If you spend a few days in Dubai or the United Arab Emirates, a typical excursion is to go to dinner in the Desert. Watch the sunset and enjoy a night with a show included. The tour to the Desert also usually includes being wobbled down the dunes. Mostly Peoples Riding Cycles which is good for their health but there is trouble for searching Cycle shop.
If we consider that the country is mostly Desert, it makes an excursion of this style practically obligatory; indeed, it is still a tourist trip, but well, in the end, that is what we are doing.
EXCURSION TO THE DUBAI DESERT, DUNES AND DINNER
It was my first time in the Desert, at least in an official desert, and I don’t count the dunes of places like Huelva or Cádiz. Many companies offer the same thing at a similar price; in our case, we got an offer from Groupon, which worked out very well for us. We also didn’t go for the most luxurious option to do the excursion to the Desert; let’s say there are options for all pockets, and we wanted to live an essential experience.
The Dubai desert excursion consists of taking you to the Desert, doing a 4×4 route through the dunes as if it were a roller coaster and then a dinner in a camp with a show.
They can pick you up in a 4×4 at your address or go to a meeting point and take you by bus – at least, in our case, it was like that -. Most companies where you hire the excursion to meet at the same meeting point on the highway are already in the Desert. Practically all the companies do the same because there were cars with different logos; perhaps the price difference is because they include something more in the activity or more or less luxury in the transport. But then, at dinner, there were a lot of mixed groups.
Dunes and sand in the Dubai desert
With the GPS, I tried to see more or less the place where they took us to see the Desert. I have marked it on the map, in reality, it would no longer be Dubai, but another Emirate called Sarja. Let’s say we are more or less at the limit.
DO YOU WANT TO RIDE A DUNE ROLLER COASTER IN DUBAI?
At the meeting point in the Desert, they prepare the 4×4, depressurise the tires and take turns going out into the dunes, going out like crazy!
In our case, we were seven people in the 4×4, and almost without accommodating you, the driver put the music on full blast to the rhythm of ” Cheap Thrills” by Sia ft Sean Paul and shot off.
In less than 10 seconds, you find yourself tumbling through the dunes, dune up and down, wondering if I’ll be the one to say “stop please” because of your dizziness.
Luckily the 4×4 has bars to grab you up to the roof! The truth is fun; it’s fantastic to think about the dunes you’ve been going down.
The road is very controlled, and there are always several cars in case someone gets stuck in the sand; even though it gives you the feeling that they are entering the Desert, they actually have a completely closed route, and in the distance, it is not far from the highway or the camp, the only thing is that they go around in circles and I at least lost my orientation completely.
And we arrived at the camp where we would have dinner.
I have to admit that when I got out of the 4×4, I couldn’t even walk, and I looked at my other companions, and some others were the same.
It wasn’t dizziness; it was something else. He only thought that they would not make us a route like that again for the return.
A MAGICAL SUNSET IN DUBAI
Once you have finished your route between dunes, they leave you some time to see the Desert, fill yourself with sand and watch the beautiful sunset. All this is near the camp where the rest of the cars gradually arrive to start the dinner and the show.
You can also do activities in the camp, such as painting yourself with henna, dressing up as a Berber, or riding a quad or camel.
All those things are paid separately, and it is a bargain.
In our case, we took a camel ride. Almost before I knew it, she was already on the camel. They are very insistent.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get on a camel again. On the one hand, they gave me a lot of pain, it is true that they were well cared for and had a lot of space, but the one behind them did not stop growling at us – luckily, they covered their mouths, but for sure they bit us – on the other hand, and worse, it was the descent of the camel, how abrupt! So holding on with all my might to keep from falling headfirst! Possibly it was our camel because others who we saw go down did it more smoothly.
What to do in the Dubai desert
They have everything very organised for tourism, have I already said it is a tourist? Yes, it is, but it falls within one of those essential activities in the Dubai desert.
The camp is very themed. There are some shops around; women can get a henna tattoo, you can take photos, there is a souvenir shop etc.
DINNER AND SHOW IN THE DUBAI DESERT
The pack includes dinner + show. The show was not bad, but for me, the only ones worth it were the dervishes that turned and turned on themselves for minutes; what control! And leave you amazed. Dinner was fine.
Something curious is that they separate men and women in different queues to get the food from the buffet, even though you sit down together afterwards. The food was rice, salads, pasta and barbecue (a couple of skewers and chicken), all with an Arabic touch.
There were plenty of water bottles, and soft drinks could also be ordered.
For a while, they also sold alcoholic beverages.
By the way, you eat dinner sitting on the floor, and they put some rugs and cushions on which it’s hard to get into position at first, but then you’re more or less acceptable.
When the show ends, the same driver looks for you to take you back to Dubai. The total duration of the excursion is about 6 hours, but practically 2 hours were spent in traffic to get out of Dubai. The city’s traffic is incredible, and you can tell that gasoline is cheap!
IS IT WORTH THE EXCURSION TO THE DUBAI DESERT?
As I said, it is the typical excursion made from Dubai, and as an activity, it is okay.
It is nice to see the Desert, especially at sunset, with the dunes and the 4×4, and then you have a topic of conversation for a while.
The dinner in the camp is something you may not repeat for a long time – although it is not of high quality, the truth is that it is acceptable and even fun to make a dinner of that style.
At first, I didn’t bet much on the excursion to the Dubai desert, but I have to say that we all ended up having a good time, and the opinions were generally positive; we were all pleasantly surprised.
Indeed there are more luxurious and unique options, but this option that we did in terms of value for money was alright. The Desert can be considered an essential activity if you visit the United Arab Emirates for more than one day.