← All articles · United Arab Emirates · 20 February 2026

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Beating the summer heat, and Ramadan drones

Two Dubais eighteen months apart: an August visit dodging the heat between abras and dunes, then Ramadan drones over Global Village and a Burj Khalifa view from Business Bay.

Two Dubais, eighteen months apart and barely the same city. The first in the flat heat of August, when the day runs early and late and hides in the middle. The second in Ramadan, with drones over Global Village.

August 2024: the hot one

Our first Dubai was August 2024, when the city was a shimmering oven and most of our sightseeing happened somewhere air-conditioned. In summer you learn the real rhythm fast: do things in the morning, hide from the afternoon, come back out after dark.

View through a car windscreen of the Downtown Dubai skyline on a hazy day, the Burj Khalifa rising above the other towers — Driving into Downtown in August 2024. The Burj Khalifa makes every other skyscraper look like it isn't really trying.

After dark

Which is how we ended up at the Egyptian-themed Wafi complex at night, standing between two pharaohs several storeys tall.

Inga and Dileep standing at night between two giant illuminated pharaoh statues in front of a wall of hieroglyphic reliefs at Wafi, Dubai — The pharaohs at Wafi. For scale, we're the two small figures at ankle height.

Down on the creek

The other summer trick is the water. The abras kept shuttling between Deira and Bur Dubai, past a waterfront that still remembers what the city looked like before the towers.

A wooden abra ferry carrying passengers across Dubai Creek, UAE flags flying over the moored boats and old Deira buildings behind — An abra mid-crossing on Dubai Creek, flags flying. Still the most honest ride in the city.

Coral-stone buildings, wind towers and a slim minaret glowing at dusk along the old Shindagha waterfront on Dubai Creek — The old town side of the creek at dusk: wind towers and a minaret instead of glass and steel.

Indoors, because August

We also ended up in a pool with a dolphin. This is a sentence we stand by.

Inga and Dileep in wetsuits kneeling in clear blue water with a dolphin resting across their arms at the Dubai Dolphinarium — The Dubai Dolphinarium. The dolphin was extremely professional about the whole thing.

Out to the desert

The evening that saved the summer visit was the desert safari: out past the city limits, up a dune for sunset, then dinner at camp with the entertainment.

Inga sitting alone on a rippled sand dune in the Dubai desert, a line of footprints leading up to her — One dune, one sitter, one incriminating trail of footprints.

Inga in a white top and sun hat with Dileep wearing a white kandura and red checked ghutra headdress, standing on the dunes at golden hour — Golden hour on the dunes, August 2024. One of us committed to the local dress code.

A dancer in a black and gold costume with a face chain veil balancing a curved sword across her head at a desert camp show — The desert camp show: sword balanced, audience silenced.

Inga in a helmet sitting on a red quad bike on the sand at sunset, more quad bikes lined up beside her and pale dunes behind — Quad bikes first, while there was still light to see the dunes by.

Dileep sitting on a low patterned cushion at the desert camp at night holding a shisha pipe, a lit tent and stage behind him — Then camp, cushions, and a shisha that outlasted the dinner.

A dancer at the desert camp balancing a tall lit candelabra on her head, the flame burning above her in the dark — The candelabra goes on the head, and then it gets lit.

Two dancers in black and gold costumes performing at the desert camp, each balancing an ornate candelabra headpiece — Two of them, neither one looking remotely worried about it.

We came back a year and a half later, in winter, which is when Dubai is at its most likeable.

February 2026: Ramadan

A year and a half after our first, sweltering visit we came back to Dubai in February 2026, which is when the city is at its most likeable. The weather was perfect, Ramadan was beginning, and the skyline did our sightseeing for us through the window.

Both Dubai trips put us in Business Bay: the Hilton Garden Inn Dubai Business Bay and the Millennium Atria Business Bay. We picked for the view and it earned its keep: the Burj Khalifa sits square in the glass, close enough to watch the lights run up it and far enough away to fit the whole thing in.

Inga looking out of a hotel window at night towards the illuminated Burj Khalifa and the towers of Downtown Dubai — The view from the room in February 2026. Hard to close the curtains on that.

Global Village

The big evening out was Global Village, the enormous fairground-meets-world-expo on the edge of the city, where dozens of country pavilions sit behind a gate that looks borrowed from a fairy tale. We arrived at dusk, which turned out to be perfect timing.

Drones for Ramadan

Ramadan had just started, and Dubai marked it the way Dubai marks everything: with hundreds of drones rearranging themselves in the night sky. Watching the words assemble themselves letter by letter above the crowd was one of those very Dubai moments where you stop being cynical and just look up.

A drone show spelling out a glowing Ramadan greeting in the night sky above Global Village in Dubai, with Inga in the foreground — Drones spelling out a Ramadan greeting over Global Village. The future is a very tidy fireworks display.

More photos from that week

The rest of the February 2026 roll: the main street at Global Village, the Egypt pavilion after dark, and the window we kept going back to in Business Bay.

The main boulevard at Global Village in Dubai at dusk, with a replica Big Ben, a leaning tower and a Chinese pagoda along the same street — Global Village's main street: Big Ben, a leaning tower and a pagoda, all within about a hundred metres of each other.

Inga and Dileep standing on the boulevard at Global Village with the replica Big Ben clock tower and leaning tower lit up behind them — We didn't fly to Dubai to photograph Big Ben, and yet here we are.

Inga standing in front of the Egypt pavilion at Global Village, a huge gold winged statue and painted hieroglyphs lit up behind her — The Egypt pavilion after dark, gold wings and all.

Inga sitting on a hotel window seat at night looking towards the Burj Khalifa, its spire lit deep blue above the towers of Business Bay — Some nights the tower goes blue from the spire down. We watched that one with the room lights off.

Inga sitting with a coffee mug by a hotel window in daylight, the Burj Khalifa and the towers of Business Bay through the glass — Same window the next morning, coffee in hand. It doesn't get any less ridiculous in daylight.

A Business Bay hotel room in Dubai, two beds, a patterned feature wall and a window seat looking out at the towers — The room itself, Business Bay. We booked it for the window, and the window delivered.

Dubai International gave us time in two lounges before the flight home and we filmed both, room by room: the SkyTeam and Marhaba lounges at DXB.

The first time here was the opposite season entirely, all pharaohs, abras and dune sunsets.

If your Gulf trip continues west, our Jordan stories start in Amman and run through Petra to Wadi Rum.