Dubai Adventure via Sharjah: Skyline Views, Desert Thrills and Old Souk Charm

Our trip started in Stuttgart, with a layover in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen before continuing to Sharjah – the airport northeast of Dubai that many travelers don’t even have on their radar.

From the airport, an official taxi took us straight to Barsha Heights, our base camp for the days ahead.

We explored Dubai mostly by metro – fast, clean, and surprisingly straightforward. Wherever the metro didn’t reach, we simply grabbed a taxi.

Of course, a visit to the Burj Khalifa was non-negotiable. Sixty seconds in the elevator, and then you’re standing at 452 meters, looking down at a city that from up here looks like someone dropped it into the desert out of nowhere. It’s the kind of moment where you just go quiet for a while.

For one day, we swapped the skyline for the desert. A quad tour across the dunes, a camel ride in the afternoon sun, followed by a shared meal and traditional dance performances. What you should know beforehand: at over 40 degrees in the midday sun, the desert feels exactly as intense as it sounds. But it’s precisely those moments – drenched in sweat, laughing, surrounded by nothing but sand – that stay with you.

We rounded off the trip with a visit to old Dubai: the Grand Souk with its narrow lanes packed with spices and fabrics, and the Deira Gold Souk, where the displays are so densely hung that you instinctively slow down. A welcome contrast to the high-gloss side of the city – and a reminder that Dubai is more than skyscrapers and shopping malls.