Dubai sells you the skyline. The desert sells itself.
Which safari actually stops at a proper camp. What the Burj Khalifa costs once you add level 148. Whether Abu Dhabi is a day trip or somewhere you stay. Reviews of every tour you can book in the UAE.
A dune, a lift to the 124th floor, a deck off the Marina, an abra across the Creek.
The four bookings a first trip to the Emirates tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The desert afternoonDesert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma CampDune bashing out at Lahbab, a quad, a camel and dinner at the camp. The half-day almost everyone books first.
02The lift upBurj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + OptionsTimed entry to floors 124 and 125. Take a slot an hour before sunset and you get the city twice, lit and unlit.
03Two hours on deckLuxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ OptionOut past the Palm and the Burj Al Arab with breakfast or a barbecue on board. The cheapest way onto the water here.
04The old townOld Town, Creek, Museums, Souks, & Street Food TourGold and spice souks on the Deira bank, an abra across the Creek for a dirham, and enough street food to skip dinner.
Every Emirates trip has one desert afternoon in it. The choice is which kind.
The red dunes start about an hour inland from Dubai. You can take them at dawn before the heat arrives, at golden hour with dinner at a camp afterwards, or stay the night out there. Three ways to spend it, and what each costs to board.
What the Emirates books when there is only one free day.
Every UAE tour review →These carry more travellers than anything else in the country. What each one costs, and what earns it the slot.
1
Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + Options
This 1.5-hour Burj Khalifa visit takes you by high-speed elevator to Levels 124 and 125, with 360-degree views, an open-air terrace, telescopes, and displays about the building’s engineering. You can add a café treat, souvenir, or Dubai Aquarium entry. Sunrise and early morning slots usually mean less waiting.
From · $43
Read our review →
2
Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
from $32
3
Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride and Sandboarding
from $29
4
Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride, and Buffet Dinner
from $46
5
Red Dune Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride, BBQ Dinner
from $29
6
Premium Safari, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp 3-Buffets
from $79
7
Burj Khalifa Sky Level 148, 124, & 125 Entry Ticket
from $122
8
The View At The Palm Observatory Entry Ticket
from $29
What a day here costs, from the abra fare to the helicopter.
Every tour here, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best days in the country come in under the price of a hotel breakfast.
Souk walks, the abra, ticketed viewing floors and the short runs out to the dunes.
The full days: premium safaris with a camp dinner, Abu Dhabi by road, the yacht afternoons.
Helicopters over the Palm, a driver for the whole day, and the charter boats.
The Gulf is twenty minutes from wherever you end up staying.
Marina yachts with breakfast served on deck, a wooden dhow down the Creek with dinner, jet skis that run the line of the Burj Al Arab and back. Most of it leaves within half an hour of the hotel, and almost all of it costs less than the desert.
Dubai: buy the view for sunset, walk the Creek in the morning.
Everything in Dubai →
The tower, the frame, the deck out on the Palm, and the old town sitting underneath all of it. These three move more people than anything else in the city.
Floors 124 and 125, or pay up for 148
The standard ticket puts you on 124 and 125, which is the view everybody photographs. Level 148 adds a lounge, a shorter queue and roughly three times the price. Sunset slots go first either way.
The Dubai Frame, old city on one side
A gilded picture frame 150 metres up, with old Dubai out of one face and the towers out of the other. The glass panel set into the floor is the part people come back talking about.
Souks, the Creek, and an abra for a dirham
Gold and spice on the Deira bank, a wooden abra across the water for about a dirham, and enough to eat on the Bur Dubai side to write off lunch entirely.
An Emirates summer splits the day in two, and the middle belongs indoors.
Forty-five degrees at two in the afternoon is not a figure of speech here. The desert runs move to dawn or dusk, the boats go out early, and the hours in between are for aquariums, a ski slope inside a shopping centre, and water parks. Plan it that way and the heat stops deciding things for you.
Four Emirates bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged from the hotel lobby that morning. These four run on timed slots, prayer times and a fixed manifest, and they do sell out.
- 01Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + OptionsEntry is timed and capped, and the sunset slots on 124 go weeks ahead. Turn up on the day and it is a late-evening ticket or nothing.
- 02Dubai To Abu Dhabi: Grand Mosque, Royal Palace & Etihad TowersThe Grand Mosque closes to visitors on Friday mornings and enforces a dress code at the door. The runs from Dubai leave once, early.
- 03Luxury Hot Air Balloon, Land Rover Defender & Michelin BreakfastBalloons lift at first light and only when the wind allows it. There is one slot a day, and a bad morning cancels it rather than moving it.
- 04Museum of the Future Admission TicketHalf-hour entry slots with a hard cap. It is the one ticket in Dubai that routinely shows nothing available for days at a time.
Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and the Hajar mountains are all a morning away.
The Grand Mosque and the Louvre sit ninety minutes down the E11, and most people do them from Dubai in a day. North of the city the coast runs into Ras Al Khaimah, where the country finds its only real mountains and strings the longest zipline in the world across Jebel Jais.
Every trip beyond Dubai →
By kind of day - sand, water, tower or road
The most recent Emirates tour reviews.
Straight to the newest ones →
Dubai Souks, Museum Guided Tour with Boat Ride and Food Tastings
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Mleiha Dubai Desert Safari with Stargazing and Dinner
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Private Dubai City Tour: Explore the City’s Top Attractions
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From Dubai to Fujairah: Full Day Tour with Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
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Self-drive Quad Bike with Sand Boarding and Camel Ride in Dubai
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Desert Safari Dubai 30 Mins Quad Bike, Sand Board, Camel Ride BBQ
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Dubai ATV Quadbike Desert Safari with Camel Ride Sand Boarding
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Self Drive boat tour Dubai : JBR, Atlantis and Burj Al Arab
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Dubai Royal Camel Race with Prime Seats & Short Camel Ride
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