East of the airport, established in the 1990s and one of the few residential areas that predate the 2000s building surge. Low-rise villas, good schools, City Centre Mirdif, wide streets, mostly Arab and South Asian families who arrived a long time ago and didn't need to move. It has a settled quality newer master-planned communities are still developing.

Not on the metro, not on the beach, not in any top-ten list. The Souk at Mirdif is a local shopping centre rather than a spectacle. It has genuine infrastructure in the non-glamorous sense: clinics, hardware shops, parks where children play. One of the most normal-feeling parts of the city.