Weekend getaways from Dubai: mountains, mangroves and a border run

Everything worth doing on a weekend from Dubai is within three hours, which is the useful thing about this country.

Hatta, ninety minutes inland, is the mountain option: a dam, a reservoir you can kayak on, hiking trails that are genuinely usable in the cooler months, and a handful of places to stay that book out weeks ahead in season. It is the one trip that feels like a different climate rather than a different postcode.

Ras Al Khaimah, an hour up the coast, has become the weekend of choice for beach resorts at a fraction of Dubai's rates, with Jebel Jais behind it for the mountain drive and the via ferrata. A Friday-evening departure works here in a way it does not for most destinations.

Fujairah and the east coast, two hours across the mountains, is where you go for the diving and for a coastline that faces the Gulf of Oman rather than the Arabian Gulf — cooler water, quieter beaches, and a drive that is half the pleasure.

Musandam, in Oman, is the most rewarding and the most administrative: the dhow trips through the fjords are the best half-day in the region, and you will need your passport, the right visa and patience at the border. Do not attempt it as a day trip.

Abu Dhabi, ninety minutes down the E11, is the easy answer everyone forgets — a different city with different museums and quieter beaches, and no border at all.