Fujairah

The distinction that defines this emirate is oceanographic rather than political. The Persian Gulf, on the country's west coast, is shallow, nearly enclosed, extremely warm and unusually saline — conditions that suppress coral and limit fish life. The Gulf of Oman on this side opens to the Indian Ocean: deeper, several degrees cooler, less saline and with real water movement, which supports coral reef directly off the shore. In practice that means snorkelling from a beach here beats a boat trip on the other coast. The best-known site sits just offshore from a small rock island a short swim out from a public beach, where turtles, rays and reef fish are ordinary sightings, and dive centres along the coast run trips to reefs and wrecks further out and north towards Dibba. This is where residents of Dubai and Abu Dhabi come to qualify as divers, which tells you what the water is worth. Currents can run and the sea is genuinely open ocean rather than a lagoon, so the standard caution in the UAE health and safety guide about swimming where you are directed applies here more than on the sheltered west coast.

Al Bidyah Mosque, north of Fujairah city, is the oldest known mosque in the country — a small structure of mud brick and stone with four domes carried on a single central pillar, understood to date from the fifteenth century and still in use for prayer. Its interest is precisely its modesty: after the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, a building this plain reframes what the country's religious architecture looked like before oil. Along the coast and inland sit watchtowers and forts, including a restored fort above Fujairah city and the fortified village at Bithnah controlling a mountain pass. Behind them, wadis cut back into the Hajar — dry riverbeds that hold pools after rain, with terraced villages and old falaj channels — and the drive up any of them for half an hour puts you somewhere with no resemblance to the coast. The Friday market on the mountain road, which trades every day despite the name, is the standard stop for carpets, pottery and fruit on the way over.

The drive from Dubai takes about ninety minutes to two hours and crosses the Hajar Mountains, which makes it the most scenic road in the northern UAE — bare rock, engineered switchbacks and a genuine change of landscape rather than a change of scenery. A car is effectively required; the coast is spread out and the wadis have no transport at all, as set out in the UAE transport guide. Two practical notes. First, Sharjah's east-coast enclaves interrupt this shoreline, so you will cross emirate boundaries more than once on a coastal drive, and the rules on alcohol change with them. Second, the Omani border runs close to this part of the country and some routes, particularly towards Dibba and in the mountains, approach or cross it — check that your intended route stays inside the UAE before setting out, especially in a hire car, and confirm with the hire company what their vehicles are permitted to do.

The comfortable season runs November to March as it does everywhere in the country, and it is the best time for the mountains and for sitting on a beach. But the diving argues differently: water temperatures here are pleasant year-round and visibility is often at its best in the warmer months, so summer is not the write-off on this coast that it is inland — you simply spend the day in the water rather than beside it. The emirate is quiet by UAE standards. There are resorts along the coast, but the scale is modest and the pace is slow, and outside the hotel strips this is a working coast of fishing harbours and small towns rather than a resort destination. Visitors who arrive expecting a Dubai beach club find it underwhelming; visitors who arrive with a mask and fins usually come back.