I felt really happy to have a deeper view to the Northern and East parts of the United Arab Emirates during my February 2022 trip. One of the places I visited was the al Aquah Heritage Village & Car Museum, which is located right at the main East Coast road.
Al Aqah Heritage Village – Location & Admission
The museum is located at the Rugaylat Rd in Northern Fujairah, which is also known as the E99 road. The area is growing as a touristic place – there are five rather posh hotels right across the road. Thus, there are also some restaurants along the four lane road. There is a sufficient amount of parking lots around.
According to my information, the museum is opening daily from 9:00 to 21:00 hrs. As there is some walking outside of buildings required,you might want to avoid high temperature times. Adult admission for all buildings / exhibition is 20 AED, roughly 5 Euro.
Al Aqah Heritage Village – Site & General Museums
The museum is put into a place, which is having the structure of a historic / heritage village. This is really done in a beautiful way. Apart from the car exhibits, any building is coming with a different focus. According to the route suggested, the first building is featuring historic tools and household items as well as historic versions of the Quran. It is definitely nicely presented, but my guess is that the historic value of the items in displays is limited.
The next building featured coins and banknotes. I liked this part of the exhibition, but again, it was rather due to having some emotional bonds to the countries issuing than that you run into rarities. In that regard, coins and notes of the former (non-united) emirates was the part of this building I felt to be most interesting.
Al Aqah Heritage Village – Car Exhibition
The cars displayed in the museum are a bit more spread over the place. First of all, there are some vehicles displayed outdoors. Some of the cars are really quite entertaining and I liked to stroll around and explore the cars.
The largest building, located on top of the mountain, hosts the key part of the car collection. There are some really nice cars, which give a nice overview. Unfortunately, the U.A.E. hosts museums like the Sharjah Classic Car Museum or the Emirates National Auto Museum. Even if you put a lot of effort into your own collection, you likely cannot beat them.
Al Aqah Heritage Village – Services
The staff was helpful. However, you felt that they were proud and enthusiastic about their work, but not about the exhibition as such. The car exhibition building has the potential to serve as a cafe or to host smaller events. Neither was active during my visit.
Al Aqah Heritage Village – My View
Rating the Al Aqah Heritage Village & Car Museum is a tough one to me. On the one hand, it is really a nice made-up locations. On the other hand, the items in display feels to be rather ordinary. There are some highlights, though. Definitely not tourist scam or similar, but neither a must-visit as well.
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