If you are tired of Dubai traffic, malls, shopping, movies, beach and crowd, and want to get away from all, then perhaps you should head out to Jabel Hafeet in Al Ain.
Jabel Hafeet is a small mountain around 2-hours drive from Dubai. The mountain is famous because it is covered with green. There is grass and other plantation on and around the mountain which makes it a big deal in the middle of the desert. So when you reach Jebel Hafeet you have an option to stay down at the base of the mountain and fire up BBQ, or devour the food you brought with you. There aren’t any decent food places there so you either have to bring your own food or cook your own food there or grill your own BBQ.
A track of road goes on top of the hill. It gets pretty cold on top specially during the nights. But the view of Al Ain city from the top is worth the trip. Plus driving through wavy road is an adventure in itself.
The view of mountain from the base camp might not look so good during the day, but because of lighting at nights it becomes pretty impressive.
Jabel Hafeet is recommended if you want a different kind of experience out of Dubai. But if you are satisfied with whatever Dubai has to offer then don’t bother stepping out.
The mountain is not famous because it is green. The whole greening you see is man-made, it didn’t exist 5 years ago. The mountain is famous because it is the highest mountain in the UAE & also because they had built a road all the way to the top
Dubai Guy » oh well… i didnt know that. but whenever someone mentioned jabel hafeet the first thing they would say is its a green mountain.
I don’t recall JAH being green – though Al Ain is the garden city of the UAE. And yes, UAE has so much to offer beyond Do-buy
Thanks for the pics, hope you get to see more.
If you want to see a natural green mountain in the middle-east, go to Jabal Al-Akhdar in Oman during December-March or Salalah near the Oman-Yemen Border during July-August.
Jebel Haffet is not the highest mountain in the UAE, it is actually next to Jabal Yibir.