Dubai (Creek & Marina)
There are few gentler ways to see Dubai than from the water at night, and the dhow dinner cruise is one of the city's quiet pleasures. As the sun goes down you step aboard a traditional wooden dhow, the same kind of broad-beamed boat that once carried pearls and spices along this coast, now strung with warm lights and laid for dinner. The engine settles into a low hum, the gangway is drawn up, and you slip out onto the water just as the city begins to glow, the day's heat softening into a balmy, easy evening on deck.
There is something lovely about the contrast as you glide along. The old-world boat sits low and unhurried on the water while the modern city rises all around it, glass towers catching the last of the light and then switching on one by one until the whole skyline shimmers on the surface beside you. You drift past landmark after landmark, the lights doubling in the dark water, and the gentle pace gives you time simply to sit back, take a photograph or two and watch Dubai turn from gold to electric as night settles in.
On deck the evening unfolds at its own relaxed rhythm. A buffet dinner is served as you cruise, often with the soft sounds of live music or the spin of a tanoura dancer in a skirt of colored lights, and there is plenty of time between courses to step to the rail and feel the warm air off the water. You can choose your setting too: the historic Dubai Creek, lined with old souks and wind-tower houses, for an evening steeped in the city's roots, or the glittering Dubai Marina, hemmed by high-rises, for the full modern skyline. We arrange whichever suits you and time it so you are out on the water at the magical hour the lights come up.
