5 min read · Ajman
The quiet north
Ajman and Umm Al Quwain hold the emptiest beaches and the most important birds. Almost nobody plans for them.
Two emirates in the middle of the northern coast get skipped by most itineraries, which is precisely the argument for going. The beaches are public and long, and the lagoons behind them are among the most significant bird habitats in the region.
In Ajman, Al Zorah's mangrove channels hold resident greater flamingos among more than sixty recorded species; you can be among them in a kayak within twenty minutes of parking the car. The dhow yards nearby are still building wooden hulls by hand.
In Umm Al Quwain the story is older. Excavations on Al Sinniyah Island have uncovered a long-lived pearling settlement and one of the oldest Christian monasteries known in the Gulf — a reminder that this coast was cosmopolitan centuries before the airports.