United Arab Emirates
Hatta
A turquoise reservoir pooled between rust-red peaks, in the emirate everyone thinks is all sand.
The water behind Hatta Dam is a turquoise that looks retouched, held between bare rust-coloured slopes of the Hajar. Paddle out and the only marks on the surface are the lines the kayaks draw; the mountains soak up most of the sound.
Hatta is Dubai's mountain exclave, a highland enclave in the Hajar range 115 kilometres from the city, and it behaves nothing like the coast. Kayaks go out on the dam by the dozen, and because swimming in the reservoir is prohibited by law, the water belongs entirely to the boats. On land, a restored stone-and-mud heritage village recalls life here a few generations back, while Bronze Age burial sites in the surrounding hills push the settlement story past 3,000 years. Graded cross-country cycling and hiking routes fan out through wadis and ridgelines, a honeybee discovery garden works the mountain flowers, and lodges and trailer camps let the day trip turn into a night under Hajar stars.
Solo
Take a dawn kayak before the day's crowd, then pick one graded trail into the wadis and let the reservoir's colour reset whatever Dubai had done to your head.
Couple
Share a tandem paddle beneath the dry peaks, walk the old village lanes in the soft late light, and stay over in a lodge so the mountains get their evening too.
Family
Children can paddle a tandem kayak, follow the bee trail at the honeybee garden and clamber round the heritage village, all within a few minutes' drive of each other.
Friends
Link a morning water session to an afternoon riding the bike trails, then compare bruises over dinner in the enclave rather than racing the ninety minutes back to Dubai.
- Kayaks rule the reservoir: swimming is prohibited by law, so the turquoise surface stays boat-only.
- Bronze Age burial sites more than 3,000 years old stand in the hills around the restored heritage village.
- Graded cross-country cycling and hiking routes fan into the Hajar at every level of difficulty.
- Lodges, domes and trailer camps put a mountain night within 90 minutes of Dubai.
In the Heritage Village, Al Hajarain cooks Emirati dishes from ingredients grown in Hatta's own terraces.
Follow the hives at the Honeybee Garden to their sticky conclusion and carry a jar of mountain honey home.
Malbun
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A golden eagle flies beside you on the trail above Liechtenstein's only ski village.
Mount Yasur
Vanuatu
Molten rock bursts skyward several times an hour from a rim you reach at dusk.
Athabasca Glacier
Canada
A tongue of the Columbia Icefield lies close enough to touch, and visibly leaving.
Arouca
Portugal
A 516-metre suspension bridge sways 175 metres above a gorge — Portugal's vertigo capital.
Snoopy Island
United Arab Emirates
A rock shaped like a sleeping beagle, ringed by coral where reef sharks patrol.
Dibba
United Arab Emirates
One bay, two countries, three jurisdictions: fishing dhows work the borders beneath Hajar cliffs.
Kalba
United Arab Emirates
A kingfisher that exists nowhere else nests in the Emirates' oldest mangroves.
Liwa Oasis
United Arab Emirates
South of the last date farm, Moreeb Dune lifts 300 metres of sand at 50 degrees.