Fujairah faces east toward the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean beyond, giving it a character entirely distinct from the emirates on the Arabian Gulf side. The water here is different — cooler, deeper, fed by currents from the open ocean rather than the shallow, bathtub-warm Arabian Gulf. The mountains are different too. The Hajar Mountains tumble directly into the sea, creating a coastline of rocky coves that feels more like Oman or even the Mediterranean than anything you would associate with the UAE.
The diving and snorkeling are the best in the country, and it is not close. Snoopy Island off Sandy Beach — named for a rock formation that resembles the cartoon dog, which tells you something about who named it — is a shore-accessible reef teeming with blacktip reef sharks, turtles, and rays. I snorkeled there on a Tuesday morning when I had the water nearly to myself, and a hawksbill turtle passed close enough that I could see the pattern of its shell. The visibility was twenty meters, the water was twenty-six degrees, and I stayed in until my fingers wrinkled.
The interior is equally rewarding. Wadi Wurayah, the UAE’s first mountain protected area, shelters the region’s only permanent waterfall and a surprising diversity of wildlife including the elusive Arabian tahr — a mountain goat that exists nowhere else on earth. The hike to the waterfall follows the wadi bed through pools and boulders, and the falls themselves are modest by global standards but extraordinary by desert-country standards: fresh water cascading over rock in a country where water is the most precious commodity.
Al Bidyah Mosque, dating to the fifteenth century, is the oldest mosque in the UAE, its four adobe domes nestled against a hillside with a simplicity that is more moving than any amount of marble and gold. The Fujairah Fort, restored and commanding views over the plain, speaks to centuries when this coast was a strategic prize fought over by Portuguese, Omani, and British forces. The Friday market on the highway between Sharjah and Fujairah sells pottery, carpets, plants, and honey from the mountains — a weekly tradition that draws families from across the northern emirates.
When to go: October to April for comfortable temperatures and best diving visibility. The Friday market is liveliest in the winter months. Summer diving is possible but hot on land.