Dubai at night

When the sun sets in Dubai, you’re unlikely to find people rushing home to heat up their microwave dinner in time for Desperate Housewives. Instead, this work-hard, play-hard city erupts into activity, with residents gathering to make the most of their free time.

Last year, Time Out stayed up from dusk ’til dawn to see what we could discover at night. We came across secret shisha cafés, pavements lined with workers, and rowers that get up at silly o’clock to practise. Since then, Dubai’s population has increased by seven per cent, so we’ve taken to the night-time streets again to see if Dubai’s nocturnal happenings have evolved too. Here are the activities, routines and cool new hangouts we found during our graveyard shift…