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Desert safari in Dubai/UAE – tips and our experience
Desert safari in Dubai: which company to choose, what's included, staying overnight and dune bashing.
We went on a desert safari in the UAE in April 09, which included an overnight stay at a desert encampment. Here are some tips and highlights from our experience:
At around 3pm, we got picked up in Dubai by a driver in a sturdy four-wheel-drive, and headed north into the desert.
QUAD BIKE STOP
Our first stop was a tourist trap "farm" where you can hire a quad bike and go crazy on the dunes (15 minutes = AED150 [roughly £30/$45, at the time of writing]). We did, and it was great fun. Naturally, you have to sign a waiver before you start ("no insurance is included and you are liable for anything that happens to you"). There are the usual tourist tat shops and this is also where the drivers deflate their tyres a little to prepare for the dune bashing that comes next.
DESERT SAFARI - DUNE BASHING
If you aren't sure what the guides mean by desert safari, then this is the main part of it. The drivers from the various companies make a bee-line for the big Tatooine-style sand dunes, and then let loose their inner boy racer. The idea is to slide, leap, bash and surf the dunes in their four wheel drives until all their passengers get motion sickness and are ready to stop for a photo-opportunity. The experience is a bit like being on a roller-coaster without the safety features, and at an angle that looks like the car is going to roll-over. You are either an adrenaline junkie and love it, or you're not and you love the moment when it's over. This goes on for a while, with various stops, and then you head for camp.
ARABIAN ENCAMPMENT AND DINNER
We liked the camp. Just be aware that If you're expecting an authentic Arabian Nights experience this isn't it. In true Emirates fashion, the locals have delegated their cultural heritage to migrant workers, and so, even the hosts dressed in traditional dishdashas were more likely to speak better Urdu than Arabic. Our driver told us there were two main encampments serving the desert safari tourists: the one we went to (about 45 minutes out of Dubai) and one that's smaller and closer. The camp had the usual tourist amenities: take your picture on a camel or in traditional dress, have a henna tattoo, smoke the shisha, buy tat and get repeatedly approached by the man selling fake Rolexes and his friend who will absolutely write your name in sand in a bottle. Apart from the tat and alcohol at the bar, everything is free in the camp, and following the coffee and shisha, you get served a fairly sumptuous barbecue dinner, which is followed by a sword-wielding belly dancer show (about 20 minutes).
Overall, I would say there were about 200 visitors in the camp.
Once the show is over, the various tour groups depart, and within a short time, the whole place empties leaving only those who are on the overnight safari.
SHOULD I STAY OVERNIGHT AND SLEEP AT THE ENCAMPMENT?
Probably not. As everyone else left and only the three of us remained (along with camp staff who were busy clearing up the tables and preparing the encampment for the next day's tourist herd), we pondered the virtues of staying overnight. On reflection it was good that we were the only ones left. Apparently fifty people stayed on Saturday night, and I couldn't imagine they got much sleep, sharing the same tent space with young children and snoring adults. The idea is that you are given a sleeping bag and a space in a closed tent area, to sleep among the carpets and cushions. Despite the beautiful night sky outside, this isn't the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements. The generator noise stays constant all night, there are mosquitoes aplenty and the sleeping bags aren't the cleanest. You are awoken sometime between 6am and 7am and given a tray of breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausages, bread, jam, Lipton’s tea and instant coffee), and ushered out afterwards. We were then driven back to where we were staying in Dubai.
Verdict: there's no real point in paying extra and staying overnight, as all you get is an uncomfortable sleep, that's not too authentic or exciting, and despite the brochures talking up an extra trip the next day, we already covered that part the previous day, so the stay was sort of pointless.
If you do decide to stay overnight make sure you take the following with you:
- Ear plugs (to help you sleep against the backdrop of generator noise)
- Toilet paper (the toilets are wash-your-bum style, and do not have any loo paper in them)
- Mosquito repellent (trust me, you'll need it)
- Some clean sheets (if you don't like the idea of a slept-in sleeping bag).
WHICH SAFARI COMPANY SHOULD I USE?
Based on our experience, I would say that most companies follow exactly the same route, stop in the same places and end up in the same encampment. Along the route and while dune bashing, there were some 15-20 different companies going to exactly the same places and stopping for exactly the same photo-opportunities, so it's likely that you would end up on the same trail. If you've had a significantly different experience to what's described here, by all means do leave a comment at the bottom of this article for the benefit of others.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
The overnight desert safari experience cost us AED450 each (around £80/$120), which included the dinner and breakfast. for the whole thing without the overnight stay we were quoted AED175-275 (£30-£50/$50-75) depending on the company and extras.
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IT?
Absolutely. If you want to get a real sense of the sandy desert dunes, and aren't sick on roller-coasters, it is highly recommended. If you like the adrenalin rush you'll love it even more. I wouldn't really stay overnight if I did it again, but that's all part of the adventure.
Page3 of The Sun – Breasts, Dubai Style
Cover 'em up love!
I just had to share this one: if you get The Sun newspaper in Dubai, you'll find that all Page3 breasts are covered by what looks like a thick black marker.
Of course, this is done to guard the modesty of the model, and I'm sure Danni, 22, from Coventry would be delighted (she supports David Beckham's efforts to stamp out malaria, by the way).