6 Emirates in a Day Private Tour from Dubai

Pick-up in central Dubai, 8am. Your driver collects you from your hotel or residence in central Dubai - Deira, Bur Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road or the Marina. Give the exact address when you book. It is a long day: about ten hours door to door, most of it on the road.

Sharjah: Qanat Al Qasba and the King Faisal Mosque. The first stop is twenty minutes from Dubai. Qanat Al Qasba is a canal district with a waterwheel and cafes along it; the King Faisal Mosque, the Central Souq and Cultural Square are the other stops here. Sharjah is the UAE's cultural capital and the pace is noticeably slower.

Ajman: the corniche and the heritage quarter. The smallest emirate, and the one most visitors skip. A stretch of open beach along the corniche, and behind it the old quarter with the fort and museum. Fifteen minutes up the coast from Sharjah.

Through Umm Al Quwain. The quietest of the seven, and a pass-through rather than a long stop: a low-rise town on a sandy spit, mangroves along the lagoon and fishing boats pulled up on the shore. The coast road runs straight through it.

Ras Al Khaimah and into the Hajar mountains. The northernmost emirate, where the coastal plain runs out and the Hajar mountains start. The road turns inland here and climbs east, and the landscape changes from sand to bare rock within a few kilometres.

Fujairah: the fort and the Bidiya Mosque. Over the mountains and down to the Gulf of Oman, the only emirate on the east coast. Fujairah Fort, the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and the Bidiya Mosque - the oldest in the country, four small mud-brick domes under a hillside watchtower.

Khorfakkan, the waterfalls and Al Rafisah Dam. North along the east coast to Khorfakkan, its beach and amphitheatre and the waterfall built into the hillside above the town, then inland to Al Rafisah Dam, a reservoir held between the mountains. The drive between them is the best road of the day.

Back in Dubai by evening. The return crosses the mountains again and runs back down to Dubai, where you are dropped at the address you were collected from. Ten hours door to door, six emirates, and rather more of the country than most visitors ever see.