DUBAI’S LITTLE SISTER
Ajman is the latest Emirate luring holidaymakers in search of winter sun and instant glitz
Given the emirati way of things, it was perhaps inevitable that the Ajman nature reserve would be next to a golf course.
We kayaked up a creek lined with thick mangrove forests, watching as hawks circled lazily in the bright sky, dipping our hands in the cool water when the paddling got too much. it’s tough work, kayaking.
But i forgot the strains and cramps when we rounded a corner and saw hundreds of baby-pink flamingos, bobbing gently on the surface.
Ajman might be another city built in the desert, but not all its surprises are man-made.
Still, eventually we came to a manicured green with a little flag fluttering in the breeze, incongruous amid the flora and fauna. in deference to environmentalist Greta Thunberg, we got out of the kayaks and planted some saplings.
Ask most people to list the emirates and they’ll give you the usual two: Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the U Ae’s rich, glitzy big sisters. i say most people — and i include me. Because i didn’t know there were seven.
Some might add Sharjah, Dubai’s dry next- door neighbour. The others are more of a mystery: Ras al- Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain. The last one even sounds as if you made it up.
The seventh, and smallest, is Ajman, a tiny city- state just beyond Sharjah, with a population of 540,000 and an area ten times smaller than Luxembourg. Although it is only half an hour’s drive from Dubai airport, for many locals it might as well be on the moon.
‘Why would you go there?’ asks one baffled Dubai resident, as if i had suggested to a diehard Londoner that i was going on holiday to Croydon. ‘ Ajman is just one of those places on the way to other places.’
That is an attitude Ajman is trying to change — and squinting up at the sun back at the hotel, with a gin and tonic by my side and the Gulf lapping gently in the background, i could see why.
Ajman may lack its ritzy neighbour’s skyscrapers and £100 brunches, but it is a far quieter, more relaxed and manageable destination: a collection of hotels, restaurants and shops spread lazily down a short stretch of coastline, which offers Dubai’s attractions at a fraction of the price.
You can see why it might seem remote to Dubai-ites used to getting around within a tenminute taxi ride, but for British tourists in search of winter sunshine under seven hours away, it is tantalisingly near.
i stayed at the Fairmont, a family-friendly hotel working with virgin Holidays. There is a large pool with a swim- up bar and a sheltered beach, as well as a spa, gym, several restaurants and a pub where you can undo all the good work you did in the gym.
The other guests were a mixture of Britons, europeans and the occasional Russian couple, tanning to deep hues of nut-brown. Unlike in Sharjah, alcohol is legal, which did not go unnoticed.
With Ajman’s growing appeal,