Palm Jumeirah, for a week by the water

How the Palm is laid out

The Palm has three parts. The trunk runs out from the coast, with towers, hotels and Nakheel Mall. Sixteen fronds, lettered A to P, branch off it; each is one street of villas with the sea at the end of every garden. The crescent wraps round the outside as a breakwater, with the large hotels along it.

Most of our Palm homes are villas on the fronds. A frond is a cul-de-sac with a gate, so there is no through traffic, and children can ride a bike to the end and back. The trade is distance: from the far end of a frond it is a drive to anything, even a coffee.

Apartments on the trunk are the other way round. You walk to the mall, the monorail and the beach clubs, and you look at the frond villas rather than live in one.

Which side of the frond

Every frond has two sides, and they do not get the same day. One side has the sun over the water in the afternoon and the sunset from the pool. The other has the morning light and shade by four o'clock, which some families prefer in May and October.

We write down which side each home is on when we visit it, and we tell you before you choose.

Where we would go

All of these are a short drive from our frond homes, and most are a walk from the trunk.

• The PointeAt the tip, facing Atlantis. Dinner by the fountain
• Nakheel MallOn the trunk. Groceries, a cinema, lunch
• The boardwalkInside the crescent, best before 9am
• The monorailTrunk to Atlantis, a good first ride for children
• Your frond's beachPrivate to the villas, calm and shallow

Next in the journal

Downtown and DIFC, on foot. The fountain, the Opera and Gate Village. Two districts that work best on foot, and how to see the Burj Khalifa at the right hour.