Ras Al Khaimah

Jebel Jais is the highest point in the UAE, and the road to it is the emirate's single best experience even before you arrive at the top — a wide, immaculately engineered mountain highway that climbs in long switchbacks off the gravel plain into bare limestone, with viewing platforms cut into the bends. The temperature falls as you climb, and in winter the summit can approach freezing, which is an extraordinary thing to encounter in this country. At the top sit the attractions the emirate has become known for: the world's longest zipline, which runs riders head-first down the mountain at genuine speed; a via ferrata, the cable-and-rung climbing route bolted into the cliff face; a sledge-style mountain ride; and viewing decks with a restaurant. All of them are bookable in advance and all of them sell out in the cool months. The point worth making is that none is required — driving the road, stopping at the viewpoints and watching the light change over the range is free, takes a couple of hours, and is what most people remember.

The altitude gives Ras Al Khaimah something no other emirate has: outdoor time in summer. When the coast is above 40°C with humidity, the high ground is meaningfully cooler and the difference is enough to make walking, climbing and sitting outside possible. That is why the emirate has invested in trails, campsites and mountain accommodation rather than only in beach resorts, and why domestic visitors head north in the hot months. Hiking here is real hiking on rough limestone rather than a groomed path — take water in quantities that seem excessive, start early even in the mountains, and treat the heat guidance in the UAE health and safety guide as applying to altitude as well as to the coast. In winter the same terrain is simply pleasant, and camping on the mountain is one of the few genuinely cold nights available in the Gulf.

Away from the mountains the emirate runs along the Gulf with a long, thinly developed shoreline — quieter beaches than anywhere further south, a lagoon system with mangroves, and a cluster of resorts on a man-made island near the city. Ras Al Khaimah town itself keeps more of its past visible than the southern emirates: this was a significant pearling and trading port, and the National Museum sits in an eighteenth-century fort that served as the ruler's residence, with Dhayah Fort on a hilltop nearby giving the best fort view in the country over date plantations to the sea. The most striking site is Al Jazirah Al Hamra, an entire abandoned coastal village of coral-block houses, courtyards, a mosque and a souk, left largely as it was when the pearling economy collapsed — the most complete surviving pre-oil settlement in the UAE, and an unsettling, quiet place to walk through at the end of an afternoon.

Ras Al Khaimah is roughly an hour from Dubai on the coastal motorway and has its own airport used by budget carriers. A car is close to essential: the mountain road has no public transport, the coastal sites are spread out, and the emirate is built for driving in the way described in the UAE transport guide. The season is the standard one inverted at altitude — November to March is best everywhere, and the mountain is comfortable in winter while the coast is at its most pleasant; June to September is punishing at sea level but the high ground remains usable, which is the emirate's distinctive selling point. Book the mountain attractions ahead in the cool months, and if you are driving up for sunset, note that the road down in the dark is long and unlit in stretches.