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Experience

The Creek and the Souks

The old trading city, crossed on a wooden abra for coins: gold in Deira, spices and cloth on the far bank, dhows still loading for Iran and India, and a lot of tea drunk while you decide.

At a glanceOn land
How longOne morningA morning, or the cooler end of an afternoon
How hardLightWalking, standing, and crossing the water on a small open boat
SeasonCooler monthsThe alleys hold the heat, so the cooler months are kinder

Dubai started here, on a tidal inlet that runs inland between Deira and Bur Dubai, and the inlet is still working. Along the Deira wharves the wooden dhows tie up three deep and load in the open, air conditioners, tyres, sacks, boxes wrapped in blue plastic and bound with rope, for ports across the Gulf and down the coast of India. Nobody is performing this for anybody. It is simply the business the city was built on, going on in front of you.

The Gold Souk is a covered lane of shopfronts with more gold in the windows than most people have seen in one place, and the effect is somewhere between impressive and comic. It is sold by weight against the day’s rate, so the argument is about the making charge rather than the metal. Nothing obliges you to buy anything, and the walk through is worth it either way.

A few streets on, the Spice Souk is smaller and better. Sacks rolled open at the top: dried limes, saffron, frankincense, hibiscus, cinnamon in sticks like rolled parchment, and mounds of things the seller will name for you and then let you smell. Somebody will offer tea. Take it. The conversation is the point and the transaction can wait.

Then the abra. You go down worn steps to a floating jetty, sit on a bench that runs down the middle of a low wooden boat facing outwards, and cross the creek with the engine putting away underneath. It costs coins. On the Bur Dubai side is the textile souk, all bolts of cloth and tailors, and behind it the lanes of Al Fahidi and the museums, which is the obvious way to carry on if the morning is going well.

Go early, or go in the last hours of the afternoon. The middle of the day in a covered lane with no wind is a poor use of Dubai, and the light on the water at either end is the reason photographers keep coming back to this stretch.

Good to know

  • Small notes and coins. The abra takes cash and the smaller stalls prefer it.
  • Trading days and hours differ by souk and between the two banks. We check what is open on your dates.
  • Modest cover for shoulders and knees is the courteous choice in the older quarters, and it also keeps the sun off.
  • Whatever the first number is, it is not the number. Walk away pleasantly and see what happens.
  • Shoes you can walk a few hours in. The lanes are flat, but there are more of them than you think.
  • The creek is also how a dhow dinner works in the evening: same water, entirely different mood.

Abra fares and routes, souk and museum trading days and hours, guide fees and driver rates are set locally, vary between the creek's two banks and change. We confirm what applies to your dates in writing before you pay anything.

Everything in the window is real, and the first number anybody says is not.

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Questions we are actually asked

Is haggling expected?
In the souks, yes, and nobody is offended by it. Gold is sold by weight against the day's posted rate with the making charge negotiable on top, which is a more transparent argument than it first appears. In the malls, no. The price on the ticket is the price.
How do we cross the creek?
On an abra: a low wooden boat with a bench down the middle that goes when it is full, which is usually within a minute or two. You pay onboard, in coins. It is the oldest thing you will do in Dubai, and it is worth doing in both directions rather than one.
Do we need a guide?
Not to walk it. A good one earns the morning back anyway, because they know which lane the spice sellers are actually in, what is worth buying and what is aimed at people passing through. Guide fees are set by the guide and we quote them in writing with your itinerary.
Is it worth it if we are only here a few days?
It is the half of Dubai that the towers are usually chosen instead of, and it takes one morning. People come back talking about the creek more often than they come back talking about the mall.

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