Quiet by day, 2nd December St turns into one of Dubai’s liveliest walking strips after dark with plenty of fine pickings for street-food aficionados. Steer towards Al Mallah for shawarma, the Noodle Bowl for noodles or just follow your instinct – or nose – to any of the little joints with blazing neon signage lining the wide pavement. Also turn your head up to marvel at the house-sized murals created by artists in 2016 as part of the Dubai Street Museum project.

Called Al Diyafah until 2011, the street's current name references the date the UAE was founded in 1971 at the nearby Union House, now part of the Etihad Museum.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Dubai attractions

1. Dubai Street Museum

0.1 MILES

In 2016, 16 local and international street artists, including Hua Tunan, Ashwaq Abdulla and Inkman, mounted their cherry-pickers to turn the rather drab…

2. Etihad Museum

0.56 MILES

Opened in 2017, this striking modern museum engagingly chronicles the birth of the UAE in 1971, spurred by the discovery of oil in the 1950s and the…

3. Jumeirah Mosque

0.77 MILES

Snowy white and intricately detailed, Jumeirah is Dubai's most beautiful mosque and one of only a handful in the UAE that are open to non-Muslims – one…

4. Pro Art Gallery

0.81 MILES

This gallery seeks to make art accessible (even to collectors without seriously deep pockets) and as such sells limited edition prints alongside original…

5. World Trade Centre

0.95 MILES

Compared to its cloud-touching cousins, the 149m-high World Trade Centre seems small today, but when completed in 1979 was actually Dubai's first…

6. Zabeel Park

1.17 MILES

This sprawling park, where lots of palms and other greenery provide plenty of shade, is a weekend family favourite. It brims with activity zones,…

7. La Mer

1.29 MILES

With shops, restaurants, a waterpark, a beachfront with hammocks and a huge playpark, La Mer is Dubai’s newest beachfront destination. Opened in 2018 …

8. Emirates Towers

1.35 MILES

Although neither the tallest nor the newest skyscrapers in Dubai, the twin, triangular towers coated with silver-coated aluminium panels and topped with…