United Arab Emirates
Liwa Oasis
South of the last date farm, Moreeb Dune lifts 300 metres of sand at 50 degrees.
Liwa is a long green seam stitched onto the edge of oblivion: date gardens and low villages strung along an arc of wells, with the dunes of the Empty Quarter swelling red behind them. Drive south past the final farm and the sand simply takes over.
The oasis crescent sits on the northern rim of the Rub' al Khali, the 650,000-square-kilometre sand sea that fills the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula, and it has anchored Bedouin settlement on that rim for centuries. Its landmark is Moreeb Dune, a wall of sand rising more than 300 metres at a 50-degree pitch, among the tallest dunes anywhere; in winter its slipface hosts hill-climb racing during Liwa's festival season, and desert stays along the dune edge run camel treks, drives and stargazing through the cooler months. Winter is the season for the sand. July is ferocious, but it brings the date harvest and the Liwa Date Festival, when growers compete for prizes and the best lots go to daily auction.
Solo
Base yourself on the crescent and give the days a simple rhythm: farms and forts in the morning, a guided drive into the dunes for last light, gahwa when you get back.
Couple
Stay where the terrace faces open sand, take the dawn camel trek before the heat builds, and let the evening colour shift from palm green to dune red do the entertaining.
Friends
Book a competent desert operator for a day among the big dunes, watch the hill-climb machines in festival season, and keep one slow day for the date farms you would otherwise treat as a fuel stop.
- Moreeb Dune rises more than 300 metres at a 50-degree incline, among the tallest sand dunes anywhere.
- The crescent of farms and villages sits directly on the northern rim of the 650,000-square-kilometre Rub' al Khali.
- Each July the Liwa Date Festival turns the harvest into competitions, prizes and a daily auction.
- Desert stays on the dune edge run camel treks, dune drives, falconry and stargazing through the cooler months.
Time a July visit for the Liwa Date Festival, when farmers' finest amber lots go under the auctioneer's hammer.
Hospitality here still opens the Bedouin way: cardamom-scented gahwa poured thin, with a plate of the crescent's own dates.
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