238 of 271 places fit
Some 60 bird species including flamingos, egrets and herons in Ajman's mangroves.
Ajman's mangrove reserve, about 1 million square metres of mangroves with some 60 bird species including flamingos, egrets and herons.
A small open-shelf public library with periodicals and electronic databases, one of the few free reading rooms in Ajman.
A free public court in one of Ajman's newer parks.
Soft sand and gentle water along the corniche, with showers, toilets, a volleyball court, lifeguards and a 500 m walking track.
Founded in 1925, the oldest library institution in the UAE, with Arabic and English lending collections and quiet reading space.
A coffee, board game and tabletop role-playing spot that runs regular public game nights you can join solo.
A free permanent collection of modern Arab art and Orientalist paintings, a short walk from the Sharjah Art Foundation buildings.
Sharjah's fish, meat and produce market, where the day's catch is auctioned from about 6am.
A quiet lagoon beach where you can barbecue and have a bonfire while the sun sets over the mangroves.
Shallow, calm lagoon water you can paddle across while still standing, with a sunset over the mangroves and space for a beach BBQ.
Small deserted islands in a calm mangrove lagoon that make good birding, with almost no visitors on weekdays.
Clear, shallow water winding through coastal mangroves and past small islands, with barely anyone there on weekdays.
A free contemporary art space on the Al Qasba canal that also runs low-cost art workshops.
A free outdoor court in a neighbourhood park, used mostly by locals from Al Nahda and Qusais.
The only public beach in Dubai where dogs are welcome, with bathrooms, changing rooms and showers.
Free family films on a big outdoor screen by the JLT lakes every Saturday, with a Dhs30 beanbag-and-popcorn upgrade if you want it.
An 8.4 km track on wide, solar-lit, tree-lined paths beside the Crystal Lagoon, with few interruptions for a longer run.
A quiet Dubai public library devoted to art, architecture and design, with desks, exhibition space and computer rooms.
A 2 km palm-lined corniche with the Gulf on both sides and shaded benches all the way along.
An abandoned coral-stone pearling town, mosque, fort and souq included, that you can walk through freely, with a free guided tour on weekends.
The only intact pre-oil pearling town left in the Gulf: coral-stone houses, a fort and mosques, abandoned and now partly restored.
A usually quiet stretch of public sand next to Al Hamra Village, good for shell collecting and a picnic.
A free public table in the park for a casual game on the way back from a walk.
The ping pong table at Dubai's big indoor sports complex is free to use.
A 3 km lit beachfront promenade with outdoor exercise stations along it and the sea right beside you.
A 2.6 km rubberised loop through a planted park down the Palm's trunk, with more shade than most Dubai tracks.
An open-plan glass library with study zones and shared workspaces that stays open until 11pm or midnight, free, with no membership needed to sit and work.
A city beach with walking, jogging and cycling tracks, play areas and the KOTA skatepark, plus seaside cafes.
A fenced full-size outdoor court you can book, plus free half courts nearby in Clusters H and L.
A one-kilometre canal lined with cafés and apartments between Khalid Lagoon and Al Khan, busy with families in the evening.
Contemporary art spread through restored coral-stone houses and courtyards in the old town, free, plus the Rain Room and the Flying Saucer nearby.
The restored old town, with Souq Al Arsah, Bait Al Naboodah and the Sharjah Heritage Museum in coral-stone houses, free to walk and about AED 10 per museum.
A heritage quarter restored to its 1950s look, with Souq Al Arsah, Souq Al Shanasiyah, merchant houses like Bait Al Naboodah and the rebuilt Sharjah Fort.
One of the oldest souks in the country, covered and air-conditioned, with copper coffee pots, pearl chests, oud and a halwa shop.
Over 600 shops on two floors, with carpets, kilims and handwoven textiles upstairs and Bedouin silver and gold along the lagoon side.
Sharjah's longest free running route: about 5 km of flat, fully lit lagoon promenade with water fountains, linking to the 3 km Al Majaz loop.
A gravel drive past springs, small pools and a restored heritage village with forts and an old falaj, plus a flower farm with a cafe.
A shelter of several hundred rescued dogs where weekend walkers are the main exercise the dogs get.
A small, clean beach break on the Dubai-Sharjah border that works for beginners on swell days and is calm for paddling otherwise.
A sheltered creek on the Dubai licence's approved list, away from the tourist beaches and close to Sharjah residents.
A small new souk of 13 shops in clay and stone buildings selling Emirati-made goods, with a pottery workshop and an Arabic coffee house.
A short paved detour off the main road into a rocky Hajar valley with a dam, barbecue spots and lay-bys looking along the ridge lines.
One of the overnight spots campers use on the Fujairah side of the Hajar, with open ground and no fees.
Buy fish straight off the boats, about 70% from UAE waters, have it cleaned on the spot and grilled in the same building.
A free contemporary art museum on the creek with a research library you can sit in and a sculpture park outside.
A 1.8 km creekside promenade built with wind towers and palm-frond shade, with dhows and abras tied up along it.
One of the few spots the free Dubai resident licence explicitly covers, with calm creek water and the metro nearby.
The emirate's largest library, a building shaped like a Quran lectern on the creek, with silent reading halls, study rooms and fast free Wi-Fi.
The restored creek-mouth quarter where Dubai's ruling family lived, centred on Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House, with the dhows and Deira across the water.
A low-rise grid of tailors, cheap Kerala and Pakistani restaurants and the Karama Shopping Centre stalls, with three metro stations on its edges.
A wadi walk past water pools and green vegetation, with a plateau above it where people camp.
A cluster of blue-chip commercial galleries within a few minutes' walk of each other, free to enter, and easy to reach from the metro.
A dense, old-style district of small shops and Filipino and South Asian eateries between Jumeirah and Sheikh Zayed Road, often called Mini-Manila.
Open dunes a short drive from RAK city where you can spread a blanket under a fairly dark sky.
Dubai's own mountain enclave about 90 minutes away, with a turquoise dam you can kayak and a hilltop sign walk, all on good tarmac.
A short 506 m mountain trail from Shees Park climbs to a platform 30 m above the park, with a 25 m man-made waterfall below.
About 7 km of waterside path from Business Bay to the sea, crossing the canal's pedestrian bridges with skyline views.
Walkways and cycle paths run along the 3.2 km canal from Business Bay to the sea, with three footbridges to cross back and forth.
The only hilltop fort left in the UAE, reached by 239 steps, with a view over the palm groves and the sea.
The UAE's highest hilltop fort, rebuilt after 1819, looks over palm groves and the sea from the top of a steep stair.
A paved road through the Hajar between Masafi and Dibba with wide mountain views and almost no traffic.
A gentle wadi walk past a dam to an old hilltop fort, flat enough for small children.
An easy wadi with a dam and an old fort at the end, gentle enough for children.
Four reclaimed islands on a causeway with a 2 km waterfront promenade on Breeze Island and long beaches lined with resorts.
A small waterfall with clear pools a short walk up a stream bed, with frogs, old stone houses and abandoned fields further on.
White sand with a promenade and family seating, plus a separate ladies beach with its own adjoining park.
A named beach on the Dubai licence list, so you can surf-cast with the Burj Al Arab in view without paying for a boat.
About 7 km of rubberised, lit track along the sand with the Burj Al Arab ahead and water stations on the way.
Several free beach courts on the sand, with the sea for a swim between games.
Dozens of commercial galleries, project spaces and a cinema in converted warehouses, all free to walk into, in one block.
The beach with the straight view of Burj Al Arab, a surf-only zone and night swimming until midnight.
Dubai's main beginner surf beach, with gentle breaks beside the Burj Al Arab when a winter swell comes through.
The oldest mosque still in use in the UAE, a small mud and stone building with four domes, and a short climb to watchtowers on the hill behind it.
A Gulf of Oman beach with clear, calm water when the sea is flat, and a small sand cove past Black Rock you can paddle to.
A cushioned, well-lit 1.5 km loop around the pond with markers every 100 metres, so interval sessions need no watch maths.
Camp on a long golden sand beach with calm waters for swimming and kayaking.
Dark sand and cooler, clear Gulf of Oman water, with the best snorkelling on the coast around Snoopy Island.
A library inside a philosophy research centre, opened in 2020, with Arabic philosophy, translations and classical works from Aristotle to Avicenna.
One of the oldest and largest forts in the country, dating to the 16th century, on a rocky hill against the mountains.
Ajman's mountain enclave has wadis to walk and picnic in, at higher altitude and with far fewer visitors than Hatta next door.
Free daily yoga on the beachfront promenade for the whole month of the Dubai Fitness Challenge, with no booking.
A lookout tower on the highest point of the park gives a 360-degree view over Hatta village and the Hajar.
A 9.4 km east-coast corniche with shaded seating, green spaces and tracks for walking and cycling beside the Gulf of Oman.
Where the Sharjah-Kalba road meets the sea you get the Al Qurm mangroves, with Arabian collared kingfishers and turtles, and a quiet corniche, about an hour from Sharjah.
Dunes give way to craggy mountains, a long tunnel and a steep drop to the sea at Kalba, about 90 minutes from Dubai.
A quiet east coast seafront with a rubber jogging track, shaded sea-facing benches and toilets, next to the Al Qurm mangroves.
A free court on The Walk a few steps from the beach and the JBR tram stops.
A Sharjah Art Foundation exhibition space in a restored former ice factory on the east coast, free, with a café.
The only easy place to see the Arabian collared kingfisher, in old mangroves on the east coast.
The protected heart of the Khor Kalba mangroves, home to the rare Arabian collared kingfisher and nesting hawksbill and green turtles.
RAK's main free public beach, marked by two flamingo statues, with shallow water, volleyball and free parking.
A roadside strip of stalls open every day, despite the name, selling pottery, carpets, plants and local produce on the way to the east coast.
A long green promenade along the creek where RAK families picnic, jog and cycle at weekends.
Two rows of 1970s houses and a mosque half swallowed by red sand, free to walk through, about an hour from Dubai.
A popular overnight spot in the mountains near Shawka Dam with flat gravel ground and hiking trails from your tent.
Man-made lakes in the dunes 40 minutes from the city, with flamingos and swans, reached on tarmac in any car.
A rocky 10 km out-and-back between Shawka Dam and the pools that works for beginners and still gives experienced riders something to do.
Short marked loops around Shawka Dam lead to rock pools that hold water most of the year, about 1 km from the car.
A Hajar valley where the surrounding hills block light from nearby towns, with camping and picnic spots by the dam.
The first pool is deep enough to swim across, and a narrow passage leads about 3 km on to a green oasis at the end.
Desert BBQ on the sand with no booking, 30 to 45 minutes from Downtown.
Desert lakes with eight bird hides and over 360 recorded species, including flocks of several hundred flamingos.
Open desert 30 to 45 minutes from Downtown where a weekend tent needs no permit and you wake up to foxes and birds around the lakes.
An 84 km dedicated cycle track through the desert to the Al Qudra Lakes, with no cars and no junctions.
The closest properly dark desert to Dubai, with dedicated star and sunset observation decks around the lakes.
A recreation area built into a mountain village wadi, with a partly shaded trail through the old terraces.
A recreation area in a mountain wadi village, with a partly shaded trail through the village and Al Rafisah Dam's palm-lined walkway nearby.
The first traditional carved-stone Hindu temple in the region, and the evening Ganga Aarti at 7:30pm is worth timing your visit around.
An 89 km road through five tunnels cuts the trip to the east coast to about 45 minutes from Sharjah, with purpose-built rest stops in the mountains.
The road squeezes between the Hajar and the Gulf of Oman, passing the small four-domed Al Bidya Mosque and the Al Aqah beaches on the way to Dibba.
A palm-lined walkway with benches and picnic areas beside a mountain reservoir.
A reservoir ringed by Hajar mountains with a palm-lined walkway, benches and picnic areas.
The country's longest-running community clean-up, with beach and desert sites in every emirate on the same weekend.
A saucer-shaped rest house about 580 m up the mountain looks straight down on Khor Fakkan bay, reached by a gentle 6.5 km road.
A 3 km crescent of sand under the Hajar mountains with courts, jogging and cycling tracks, picnic gardens and an open-air sea-view theatre behind it.
Mountain tunnels one way and the coast road home, with a bay-side coffee in Khor Fakkan in between, all in a day.
A bay-front walk between the working harbour and the stone amphitheatre, with the lit-up man-made waterfall on the hillside behind.
The Hili Grand Tomb is more than 4,000 years old and 12 metres across, set in a park that also holds Iron Age falaj channels and village walls.
A public garden built around the Hili Grand Tomb, a 4,000-year-old ring of carved stone 12 metres across.
Viewing decks at about 1,250 m, above the coastal haze, with free monthly community stargazing evenings that bring telescopes and guides.
A restored mud-brick tower house shows UAE artists upstairs and Bronze Age finds in its archaeological basement.
A restored 1930s souq on the road between the Qattara and Jimi oases, where local families sell crafts in a 35-metre covered corridor.
Free barbecue areas beside a Gulf of Oman beach, open around the clock.
A family beach on the corniche with cafes, food trucks, padel courts, volleyball, playgrounds and a jogging track in one place.
A long seafront on the Gulf of Oman with a beach walk and fish restaurants, with the Hajar right behind the city.
Quieter than the big oasis, with a 1930s souq, a mud-brick tower turned arts centre and a 4,000-year-old tomb on its edge.
A straightforward run on the E611 and E84 through dunes and mountains to a long seafront with fish lunches and an easy beach walk.
Open until 10pm on Sundays, with its own children's library and Arabic and English periodicals.
Mountain valleys that block city light, about 90 minutes from Dubai, with campsites if you want to stay out late.
About 30 restored mud and palm-frond buildings, an 1896 fort with a weapons display in its tower, and a date-syrup press, free.
Thirty rebuilt mud, stone and barasti buildings, watchtowers from the 1880s and a falaj-fed palm farm, free to wander in the Hajar.
32.6 km of signposted routes graded green to black, all starting from one car park at Hatta Wadi Hub.
Al Ain's main public library, near Sulaimi Garden, with reading rooms, a theatre and free wifi.
The square fort where Sheikh Khalifa was born, with a glass exhibition hall inside the courtyard and a 21,000-palm oasis behind it.
Sheikh Khalifa's birthplace, with a glass exhibition hall in the courtyard telling the fort's story next to Al Ain's smallest oasis.
A souq in Mubdia Village run by Emirati women, selling incense, spices, henna, oud and dallah coffee pots.
A public court on Yas Island that costs nothing to use.
A short climb to the big HATTA letters on the hillside with a view over the dam and the town.
A roughly 30-minute climb from Hatta Wadi Hub to the big HATTA letters on the ridge, with the dam and village below.
The nearest truck park for Shamkha and Al Riyadh City, on the Sweihan road out of the city.
A public outdoor court where the Masdar Pickleball Club, close to a hundred members, plays and lets newcomers join in.
A free floodlit court in a municipal park, with parking for nearly 100 cars.
Free floodlit outdoor courts in a municipal park, with a 2.1 km jogging track around it.
Free floodlit beach volleyball court in a neighbourhood park.
Al Ain's municipal food-truck park, about 15 carts and a mini-mart a few minutes from the zoo, handy for dinner on the way down from Jebel Hafeet.
The flat paths along the warm spring channels give you mountain views on a gentle walk, and you can soak your feet afterwards.
Designated barbecue spaces sit on lawns under Jebel Hafit, and you can stay overnight in the camping areas.
Lawns and warm spring water at the bottom of the Jebel Hafeet road, a natural place to end the drive.
Rolling lawns at the foot of Jebel Hafit, fed by natural warm springs you can dip your feet in, with free entry.
All Manner of Experiments, a survey of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, runs until 3 January 2027, with Saturday talks in the gallery reading room.
The only private art foundation in the Saadiyat Cultural District, free, quiet and a short walk from the Louvre.
The Art in Motion screenings put films in the museum courtyard, free with advance booking.
A free half court inside Reem Central Park, walkable from most Reem towers.
The city's specialist game shop runs in-store events and tournaments, the easiest way to find regular players for card and strategy games.
Rows of small shops stacked with cartons of khalas, saqai, medjool and ajwa, with sellers handing out tasting dates and coffee.
Outdoor ping pong tables in a park, free to use whenever they are empty.
Over a hundred Afghan-run shops selling rugs, kilims and floor cushions at prices well below the malls.
A free weekly sketching session where paper and materials are provided, so you can turn up with nothing and draw for three hours.
Open every day until 8pm, with a 10,000-book children's annex and a rare books hall of about 1,900 titles.
Two shows run until 10 January 2027, Juma Alhaj's light installation Revelation and the group show Archipelago of Whispers, in converted port warehouses.
Weekend workshops change every week, from a free Tatreez Circle on 6 December to Al Sadu weaving with an Emirati weaver on 13 December.
A free waterside walk facing the Mangrove National Park, where kayak tours set off into the channels.
As the emirate's only mountain it holds rock and cliff birds you will not see on the coast, and the summit road gives you easy viewpoints at every bend.
A park library of more than 35,000 books that leans towards children and teenagers.
After the Oman border north of Ras Al Khaimah the road runs about 40 km along cliffs dropping straight into the sea, to the dhow harbour at Khasab.
Viewing platforms along the 3.5 km shaded path look straight over the Mangrove National Park mudflats, where waders feed at low tide.
A fully shaded 3.5 km path, closed to cars, runs along the mangroves and links the island to the mainland.
A shaded 3.5 km promenade with viewing platforms runs right along the edge of Mangrove National Park, free and open around the clock.
A 5,250-square-metre library built to feel like walking into a life-size pop-up book.
Its visual arts halls show Emirati and regional artists for free, currently the Zuleya 2026 exhibition running to 15 January 2027.
Khalifa City's long-running truck park, a ring of ten-plus trucks around a central courtyard with parking right next to the counters.
A lake in the desert with a 1.4 km running path, a 1.2 km cycle loop, seven playgrounds and lake-view picnic and camping pitches.
Thirteen free, municipality-run pitches with lake or desert views, RVs allowed, and playgrounds and food trucks close by.
A private gallery in a villa behind Al Bateen Mall, showing modern and regional work in house-sized rooms you can see in half an hour.
Reopened on 26 October 2026 after a rebuild, with artisans working at the old crafts and a view of the Corniche skyline across the water.
Bowls, ledges, handrails and street obstacles on Hudayriyat, now free to enter and open until midnight at weekends.
Built for Sheikh Zayed the First in the 1890s, it now holds a permanent exhibition of Wilfred Thesiger's Empty Quarter photographs.
An 1890s mud-brick fort with a room of Wilfred Thesiger's Empty Quarter photographs, set in a park you can picnic in.
Shaded lanes run through date palms still watered by the falaj channels that made Al Ain a UNESCO site, right in the middle of town.
Shaded lanes run through 1,200 hectares of date palms watered by falaj channels that still work after 3,000 years.
More than 147,000 date palms over 1,200 hectares, part of Al Ain's UNESCO World Heritage listing, with shady lanes between the plantations.
The palm canopy and running falaj water draw garden birds that never visit the desert outside, and the shade lets you birdwatch in comfort.
Shaded lanes run for kilometres between 147,000 date palms and 3,000-year-old falaj channels, which makes it the one walk in Al Ain you can do in the warmer months.
The museum, Sultan Fort, the oasis gates and Al Jahili Fort sit within a couple of kilometres of each other.
You ride the actual Formula 1 track under floodlights, free, with no cars and a smooth surface the whole way round.
You get the floodlit Formula 1 track to yourself and a few hundred others, run at your own pace with no traffic and no fee.
You run the actual Formula 1 track under floodlights, for free, with no traffic or crossings for the whole lap.
A 3 km palm-lined boardwalk links Etihad Arena, beach clubs and dozens of restaurants.
Narrow shaded streets and a wind tower were designed to keep you cooler than the rest of the city, and the central park grows food on its walls.
The last working camel market in the country, where traders haggle over animals in pens behind Bawadi Mall.
Three galleries host the city's biggest temporary shows, and from 19 to 22 November 2026 it holds the first Frieze Abu Dhabi.
A beachfront strip of restaurants next to Soul Beach, minutes from the Louvre, with the sea one step off the path.
The old port mixes the fish, date and carpet markets with 421 Arts Campus and a heritage village of 1960s Abu Dhabi.
A 5.4 km waterside path with Highline Park looks straight across the channel at the city skyline.
A canal-side walk with the National Aquarium and a view across the water to the Grand Mosque.
A modern souk on the canal facing the Grand Mosque, with waterside terraces for dinner after browsing.
More than 60 species turn up along the mangrove edge, including greater flamingos and western reef herons, 15 minutes from downtown.
The lagoon is flat and sheltered by the mangroves, so even a windy afternoon stays paddleable.
The protected park holds most of the emirate's mangrove forest, and from the promenade you can watch herons and flamingos 15 minutes from downtown for free.
A mountain where Egyptian vultures live, reached by a road that climbs to the top in 20 to 30 minutes.
At about 1,240 metres it is the highest point in Abu Dhabi, with Al Ain spread out below and Oman's ridges behind.
Decades-old shawarma counters and curry houses fill the blocks between Abu Dhabi Mall and the marina.
A large central park on the official barbecue list, with space to spread out between grill sessions.
Free coached sessions from a World Athletics-qualified coach, backed by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, with groups from first 5 km to full marathon.
Foster + Partners' modern take on a souk sits on the site of the old Central Market, with carved timber lanes and oud and spice stalls.
Qasr Al Hosn, the Cultural Foundation and House of Artisans share one landscaped block, a short walk from the old Hamdan Centre and the WTC souk.
It is on the municipality's 2026 barbecue list and sits on the Qurm waterfront, so you grill with a sea view.
Family Park has two designated barbecue zones (A and B) on the island, so it is the easiest legal grill without leaving the city.
Two kilometres of lifeguarded city beach with three zones: the free Al Sahil section at Gate 4 and two quieter fenced family sections.
Eight kilometres of palm-lined road between the sea and the towers, from Mina Zayed past Etihad Towers to Emirates Palace.
Flat, lit and long, with the sea on one side and the skyline on the other, and you can turn around wherever suits your distance.
Twenty-five lakeside picnic sites each come with their own barbecue area, so you are not fighting over one shared grill zone.
An 8 km dedicated lane runs the length of the Corniche between the sea and the skyline, with Careem Bike docks along it if you do not own a bike.
Marked zones run all along the Corniche, near City Park, Lake Park and Sorouh Towers, so you can cast on a lunch break.
The seafront path in front of the heritage village gives the classic straight-on view of the whole Corniche skyline across the water.
An 800 m Blue Flag beach with calm, shallow water facing Hudayriyat, plus a water sports hut for kayaks and paddleboards.
An 800-metre Blue Flag beach facing Hudayriyat, with a watersports centre on the sand if you have no board of your own.
The water is calm and shallow, so children can put their face in the sea and see fish without leaving their depth.
A free public beach where you can set up beach volleyball without booking anything.
The new platform gives you 45 metres of frontage with seats and a water cooler, open until midnight.
A lit 30 km loop through open desert with 8, 16, 20 and 22 km cut-offs, so beginners and racers can share it.
A low-rise villa district with a former fishing harbour turned marina, a public beach and dhow builders still nearby.
Fifteen minutes from downtown, with cycling and running tracks, a surf pool and the food-stall waterfront at Marsana.
Sahara Marine rents boards on the island, so you can paddle the same water you would otherwise only see from the bridge.
A food-stall waterfront and beach on Hudayriyat where families stay out well past midnight in winter.
A dozen trucks parked along Marsana, from I Love Burgers and Boom Burger to Harr & Hloo's mashakeek grill and a zaatar-and-karak truck, a few steps from a free beach.
A boardwalk through natural mangroves with observation towers where black herons, and occasionally dugongs, show up.
Free beach camping on Al Dhafra's quiet coast, with a town five minutes away for supplies.
Al Dhafra's only developed beach is free and almost never crowded, with clear turquoise water.
Al Dhafra's only developed beach: turquoise water, almost never crowded, and free.
A straight run west on the E11 ends at Mirfa Beach, the region's only developed public beach and rarely busy.
Three reading halls with more than 20,000 books, including an oil and gas collection, plus storytelling and puppet shows for children.
A tagged spot in the Razeen desert near the Empty Quarter with essentially no light pollution, reachable without a 4x4.
A long open shoreline in the far west where you can pitch a tent or park an RV by the sea with nobody around.
The paved spur from Hameem winds between tall red dunes to a fort-style resort, so you get the deep-desert scenery without leaving tarmac.
A lit dual carriageway strings together about 100 km of date-farm villages with dunes rising straight off the hard shoulder.
The last town before the Saudi border, with an empty beach and locals fishing off the shore.