Once an obscure corner of Arabia, the United Arab Emirates has transformed itself into an Arabian success story through a mix of oil profits, stability a sharp eye for business. Visitors are attracted by beaches, deserts, oases, camel racing, Bedouin markets and the legendary duty-free shopping of Dubai-all packed into a relatively small area. Dubai is the Singapore of the Gulf, with bustling harbours, gigantic shopping malls and bold architecture. Each of the seven emirated bears a unique character.

November to April

Mixing with mobile-phone-toting sheikhs, pint-sized jockeys and punters of every nationality at Nad al-Sheba racecourse in Dubai Exploring the cool date-palm plantation in the heart of AI-Ain Cross dunes, ride camels and fly falcons at the luxurious Al-Maha Desert Resort Looking at the enormous waves of peach-tinged dunes at Liwa oasis Watching a bullfight on a Friday afternoon in Fujairah Spending a luxurious night at the architecturally renowned Burj Al Arab hotel, built in the shape of an Arabian dhow sail

Read Arabic Short Stories, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, an excellent primer with tales from all over the Middle East

Listen to a performer playing an oud, a carefully constructed wooden instrument, which sounds similar to a mandolin

Watch contemporary Arab cinema at the Dubai lnternational Film Festival

Eat full (paste made from fava beans, garlic and lemon) and falafel (deep fried balls of chickpea paste served in a piece of Arabic flat bread)

Drink copious quantities of strong shai (tea) with na’ana (mint), and dark muddy qahwa (coffee)

Marhaba (hi)

Wadi-bashing (four-wheel driving around UAE’s oases); a duty-free shopper’s paradise; the Trucial states; carpet merchants and Bedouin souvenirs; Pakistani, lndian and lranian expats; international racehorses

The United Arab Emirates is the cheapest place outside lran to buy lranian caviar

The oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi has two beautiful oases: the attractively green and orderly Al-Ain and the spectacular contrast of green farms and towering pink dunes at Liwa. Sharjah offers the country’s best museums and art gallery, and a magnificent zoo, as well as the charming port of Khor Fakkan. The smaller emirates quieter-Umm as-Qaiwain is the closest thing to what the frishing and pearling towns of 50 years ago must have been like.