Dubai Dhow Cruise at Al Seef

The Creek is where Dubai actually began, and a dhow cruise along it is a different experience from the Marina version. You board a traditional wooden dhow - the same hull shape that carried trade across the Gulf for centuries - and push off into a waterway lined with the old city: the trading wharves where goods are still loaded by hand, the spice and gold souks, the low wind-tower houses of Bastakiya, and behind all of it the modern skyline rising as a reminder of how recently this changed. Dinner is a buffet served on board with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, and live cultural entertainment runs through the evening. The cruise lasts about ninety minutes at a slow, deliberate pace, which is rather the point - this is the unhurried, historical side of Dubai rather than the glass-and-chrome one.