Book the desert first. The skyline fits around it.
Which desert camp feeds you properly. What the Burj Khalifa costs at sunset rather than mid-afternoon. Whether Abu Dhabi works as a day trip. Reviews of every tour you can book across the Emirates.
The dunes, the tower, the mosque, the marina, the creek.
Five bookings a first week in the Emirates gets built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The evening out of townDesert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma CampDune bashing at golden hour, then a camp with a fire, a falcon and dinner under the stars. Take it on your first full day, not your last.
02Day one, late afternoonBurj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + OptionsLevels 124 and 125 of the Burj Khalifa. Late-afternoon entry costs less than the sunset slot and you still see the switch to lights.
03A morning on the GulfDubai Marina: Luxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ OptionA yacht out of Dubai Marina, past the Burj Al Arab and around the Palm. Two hours, breakfast on deck, the skyline from its one flattering angle.
04The day down the E11Dubai To Abu Dhabi: Grand Mosque, Royal Palace & Etihad TowersSheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Qasr Al Watan palace and the Corniche. Ninety minutes each way, and cover for the mosque is handed out at the gate.
05The one that beats the mallsOld Town, Souks, Street Food, Guided Tour & Abra RideSpice halls, the gold souk, an abra across the creek and enough street food to cancel lunch. Three hours, and the best value on the site.
Evening, sunrise or a night in the camp. The desert day divides three ways.
Everything else here competes with air conditioning. The dunes do not, and the only real decision is what time you drive out into them.
Dubai: the tower late, the creek early, the water in between.
Everything in Dubai →
The city reads as glass and traffic until you cross the creek on an abra for a dirham and find the spice halls still trading. Take the old town in the morning, the tower at the end of the afternoon, and put the water wherever the wind allows.
Level 124, or the 148 lounge
The standard ticket puts you on 124 and 125. Level 148 adds a lounge, a private outdoor deck and roughly triple the price. Whichever you pick, the slot around sunset is the one that sells out.
Spice souk, gold souk, abra across the creek
Deira before the heat is still a working market rather than a photograph of one. Most of these walks finish with street food around Al Ras and the wooden boat back over the water.
Marina, Palm and Burj Al Arab by boat
A speedboat rounds the Burj Al Arab and the Palm inside ninety minutes. A yacht covers the same water more slowly, with breakfast on board, for about the same per head.
Seven emirates, one motorway, and the desert in the middle of all of it.
Dubai for the towers and the water under them, dunes an hour inland from anywhere, Abu Dhabi for the mosque and the museums, and an east coast most visitors never reach. Six places to start, and the best day out from each.
The days out more travellers take than anything else in the Emirates.
Every Emirates tour we have reviewed →One of each kind of day, so the grid is not eight versions of the same safari, and what each one earns its slot for.
1
Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + Options
Ride the world’s fastest elevator to Burj Khalifa Levels 124 and 125, then look across Dubai, the Arabian Gulf, and the desert from 585 metres up. You get an open-air terrace, telescopes, building exhibits, Wi-Fi, and optional café treats or souvenirs. Sunrise is quieter, while late afternoon adds sunset and city lights.
Cheapest · $43
Our verdict on this one →
2
Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
from $32
3
The View At The Palm Observatory Entry Ticket
from $29
4
Jetski to Burj Arab-Atlantis w Pic, Video & Icecream
5
Dubai Red Dunes ATV, Camels, Stargazing & 5* BBQ Al Khayma Camp
from $88
6
Dubai Marina: Luxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ Option
from $15
7
Old Town, Creek, Museums, Souks, & Street Food Tour
from $18
8
Dubai To Abu Dhabi: Grand Mosque, Royal Palace & Etihad Towers
from $90
The Gulf is the other half of a week in the Emirates.
Forty minutes of coast carries the whole skyline. Dhow dinners on the creek, yachts out of the marina, and jet skis that cut the engine under the Burj Al Arab for the photograph everybody comes home with.
- 1Dubai Marina Yacht Tour with Optional Breakfast or BBQfrom $25
- 2Sunset or Dinner Cruise with Live Music & Open Barfrom $51
- 390 Minutes Speedboat Tour: Marina, Atlantis, Palm & Burj Al Arabfrom $32
What an Emirates day out costs, band by band.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A useful number of the best days here come in under the fare from the airport.
Souk walks, creek boats, entry tickets and the shorter runs into the dunes.
The standard full days: a camp with dinner, Abu Dhabi and back, a yacht morning.
Helicopters over the Palm, balloons at first light, private camps and the once-a-trip bookings.
The creek was the entire city, and it still runs on wooden boats.
Before the towers there was a tidal inlet with the gold market on one bank, the spice market on the other and abras crossing between them all day. That trade is still underneath the tourism, and a morning walk through it costs less than lunch.
Every walk through old Dubai →
Three days out the Emirates has and nowhere else does.
Dunes and beach clubs run the length of the Gulf. A hunting falcon on your own glove, a ski slope inside a shopping mall and an island you can only read from the air do not.
A hunting falcon, on your glove
Falconry here is not a show bolted onto a safari, it is the reason the camps exist at all. The birds are hunting stock, handled by men who raised them, and a handler will put one on your glove and tell you what it is worth. Most camps run the flight at dusk, when the bird will actually work.
- 1High Red Dunes with Camel Ride, Sandboarding, Falcon Show and VIP BBQ Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,453 reviews
- 2Bedouin Camp, Dune Safari, Falcon Show & BBQ Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,186 reviews
- 3Dubai Red Dunes with Sandboarding, Camel Ride, Falcon & VIP Camp★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 965 reviews
A ski slope in a shopping mall
Ski Dubai holds a real snow slope at minus two inside the Mall of the Emirates, with a chairlift, a run long enough to matter and a colony of penguins at the bottom. Jacket and boots come with the pass. Nobody who goes in out of the July heat regrets the ticket.
- 12-Hour or Full-Day Slope Session at Ski Dubai★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,202 reviews
- 2Ski Dubai Snow Park Classic Pass★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 625 reviews
- 3Ski Dubai Snow Plus Pass★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 440 reviews
The Palm, read properly
Palm Jumeirah is only a shape from above. At street level it is a suburb with a monorail and a lot of hedges. Twelve minutes out of Atlantis gives you the fronds, the crescent and the World islands sitting half finished in the haze, which is the only way the scale of it lands.
- 1Sightseeing Helicopter Ride from The Palm★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,109 reviews
- 212-Min Helicopter Adventure Above The Palm★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,279 reviews
- 3Dubai Helicopter Experience with Sightseeing Options★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 713 reviews
Four Emirates bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this country can be arranged from a hotel lobby the same morning. These four run on timed entry, first light and an international border.
- 01Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + OptionsEntry runs on timed slots with a cap on each. The hour either side of sunset costs most and goes first, weeks ahead through the winter.
- 02Luxury Hot Air Balloon, Land Rover Defender & Michelin BreakfastBalloons fly at first light and only in the cooler months. A flight the wind cancels moves to another dawn, never to that afternoon.
- 03Full-Day Sea Safari to MusandamThe dhow days cross into Oman, so the border wants your passport and the boat leaves on its own timetable rather than yours.
- 04Dubai To Abu Dhabi: Grand Mosque, Royal Palace & Etihad TowersSheikh Zayed Grand Mosque closes to visitors on Friday mornings, and everyone needs modest cover to get past the gate.
When it is forty-five degrees and the pavement is not an option.
Summer does one thing to an Emirates day: it takes the outdoors away between ten and four. The answer is the same in every emirate. Go out at dawn, then spend the middle of the day somewhere cooled, wet or under a roof.
The mountains and the east coast sit two hours from the towers.
The Hajar range walls off the eastern side of the country, and behind it the Gulf of Oman is cold, green and full of turtles. Hatta keeps the wadis and the dam, Ras Al Khaimah has the highest road in the Emirates, Fujairah has the diving, and the Musandam dhows leave from further up the same coast.
- 1Hatta Mountain Adventure Tourfrom $125
- 2Snorkeling with turtles in Fujairah with Transfer & BBQ lunchfrom $139
- 3Jais Flight – World’s Longest Zipline Ticketfrom $88
Dubai, the dunes, Abu Dhabi, the mountains: the loop almost everybody does first.
Dubai
The Desert
Abu Dhabi
Hatta
Fujairah
Ras Al KhaimahBy emirate, and by the desert in the middle of them
By kind of day: dune, deck, tower or souk
Reviews that landed on the Emirates shelf this week.
Everything else we added lately →
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Dubai Frame Admission Ticket : Choose your Option
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Dubai Frame Tour with Tickets and Transfers
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Dubai Frame Tickets, Creek, Souks & Blue Mosque Guided Tour
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Fountain Show and Burj Lake Ride by Traditional Boat
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Dubai Fountain Show Boat Lake Ride Ticket
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Traditional Abra Ride and Dubai Fountain Show at Burj Lake
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Miracle Garden: Dubai Flora and Fauna 4-Hour Tour
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