Getting to Dubai & Dubai Airport and other Dubai, United Arab Emirates Transportation Tips

'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: Dubai is so close to the UK you could almost go there for a long weekend! A flight from London is only 6.5-7.5 hours - a breeze if you are used to 24 hour flights to Australia as I am ; )

Around 80 different airlines currently fly into Dubai, making it an important transport hub in the Middle East. Our first visit to Dubai was a short one - just a couple of hours spent in the airport, on our way to Sydney. That time we were flying with Emirates, Dubai's international airline. On our first 'proper' visit to Dubai, in Dec 2007, we flew from London Heathrow with British Airways. As mentioned, the flight was very manageable at around 7 hours.

Upon arrival, although it was around 1am local time, we faced long queues at passport control. Yawn. At least that meant only a very short wait for our luggage. Exiting the airport after 2am, I was astounded by the number of people there to meet arrivals - the majority seemed to be holding signs from various hotels/tour operators. We were supposed to be collected by our hotel, and spent several minutes scouring all of the signs looking for our names or the hotels name. Hmph..... in the end I had to ring the hotel and they were most apologetic, apparently the car coming to collect us had broken down. Oh well, we jumped in a taxi (there were plenty of them) and the hotel reimbursed us on arrival.

Our return flight back to London didn't depart until 3am. We arrived at the airport around 12.30am and loved the fact that there was hardly any queues at all for check-in and security. Once through to 'airside', the duty free shops were packed full of shoppers, and we joined the throngs - I can never resist duty free lip gloss and chocolate.

The only negative thing about the airport on the departure side was that there were hardly any seats to sit on, unless you went through to your depart lounge. We had no choice but to sit on the floor for a while at around 2am, as our gate hadn't opened yet.

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Website: http://www.dubaiairport.com http://www.dubaicityguide.com/geninfo/airlines.asp

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: In a few years time Dubai is going to be home to one of the largest metro networks in the world. In the meantime, the main way for tourists to get around the city is by taxi. In London (or Sydney) terms, taxis in Dubai are cheap.

Registered taxis have a standard "Taxi" sign on the roof, and a easy to read meter on the dash board. There also seemed to be some unmarked taxis that we caught a couple of times from our hotel, but these also had meters - though you had to ask for them to be activated. A couple of other times when we were out and about some suspicious acting characters asked us if we needed a taxi, but I would have been very hesitant to use an unmarked car one unless recommended by our hotel.

The standard day time flag fall is 3 dirham, which increases to 3.50 dirham from 10pm-6am, or to 20 dirham for departs from the airport. Keep an eye on the meter as there are always some dodgy drivers out there. One time we jumped in a cab outside our hotel and the flag fall was set to 20 dirham. I questioned it with the driver and he changed it to 3 dirham. Needless to say he didn't get a tip.

There seemed to be plenty of taxis everywhere we wanted one, however sometimes you must be prepared for a wait.... maybe even a very long wait - after shopping at the Deira City Centre Mall we had to queue for over 1 hour for a taxi - there was a constant stream of cabs, but an even longer queue of people waiting.

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Website: http://dtc.dubai.ae/en.portal

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: My favourite mode of transport that we used in Dubai was an Abra. An Abra is a small, traditional motorboat made from wood, that transports people from one side of Dubai Creek to the other. Kind of like a shared taxi, the abras don't operate to any sort of timetable, they depart when all the seats are full. They seat around 20 passengers, and they seemed to only take a few minutes to full up.

At the time of our visit there were 3 abra stations on each side of the Creek, with abras from each station following a specific (individual) route. When you arrive at the station checked the sign to see which part of the dock for departures or arrivals, and head straight onto one of the boats in the departures area. You pay the fare direct to the driver - and at only 1 dirham (around 14 pence) it was a bargain.

Getting out on the water gives you a good feel for day-to-day life in old Dubai, and offers great views along the Creek. You can also hire abras for private trips up and down the Creek.

On the Deira side, the two main abra stations are up towards the Spice and Gold Souqs, with boats travelling across to Bur Dubai, stopping near to the Bur Dubai souq and the Dubai Museum.

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Website: http://www.dubaicityguide.com/geninfo/abra.asp

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: One familiar site that we saw in Dubai were some red open-topped double-decker buses, just like the ones in London. These are part of the Big Bus Company's Dubai city tours, one of those hop-on-hop-off type of tours, where your ticket is valid for 24 hours and you can travel around the city hopping off at any of the 23 stops that take your fancy.

There are two routes - the red route, which stays more in the centre of town, and the blue route, which travels down to the beaches. The website has a map that shows you the route and all of the stops. Included in the ticket price is entry to places like the Dubai Museum, and also enables you to participate in a souq walking tour, and a tour on the Creek (there are details of this on the website too).

We had planned to use the Big Bus Company during our visit to Dubai, but ran out of time. I wanted to include this tip though, as I thought it may be helpful to those researching a trip to Dubai.

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Phone: +971 4 340 7709
Website: http://www.bigbus.co.uk/dub/html/dub_map_tour.html
Other Contact: infodubai@bigbustours.com