When to fly
to Dubai

Dubai has effectively two seasons rather than four. From November to March the days are warm and the evenings are pleasant, which is when the city is at its best outdoors. From June to September the heat is the single fact that shapes every day of the trip.

The sea is warm year-round and never really cools. In the height of summer it can feel closer to a bath than a swim, which is why hotel pools are usually chilled.

Rain is rare and brief, mostly between December and March. When it does fall, roads flood quickly because the city is not built to drain much water, and traffic slows considerably.

Even in winter the midday sun is strong. The pattern that works all year is the same: outdoors in the morning, indoors or by the pool in the early afternoon, then outdoors again towards evening.

In summer that pattern stops being advice and becomes necessary. Walking between attractions in the middle of a July afternoon is genuinely unpleasant, and for children and older travellers it is worth avoiding entirely.