124 floors in about a minute, is half the fun, and the view down onto the smaller towers makes the scale finally land.

The tower sits at the edge of the Dubai Mall, so you are already there. Resist walking all 1,200 shops. See the aquarium tunnel, which is free from the walkway, eat a late lunch, then head out to the Dubai Frame in the afternoon.

The Frame is a 150-metre gold rectangle in Zabeel Park, around AED 50 to enter, with old Deira on one side of the glass and the new skyline on the other. A taxi from the Mall takes about 15 minutes. Come back to the lakeside for the Dubai Fountain after dark: shows run every 30 minutes from 6pm, the last near 11. Stand on the bridge to Souk Al Bahar for the wide view.

A desert safari is the one thing worth pre-booking with an operator. Pickup is usually 3 to 3.30pm from your hotel in a 4x4, heading for the dunes near Al Awir or further out toward the conservation reserve. You get dune bashing, a short camel ride, sandboarding and a barbecue dinner at a camp. A shared trip runs roughly AED 150 to 250 a person, and a private car costs more but cuts the waiting around.

If you get carsick, tell the driver to go gentle on the dune bashing. Nobody minds. The quiet half hour on top of a dune at sunset, before the food comes out, is the part people actually remember, so keep the phone in your pocket for some of it.

Most safaris drop you back near 9pm, so this part is for anyone who skips the desert or still has energy. The Dubai Marina walk is a flat 7km loop past moored yachts and the Ain Dubai wheel on Bluewaters, reachable by the Dubai Tram and the Red Line metro.