Ski Dubai

Skiing in the desert? Puh-leeze! Where else but in Dubai? The city’s most incongruous attraction, Ski Dubai is a faux winter wonderland built right into the gargantuan Mall of the Emirates. It comes complete with ice sculptures, a tiny sledding hill, five ski runs (the longest being 400m) and a Freestyle Zone with jumps and rails. Gulf Arabs especially are fascinated by this snowy display, but they typically restrict themselves to the walk-through Snow Park, passing through a colour-lit igloo filled with carved-ice penguins and dragons, then sledding down a little hill in plastic toboggans. Skiers and boarders are kept separate from the Snow Park and instead whiz down a forking slope – one side for beginners, one for intermediates. The 60m (196ft) vertical drop is an ant hill when compared with a real ski mountain, but if you’ve never skied or boarded before, it’s a good place to learn the basics. Advanced skiers quickly weary of the too-short runs (think 30 seconds at a good clip) but generally everybody is pleasantly surprised by the velvety snow. Conditions are ideal: at night, the interior is chilled to -8°C, and snow guns blow feather-light powder. During opening hours it warms to a perfect -1°C. Though weekends are more crowded, Ski Dubai operates a faster-moving secondary lift, a rope tow, that significantly shortens the ride uphill, giving you more runs per hour than you can get riding the chair. Pretty much everything, including socks and skis are provided, although gloves and hats are not (for hygiene reasons). Bring your own or buy some in the adjoining ski shop; gloves start at around Dh10, hats at Dh30. If you bring your own equipment and/or clothing you’ll get a 5% discount on each.