UAE summers > winter almost everywhere else…

A large part of the way you experience life, along with the meaning and enjoyment you extract from it, comes down to perspective. Take this as a reminder that you can actively choose the lens through which you encounter events and emotions, you can always make a conscious decision to choose love, light, positivity or tacos. You might feel that this is all a little too deep and unnecessarily preachy for what is supposed to be a lighthearted look at the reasons why this time of year really isn’t so bad. But that’s a choice, and we defend your right to make it. And so, with our rose-tinted sunnies firmly on, we’re going to wax whimsical about…

What we miss most about the Dubai summer

The empty roads

With morning school runs stemmed to a trickle, a significant chunk of the country’s workforce on summer holidays, and fewer than usual mass-attended events – Dubai’s road network can be cheerily quiet over the summer months. Even the dreaded Dubai-Sharjah, Abu Dhabi-Dubai rush hours are given a stopwatch reprieve, and you genuinely can get pretty much anywhere in the city within that oft-quoted journey time of 30 minutes. Google Maps is light on those triggering red lines, vehicle pollution rates are cut, and parking becomes much less of a combat sport.

Mosquito nett

If you’re one of those people reading this and thinking “but there aren’t any mosquitos in the UAE” how does it feel to be the universe’s favourite? Because there are mosquitos, there quite demonstrably are and that will likely be confirmed by the poor soul standing next to you with a plague-aesthetic carpet of itchy bumps on their arms and ankles. But the summer temperatures seem to force them into aestivation (the summer version of hibernation, the more you know…), or maybe they fly north for the season to go and bug their European neighbours. And it’s not just mozzies that buzz off, the same can be said for the country’s other flying (still admittedly less numerous than most other warm-climate regions) mini-beasts. All hail the no-fly zone.

The quick dry effect

Four words, one hyphen. Temperature-controlled outdoor pools. Whether you’re chilling in the shallows with a good book; propped up against the swim-up bar of some bougie resort; or gently drifting along the weaving rapids of a waterpark’s lazy river – there are few summer leisure pleasures quite as exquisite, as those found in the cool of the pool. The added bonus of peak dip season, is the speed at which you dry off after exiting the pool, especially on low humidity days, the atmospheric conditions behave in much the same way as one of those Dyson AirBlade hand dryers.

Inbox relief

As with highways, so with the Information Super Highway. That’s what they used to call the internet right? And just so we’re clear, we’re not talking about the whole internet – although, those scary summer engagement figures… Amirite marketing managers? We’re speaking specifically about the blissful drop in the number of emails landing in our inbox in the hope of finding us well. Or otherwise. The summer holidays don’t provide quite the same operational blackout as they might have in the past, but we definitely still notice a significant wind-down in meeting invites, Teams notifications, and hyperbolic press releases.

Summer staycay deals

You know when you hit the supermarkets just before they close, and you walk around picking up all those wild discounts? 12kg of sweetcorn for Dhs20? Don’t mind if I do. Well it appears to be the same pricing model that the UAE hotels base their summer deals on. You can pick up some scandalously good rates on international class, five-star, leisure palaces and all within an easily commutable distance.

The joy of AC

Wait. Hear me out. That moment you hit the AC’s invisible breeze after being out in the big scorch, is the most rapturous sort of joy. The flood of dopamine, the prickle of glistening sweat, the choir of saintly voices soaring in your frontal lobe. Light can only exist with the express blessing of dark.

Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS)

The annual retail and entertainment festival where the city goes full Oprah Winfrey – you get a sale, you get a discount, you get some prizes, everybody gets a car (not legally binding, please see terms and conditions for full giveaway details). This year DSS began putting smiles on faces on June 28, and the big finalé is due to take place on September 3. Dubai-wide sales have seen outlets offering up to 90 per cent off every conceivable item from fresh sneakers to stereo speakers; there have been shop-and-win promotions where cards charged with Dhs10,000 worth of spending have been given away every day; the return of Modhesh World and the bingeable bargains of Restaurant Week; kids go free promotions; and concerts from international recording artists (@Davido). DSS really has been our favourite summer fling.

Images: Getty/Unsplash