Your full Wanderlust guide to

United Arab Emirates

Formerly known as the Trucial States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an exclusive, oil-rich club with seven members: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain.

Of these, Dubai grabs the headlines (and most of the visitors) with its extravagant landscape of seven-star hotels, km-high skyscrapers and reclaimed, artfully arranged leisure islands. The building boom may have been stalled for now, but Dubai remains the brash but scintillating hub of the Gulf – a stopover that’s become an iconic sun-and-fun destination in its own right.

Beyond Dubai, though, the UAE is quieter and perhaps more interesting. Abu Dhabi has its fair share of luxury hotels (and now an F1 Grand Prix to gawp at), but also stunning mosques and a lush, kayak-friendly shoreline.

Inland, the desert city of Al-Ain and the oasis villages of Liwa are reminders of more traditional Arab life. And further north in the smaller emirates, the landscape becomes mountainous and you enter a world of sawtooth crags and wadis dense with mango trees.

Distances are not great in the UAE, making it easy to turn a layover into a mini adventure. So get out of Dubai’s mega-mall airport and explore.