We love using Get Your Guide while we travel to book tours and day trips. We used it to visit places we couldn’t get to via public transport, or to book experiences we really wanted to do. When looking at what to book, we relied solely on the reviews, both the amount of them but also what they said. We only booked something with lots of reviews and a high star rating, and because of this we never felt like we picked something bad.
One of our favourite Get Your Guide activities was while we were in Dubai. We really wanted to go into the desert and get a bit more of a traditional experience in the UAE. After some research, we booked the Dubai: Desert Safari, Camel Ride, Show & Optional Dinner tour. We chose this one as it had all the elements we wanted and had lots of wonderful reviews. Because we relied so strongly on reviews to pick this tour, we decided to write this more in depth review. Hopefully it helps you get a clear idea on exactly what’s included to help make the most informed decision when picking your tours!
There are a few different options that you can choose from, including 4-hour or 7-hour tours. You can also choose between a private tour or one where you will be placed with other people. We picked the “7-Hour Red Dune Safari, BBQ Dinner, Camel & Traditional Show” option. This is what we’ll mostly be talking about in this review.
In this post:
Tour Overview
This tour begins with a hotel pick up in a 4×4 as long as you’re staying in a Dubai Central Location. From our experience, the number of people in each group is quite small. However, there will be many tour groups that head to the same dinner location.
Once they’ve picked everyone up they will drive 45 minutes out into the Arabian Desert. From here, they’ll stop at a quad biking place where you can pay for some optional quad biking. They stop for about 30-45 minutes and if you choose not to do it you can sit and watch everyone biking instead. After that, you’ll get back in the 4×4 vehicle and do some dune bashing with your experienced driver. You’ll then get to go sandboarding and take photos in the desert as the sun sets.
After you’ll head to a traditional Arabian setting in the desert for dinner and a show. Soon after arriving you’ll get your pick at a full buffet dinner, including delicious meats, veggies, noodles and rice. For dessert, we had fruit, rice pudding and endless Luqaimat, a little Arabic sweet which is a doughnut ball covered in a sugar syrup. During dinner, you’ll watch performers belly dancing and fire twirling. You’ll also get the chance to get Henna tattoos, ride a camel and smoke a shisha water pipe if you’d like to. You get a decent amount of time here to enjoy it all, before the hotel drop off at the end of the night.
Cost and What’s Included
As mentioned before, there are different options to choose from for the Dubai Desert Safari tour:
- 4-Hour Shared Morning/Evening Desert Safari Without Dinner. Pick up for this option can be 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, 2pm, 3pm and 3:30pm. It costs between 118 AED to 147 AED depending on the season you visit. This tour includes pick up and drop off from your hotel, the 4×4 dune bashing, sandboarding and camel riding. However it doesn’t include the desert dinner and show. There is also a private tour option for this that costs between 839 and 1049 AED depending on the season.
- 7-Hour Red Dune Safari, BBQ Dinner, Camel & Traditional Show. This is the option we chose. You can either be picked up at 2pm, 3pm or 3:30pm and it costs between 202 to 253 AED depending on the season. This includes everything described above in the trip overview section. There is also a private tour option for this that costs between 774 and 968 AED depending on the season.
- Lastly there is a private option for the 7-Hour Red Dune Safari, BBQ Dinner, Camel & Traditional Show which includes a VIP service too. This costs between 905 and 1131 AED depending on the season.
Highlights – Our Favourite Parts
One of the things we loved was getting to go into the desert and just see and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The endless sandy view was something we hadn’t seen before, and getting to take photos and enjoy the sunset over the sand was amazing. The sunset over the sand was like nothing else we’ve seen before! We also really enjoyed the dune bashing and the sand boarding as both were super fun.
The dinner was really great, it had enough delicious food even for us who are pretty picky eaters. The performers were very entertaining, and the area was a really nice place to spend a couple of hours. The whole Dubai Desert Safari tour felt really well organised and timed and we loved that it picked us up and dropped us off at our hotel too.
Lowlights – What We Didn’t Like
The main thing that confused us about this tour was the stop for the optional quad biking. This was not mentioned anywhere in the tour description and so wasn’t factored in to our budget. As we decided not to do it, we just sat and watched everyone else do it for a while so it wasn’t terrible but just kind of odd.
Secondly while the dinner and shows were really fun, it did all feel a bit commercialised, however that’s to be expected after we picked a popular touristy tour. Then lastly it’s important to note that if you get any motion sickness, the 4×4 dune bashing might not be the best for you and it’s super bumpy and rocky.
Would We Recommend It?
Overall, we would absolutely recommend this Dubai Desert Safari tour (specifically the 7 hour option). We still talk about it as being one of the most fun tours we did on our trip. Getting to go out into the Arabian desert was such a cool experience and we thought the dune bashing and sand boarding were so fun. We also got some great photos that we took ourselves and also some that our guide helped us take.
While the dinner spot wasn’t the most traditional and was quite touristy, we still felt like we got a taste of what a traditional Arabian dinner was like. We thought the whole night was fun, and definitely a positive experience. If you’re after an easy way to see the desert, get some new experiences and have a fun evening in Dubai, we really recommend this tour.
Ready to book your Dubai Desert Safari Experience?
To see our experience on the tour (along with the rest of our time in the UAE), check out our vlog: