In our new series, Condé Nast Traveller Middle East will take you on a day trip to some of the UAE's loveliest corners….
The drive to Khor Fakkan, on Sharjah’s east coast, is one to savour – at least once you get off the frenetic E611. Connecting the urban sprawl of Sharjah city with its exclave on the Gulf of Oman, the Khor Fakkan Road traverses dunes, gravel desert and rocky mountains before swooping down to the sea, making it one of the most scenic roads in the country.
In summer, the golden dunes look like a crumpled duvet, all lumps, bumps and creases, but after the winter rains, they’re far less desiccated, covered in green scrub that provides a roaming buffet for wandering camels. Around Al Dhaid, the scenery changes from sand to gravel plains punctuated by flat-topped acacia trees. You could stop here to visit the fort or for a stroll through the oasis, but press on and the road climbs up into the Hajar Mountains. Many of the foothills have been quarried for stone, but past the turn-off for Fujairah and Masafi they become more beautiful, untouched by the diggers’ jaws with date palms peeping out of ravines. The stone changes colour from grey to green to brown, and little fluffy clouds start to appear in the sky as the road gets closer to the sea.
About an hour out of Dubai on the right-hand side of the road is the Shees Rest Area with a line-up of shops and cafes selling cheese and Chips Oman parottas, camping goods, beach balls and giant inflatable Spidermen. It’s also a good opportunity to visit the spotlessly clean bathrooms. Alternatively, keep going through the series of tunnels carved into the mountains until you reach Rafisah Dam on the left-hand side, a good spot for a break and a snack. For more serious sustenance, on the opposite side of the road is Najd Al Meqsar, a seven-room hotel opened last year in a collection of stone houses in a once-abandoned village. If you skipped breakfast before setting off, onsite Wishi restaurant is a good place to refuel with eggs Benedict topped with akawi cheese and tomato relish, and chebab pancakes with date syrup and Lotus Biscoff biscuits. On a clear day, you can see the sea from here, and it’s just a short drive down the winding mountain road to Khor Fakkan town.
While it may feel like a laidback, lowkey place these days – the antithesis of Dubai just 90 minutes away – Khor Fakkan was fought over by different powers in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the Portuguese, Persians and Omanis. The Portuguese captured Khor Fakkan in the early 1500s, adding it to a chain of territories along the Gulf of Oman coast used to control maritime trade, and the ruins of the fortress they built are still visible today. The Hisn Khor Fakkan Museum is a good starting point to gain a grounding in the town’s history, as is the neighbouring Old Souk, where you can wander through reproductions of old shops, from pearl traders to traditional local medicine and palm weaving in the air-conditioned section, and pick up marine supplies, tailored kanduras, and coffee pots in the shops outside. The neighbourhood is also home to a handful of cafes and restaurants, both charmingly retro and chic contemporary, as well as heritage buildings, some restored and others crumbling, revealing the coral stone bricks they were constructed from. Venture behind them and you’ll find small farms full of date palms, birdsong and cats snoozing in the sun.
A short walk away, Khor Fakkan Beach is a lovely long sweep of honey-coloured sand and palm trees and jogging and cycling tracks that wind through beds of fragrant basil and purple petunias. The waters here are calm, clear and inviting, and you can rent boats for a trip out past the town’s port to Shark Island for snorkelling and swimming with angelfish, damselfish and batfish, and potentially even turtles and black-tip reef sharks if you’re lucky.
There’s a strip of smart cafes along the beach, perfect for joining the Khor Fakkan locals to sip coffee and gaze at the sparkling sea. Skip the predictable Starbucks and Tim Hortons and instead head to Pentagon for a V60 and a brownie with tahini sauce or to Retro 7 for a Chemex and a crème brûlée. If lunch is in order, across the road the charmingly retro Rebou Lebanon serves excellent mezze, salads and grills in a little garden with water features, and a little further down the Corniche is Emirates Sea Restaurant, a good spot for grilled local hamour and seafood dishes infused with Indian flavours, like king prawn biryani and whole crab masala.
At the opposite end of the Corniche, behind the artificial waterfall that flows down a hillside next to the completely unexpected 1,700-square-metre Roman-inspired Khor Fakkan Amphitheatre, Habib Beirut is another spot for Lebanese flavours, with tables that peer out at views of the sea restaurant through the cascading water.
The hills surrounding Khor Fakkan offer good hiking, like the 5.3-kilometre Al Rabi Trail that zigzags its way up a fairly steep but easy to navigate path, rewarding walkers with views over the Gulf of Oman from the top. At the starting – or ending – point of the trail is The View by Wave, a favourite for its and Turkish eggs with creamy labneh, a good place to reward yourself post-hike with a hearty sandwich or cheesecake on the breezy bougainvillea-fringed terrace.
For more spectacular panoramas that require much less effort, head up to the Al Suhub Rest House, perched 600 metres up at the top of a mountain, looking like a UFO that has just touched down. Grab one of the outdoor tables at Fen Restaurant to soak it all in with a plate of oysters from Dibba Bay half an hour up the coast, a bowl of tom yum soup, and crispy dried local anchovies with sambal glaze and lime.
If you still have time left, there’s one more activity around Khor Fakkan that’s perfect for geography nerds. Without requiring a passport, it’s possible to travel from Sharjah in the UAE to Madha in Oman and on to Nahwa in the UAE, then back through Oman and into the UAE again, all in half an hour. This is the journey to the counter-enclave of Nahwa, effectively a country within a country within a country. The tiny village, officially part of Sharjah, is like the hole in the doughnut of Madha that surrounds it, officially part of Oman which itself is surrounded by Khor Fakkan, part of the UAE. Other than the geographical novelty of the trip, it’s a lovely drive through peaceful villages, mountain roads, wadis and farms, the perfect change of pace before heading back on the road to Dubai.
