Al Ain Full-Day Private Tour from Dubai with Guide

Pick-up in central Dubai, around 8am. Your driver and guide collect 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. Al Ain is about 120 kilometres inland, roughly ninety minutes on the motorway.

Al Ain Oasis and the falaj channels. A walled palm oasis in the middle of the city, still watered by the falaj channels that have run here for centuries. Shaded walkways run between the date palms, and your guide explains how the irrigation system works and why the settlement grew where it did.

Al Ain National Museum and Al Ain Fort. The country's oldest museum, next to the mud-brick fort where Sheikh Zayed was born. Archaeology, ethnography and the story of the region before oil. Note that the museum, the fort and the Archaeological Park are closed on Mondays and Fridays.

The Al Ain camel market. One of the last working livestock markets of its kind in the country, where camels, goats and sheep are traded much as they always have been. Noisy, dusty and entirely genuine. Traders will happily pose for a photograph, and usually expect a small tip in return.

The drive up Jebel Hafeet. The mountain road climbs in long switchbacks to 1,240 metres, the highest point in the emirate. From the summit car park the desert runs flat to the horizon and Al Ain sits green below. The last stop of the day before the drive back.

Back in Dubai by early evening. The return drive takes about ninety minutes and you are dropped back where you were collected. Door to door the day runs roughly eight hours, depending on how long you linger at each stop - the vehicle is yours, so the pace is yours.