The perfect evening?

The new Arabian Adventures tour has a lofty name – but is there a grain of truth in its ‘perfect’ claim?

You waft the yardstick of quality courageously high when you self proclaim a product to be ‘The Perfect Evening’. Especially in Dubai, where there’s no shortage of competition from other evenings with six-star dining, cinematic backdrops and 24 karat opulence. But when it’s a desert experience coming from a source as credible as Arabian Adventures – one of the UAE’s most experienced dunesummiting safari providers – it’s worth taking seriously. Which is why we felt compelled to off-road test the experience and investigate just how perfect it is.

YOUR CARRIAGE AWAITS

This may be a sophisticated soiree but the journey tackles some frontier geography, and on that basis, we need ‘a petrol camel’ as our charismatic guide Faisal suggests, opening the doors of the cherry red Jeep Wrangler, allowing us to gracelessly clamber in.

On the journey towards the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR) – a private gated expanse of sand and shrub that occupies just shy of 5 per cent of the total land area of Dubai – Faisal shares pearls of local wisdom strung together over a long career of intrepid questing.

SAND, SAFARI, AND SUNDOWNERS