A Dhow Dinner Cruise

A dhow is the boat the Gulf was built on: a wooden hull with a high stern, the shape that carried pearls, dates and everything else up and down this coast long before anyone thought of pouring concrete on the shoreline. The ones that take you to dinner are that hull with two decks, a galley and a great many small lights strung along the rigging, and the compromise is a happier one than it sounds.

On the creek you go slowly past the working city. Cargo dhows tied three deep and still loading, the old customs buildings, the souk lanes throwing light onto the water, and the abras cutting across your bow with a boatload of people who are simply going home. It is the closest Dubai gets to feeling like a river town.

Out of the Marina the same boat becomes something else entirely. The channel is narrow and the towers stand straight up out of it, so their lights come down the glass and break apart in your wake, and the boat turns near the mouth with the Palm and Ain Dubai off to one side. It is a more theatrical hour and a less human one.

Dinner arrives somewhere in the middle: a buffet laid out below, eaten at a table or carried up to the open deck, which is where you should be. There is usually music, often a tanoura dancer spinning under the lights, and then the boat comes back the way it went.

Two hours, no effort, and it works on the first night of a stay when nobody has the energy for anything else. Pair it with the creek and the souks in daylight and you will have seen the same water do both its jobs.

Good to know

• Ask for the open deck. Below is air-conditioned and has the buffet; above has the city.
• Winter evenings on the water are cooler than the day suggests. A layer, especially for children.
• Departure points differ by operator and are not always where you expect. We confirm yours in writing with the pick-up.
• Tell us in advance about anything you do not eat. A buffet is easier to adjust before it is loaded than after.
• If it is a birthday or an anniversary, say so when we book. A private charter is a different evening at a different scale.
• Camera settings for low light, or a phone held very still. The rail is the tripod.