Sports & Recreation Activities in Dubai

Dubai is now well established as the "Sports Capital of the Middle East". Its facilities for both participation and spectator sports have brought Dubai richly deserved recognition on a global scale. You can enjoy the more gentle leisure pursuits such as a round of golf on a lush championship golf course or the more challenging and exciting adventures such as dune driving and sand skiing. There are also plenty of opportunities to sit back and watch including one of Dubai's most popular spectator sports, horse racing.

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Golf and horse racing: There are countless world-class golf courses in Dubai, and golf is probably only eclipsed by horse racing as the region's favourite sport. Dubai hosts two professional tours, the European PGA Dubai Desert Classic and the Asian PGA Dubai Creek Open. 'Pay as you play' is welcome on the majority of courses but the dress-code is strict and requires proper golfing attire at all times including soft-spiked shoes.

Dubai also hosts the world's richest horse race, The Dubai World Cup, at Nad Al Sheba racetrack, which is also home to the hugely successful Godolphin stable whose jockey's are affectionately known as the 'boys in blue'. With prize money totalling more than $21.25 million (about £11.25 million) the Dubai World Cup has no trouble attracting the finest racehorses, jockeys and trainers from around the world and has become one of racing's premier fixtures for more than a decade.

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Dunes and mountains: With miles of empty desert surrounding Dubai, dune bashing is a national pastime, where small convoys of four-wheel-drive vehicles tear up, down and across the dunes at unbelievable speeds battering their passengers like a massage chair with a faulty timer. Absolutely hilarious!

A great way to end a desert safari is with an enjoyable and lively dinner at a traditional Bedouin camp in a remote spot amongst the dunes. It's great fun to act like Lawrence of Arabia for an evening, lying back under the stars on mounds of colourful cushions and smoking shisha pipes while belly dancers snake their way across the sand. Being tossed around in a four-wheel-drive for a couple of hours is a sure way to build up an appetite so it's a relief to be greeted at the camps entrance by the wafting aromas of saffron rice, curried vegetables and fish, chicken and lamb being grilled over a bed of hot coals.

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Beaches: Why does Dubai see so many people returning year after year? Any tourist you speak to agrees that it's because Dubai is such a great beach destination with so many things to do. There are few rival destinations that match Dubai's year-round sunshine, warm waters and empty powder-soft beaches. And of course, there are so many things to do here from fishing, sailing, windsurfing and waterskiing to wreck diving. The sheltered waters of the Gulf have a low tidal range, meaning there are no large waves to worry about. Crime throughout the whole of Dubai is almost non-existent and you are in no danger of being hassled on the beach.

Wild Wadi Water Park: There's only one risk parents need be aware of at Wild Wadi - your children pestering you to come back every day! Not that mums and dads will mind because this 30-ride water park is laugh-a-minute fun for everyone (in fact it has just been expanded to include some younger, tamer rides because some visitors felt the experience was too extreme for the little ones). Nearly all the rides are linked by a lazy river that transports you effortlessly from ride to ride and keeps queues to a minimum. There's plenty here to scare the trunks off the most brave visitor including the Jumeirah Sceirah speed slide that plunges you 27m at a gut-wrenching 50mph, as well as more family fun at the new Juha's Dhow & lagoon, a four-storey play structure for younger children.

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