United Arab Emirates

Dubai is easiest to enjoy from the old side: a courtyard house in Al Fahidi, an abra across the creek for one dirham, breakfast in a canteen where the menu has not changed since 1974. The skyline is best watched from water at seven, not from the top of it at noon.

Then east, forty minutes, into the Al Marmoom reserve. We use a camp of six tents with proper beds, no generators after ten, and a guide who reads the dunes like a page. Abu Dhabi adds the Louvre and the mangrove channels by kayak — the two quietest hours in the Emirates.