View of part of the Fujairah Corniche and the Hajar Mountains in the Background

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Why People Visit Fujairah

Ramadan with its slower pace has commenced. Temperatures are beginning to fall as we proceed through September. It’s not a bad time to plan a day trip or a weekend to the eastern Emirate of Fujairah and explode the myth that the UAE is only Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Check out and keep in touch with everything Fujairah at the sister site, Fujairah in Focus.

At the moment Fujairah is undergoing a building boom. Have a look at the different sorts of constructions that are going up out east, in the ‘Fujairah Building Boom’ series that commences at this link.

Even though Fujairah has more cranes now than at any time in its history there is no way this emerging city will compete with the shine of Dubai’s skyscrapers and the glitziness of the UAE capital. That is what makes Fujairah different and a delight to visit. If you want all the shopping malls, the theme parks, the high towers, lavish hotels, traffic congestion and western commercialism, stay in the large UAE cities over on the west of the UAE.

Fujairah is east in geography and eastern in culture.

Why do people visit Fujairah? Find out a few reasons from the new and developing series entitled ‘Visit Fujairah For…’ which begins here.

Pack your towel and swimming gear, get out your snorkel and diving equipment, bring your book to read beside the sea or the pool and don’t forget your camera to snap pictures of Fujairah’s mountains and historic buildings.

Fujairah is a slow and often sleepy work in progress, so don’t expect it to be finished, highly organized and polished. Much of the architecture is ordinary and tacky. It has sensational scenery that is being threatened by quarries and quarry dust, an amazing coast which gets polluted far too often by oil tankers. But Fujairah has the potential to be one emirate in the country that is 100% natural and authentically Emirati.

If you have been out east, why did you visit Fujairah?

What did you enjoy and not enjoy?


Dr Geoff Pound

Image: Symbols of the Fujairah culture.