Ignore the overhyped bling of Dubai's five star hotels and choking traffic and head out instead for an overnight safari in the spectacular rolling red dunes half an hour south of the city.
My wife organised a birthday convoy of 4x4s, hotdogging over yardangs and zeugans accompanied by the screams of fear (or delight) as we flew over crescents of mountainous ochre sanddunes.
An evening camp in a natural bowl, smoking perfumed shisha and eating a birthday dish of barbecued quail was topped by an undamaged and proudly presented black forest gateaux served under the gaze of a herd of wild camels sihouetted against an endless silent starlit sky.
You get a comfy mattress in your tent, the chance to pee in the sand under Ursa Major and fresh, unbroken eggs for breakfast transported carefully by gentle Palestinian drivers.
And to witness a spectacular desert sunrise on the morning after your birthday is enough to make anyone feel alive.

www.arabian-adventures.com
+971 4 343 9966 / 303 4888
1st Floor, Emirates Holidays Building
Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
PO Box 7631
arabian.adventures@emirates.com
Google map: bit.ly/fU56XA

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After a literary day in Rye or searching vainly for Derek Jarman's garden in nearby Dungeness, you could do well and head inland to the magical smugglers haven of Romney Marsh. Nestled amid in the flat samphire and watercress fields is the 15th-century Woolpack Inn at Brookland.

Forget the inglenook fireplace and head straight for the garden, with enough room for boistrous kids and private hedged corners where you can share messy crab, roast duck and a crisp New Zealand white. Beery types can swoon over Shepherd Neame's Late Red or a patriotic pint of Spitfire in Battle of Britain country.

This leafy, winding pub garden in this strangely mystical part of Kent only gets better as your third Spitfire of the day hits the target. To quote Douglas Bader: "I then realized my appearance was a bit odd. My right leg was no longer with me."

Beacon Lane, Brookland, Romney Marsh, Kent, TN29 9TJ.
08721 077 077
Google map: tinyurl.com/33p9f29
www.thewoolpackbrookland.co.uk/

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