Dubai Honeymoon, 5 Nights: the Beach & a Night in the Desert

Met at Dubai International and driven to the beach resort on the Jumeirah coast, where the room has been set up for the two of you. Nothing is scheduled: the beach, the pool and the sea, which is warm enough to swim in from October to May, and dinner at the resort with the lights of the Marina down the coast. The first evening of a honeymoon is not for sightseeing.

A late breakfast and the morning on the beach or at the pool. In the late afternoon the drive to Dubai Marina for the private sunset cruise: out along the canal between the towers and into the open Gulf as the sun goes down behind the Palm, canapés on board, and back as the skyline lights up. Dinner on the Marina walk or the beach road at JBR, both a short drive from the resort.

A slow morning in the Dubai that came before the towers: the lanes of Al Fahidi with their wind towers and courtyards, coffee in one of them, an abra across the creek to the spice and gold souks of Deira, and lunch in Bur Dubai. Back to the resort for the afternoon. At dusk the Burj Khalifa on the prime timed slot, the one that sells out, with the city changing colour under you from the 124th and 125th floors, and then a table on the promenade below with the fountain playing every half hour from six.

Checkout after breakfast and the drive out of the city, about an hour, to a resort set among the dunes in the conservation desert outside Dubai, where the rooms look at sand and sky and nothing else. The afternoon is the pool and the silence. Towards golden hour a guided 4x4 drive over the dunes to a ridge for the sunset, with the Arabian oryx and gazelle that the reserve was created for, and then dinner outside under the stars — the sky here is the darkest most people from Indian cities have ever seen. This is the night the rest of the trip is built around.

Up for the dawn falconry display on the dunes — the birds flown as they were for a thousand years of desert hunting — and breakfast at the resort. A hot-air balloon flight over the desert can replace the falconry on request. Then back to the coast and the beach resort for the last night, with the couple's spa session in the afternoon and a final dinner on the beach. Nothing else is planned.

A last swim and a late checkout where the resort allows it, then the transfer to Dubai International for the flight home, three to four hours to most Indian cities. If the flight is late in the day the hotel holds the bags and the Mall of the Emirates or the JBR beach walk fills the afternoon; the Ain Dubai wheel at Bluewaters is a short drive away and open until nine in the evening.