Dubai is easy to plan badly. The attractions are spread across thirty kilometres of coast, the heat sets the hours you can be outside, and the two most interesting halves of the city, the towers and the old creekside districts, feel like different countries. Five days is enough to do all of it properly. Here is an order that works, with the things that need booking flagged before anything else.
Before you fly
Book the Museum of the Future. It sells out days ahead and it is the one attraction people simply cannot get into.
Book the Burj Khalifa if you want a sunset slot.
Book a desert safari, and check your insurance covers it.
Sort data, with an eSIM or an airport SIM, because everything here runs through the phone.
Leave the rest loose, because taxis and the metro make the day flexible.
Day one: Downtown
The Museum of the Future in the morning, on your booked slot.
Lunch in the financial district or the mall.
The mall and the aquarium in the hot part of the afternoon.
The Burj Khalifa on a late slot, going up in daylight and coming down in the dark.
The fountain from the promenade and then again from the bridge, which are only a few minutes apart.
Day two: old Dubai
Start early in Deira, at the gold and spice souks, before the midday closure.
Cross by abra to Bur Dubai, which costs a few coins and is the best short journey in the city.
Al Fahidi for the wind towers, the small museums and coffee in a courtyard.
Lunch in a cafeteria in Bur Dubai or Karama, which will be the cheapest good meal of your trip.
The Dubai Frame in the late afternoon, which puts the two halves of the city on either side of you and closes the day’s argument.
Day three: the desert
Give it the whole day rather than squeezing it around something else.
Morning safari if you want the driving, the dunes and a cooler, cheaper half day, leaving the afternoon free.
Evening safari if you want sunset, a camp and dinner, which returns late.
A conservation reserve trip if you would rather have quiet and wildlife than an activity programme.
Nothing else that day, because you will come back covered in sand and pleasantly finished.
Day four: the coast
Kite Beach or the Jumeirah shore in the morning, which is free and well equipped.
The Palm in the afternoon: the observation deck, the boardwalk, and the monorail one way.
The Marina and JBR in the evening, for the walk, the beach strip and dinner.
A dhow cruise if you want the skyline from the water.
Swap the order in summer, so the beach is the last three hours of daylight rather than the first.
Day five: choose one
Abu Dhabi, for the Grand Mosque and the Louvre, which is a long full day and the best single option.
The east coast or the mountains, with a hire car, for a completely different landscape.
A slow day, meaning a beach club, a long lunch and whatever you underestimated earlier in the week.
Global Village or the seasonal attractions, if you are here in the cooler months.
A water park, if you are travelling with children and have been putting it off.
Adjusting the plan
With children: cut one attraction per day, add a water park, and move the beach to the late afternoon every day.
In summer: move everything outdoors to before nine and after five, and lean on the malls and museums in between.
On three days: keep days one, two and three and drop the rest.
On a week: add the mountains and a second slow day rather than more attractions.
With a Friday: brunch is a Dubai institution and it takes out the whole afternoon, so plan around it.
Where this fits
This is the shape. The detail is in the individual guides.
For a shorter trip that has to make harder choices, our three day Dubai itinerary covers the compressed version.
For the day five option most people take, and what it involves, our comparison of Dubai and Abu Dhabi covers the trip.
And for the island that takes up half of day four, our guide to the Palm Jumeirah covers what is worth doing out there.
The short version
Book the Museum of the Future before anything else, then the Burj Khalifa and the desert safari. Give Downtown one day, the old city one morning, the desert a full day of its own and the coast another, and keep day five for Abu Dhabi or for doing nothing. Build every day around the heat rather than the map: outdoors early and late, indoors in the middle. Stay in one place near a Red Line station rather than moving hotels. And cross the Creek by abra at least once.
