Dubai Transportation Tips by DesertRat

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Ship/Boat
Getting TO/AROUND: The traditional way of getting across the Creek between Deira and Bur Dubai has been on an abra , a boat that's about 28 feet long and which can transport a couple dozen people. You board at stations on either side of the waterway and sit on what is effectively an unpadded dais atop the boat. Since the Creek is so well protected, it's rarely rough enough to cause anyone to worry about falling overboard even though there are no guard rails. The crossing takes about 5 minutes -- depending on the destination landing -- and costs 50 fils, or half a dirham, which is around 15 cents US. During slack times of day, these same boats will take you on 2 hour cruises for under $5.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: Over the past five years or so, Dubai has totally revamped the taxi system, ridding the emirate of virtually all the old ones and demanding that each taxi on the road be equipped with a meter. Costs are very reasonable: a 20 minute ride rarely costs more than about $3 or $4. With upwards of 14,000 of them, you'll almost never have to wait more than 5 minutes for one to come by. It's worth noting, too, that they're all equipped with GPS systems, so the company knows exactly where each cab is at any given time. This virtually guarantees that you won't be ripped off.

Beware the illegal moonlighters, though: You'll often be approached at the entrances to shopping malls and ushered toward a private car. You'll be in no danger, but you may have an argument at the other end if you don't agree to a price beforehand!

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'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: Dubai International Airport's new departure terminal is an architectural tour de force. Long layovers don't seem so long when there is so much to look at.
The building is not only beautiful, but easy to navigate and very plushly appointed. You might even find yourself substantially richer if you buy a chance in either the million dollar raffle or one on a luxury car -- and by luxury, I'm talkin' Lamborghini or Porsche or Bentley or even a Rolls Royce. Such cars are won every month. Chances on the cars are good, too: only 1,000 tickets are sold at about $125 each.

Dubai International is served by at least 60 airlines, and, if you're a plane-spotter, you'll see all kinds of exotic companies represented from Air Viet Nam to Kazahstan Airlines. This is a major air hub, and you can get from here to almost anywhere in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia on a non-stop hop. Emirates, Dubai's own carrier, has non-stops to New York, several European capitals, East Africa, South Africa, East, Southeast, and South Asia, as well as Australia. They are supposed to be offering nonstops to Los Angeles soon, too.

N.B.: If you're transiting through Dubai and have not received your onward boarding pass, the transit desks are located on the arrivals level. Make sure you're certain you are in the correct line (queue) because it's often crowded, especially between 10pm and 2am when the airport is the busiest. After obtaining the document, go through security and down the escalator to the departure level. The vast duty free shop is on the next level below.

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Website: www.dubaiairport.com/

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: Geographical references within Dubai and/or the UAE can be a bit confusing to the newcomer principally because the names of the main towns are the same as the names of the seven emirates. Therefore, there is the Emirate of Dubai or Abu Dhabi or Fujeirah, but there are also the cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Fujeirah (There are four more, too; I cite the three only as examples. Some of the Emirates, e.g., Dubai or Ajman are so small that they are really almost the same as the cities. However, if you take Abu Dhabi, you find that the emirate comprises well over half of the entire UAE, while the city of Abu Dhabi itself is quite a bit smaller than Dubai City….

As for Dubai itself, the Creek is, of course, the single most important landmark in town. As a visitor, what you really need to keep straight are Deira and Bur Dubai. If you look at a map, Deira is above – I say “above� because the Creek doesn’t run straight east-west – or what seems to be north of the Creek. Bur Dubai is below it.
You can get across three different ways: by using the Al-Garhoud and Al-Maktoum bridges, which are inland in the direction of the airport, the tunnel under the mouth of the Creek, or by taking a water-taxi – a.k.a. an abra – which is generally the fastest.

The oldest sections of town are quite close to the water; indeed, the very oldest sections are around the tight curve of the Creek, which is near its outlet to the Gulf. It is in this area where you’ll find the Heritage Village, Sheikh Saeed Al-Maktoum’s house, the Gold Suq and the Old Suq. It’s also useful to know that Deira is a bit more high-rise than Bur Dubai, though the very tallest buildings in town are on the Bur Dubai side of the Creek… I know that’s confusing, but them’s the breaks in Dubai.

The truly fancy hotels are mostly located west of Dubai City along the beach going in the direction of Abu Dhabi. The Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Burj Al-Arab are both out there, for example.

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'Mode': TO
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: Due to the madness of international air fare calculations, we found ourselves using a very little-known Iranian carrier, Kish Air, to get ourselves half-way reasonably from Muscat to Dubai and back. This meant that we found ourselves in Terminal 2, which, quite unlike the gigantic Terminal 1, is small, intimate, and a real pleasure to use.

For whatever reason the local airport authority has relegated odd-ball airlines such as Air Kazakhstn, Turkmenistan Airlines, Mahan, and several others to this other location. The cynic in me suspects that they don't want nationals of the former Soviet Union and others of , shall we say, remoter regions mixing with the general -- and much wealthier -- traveling public. Whatever the reason, we were very pleased. We didn't have to walk miles, fight the crowds on the moving sidewalks, or make our way through the tunnel between the old original terminal building, where check-in usually takes place, and the new behemoth.

As for Kish Airlines, it was actually pretty good. Friendly staff and a quite comfortable -- if slightly aging -- Fokker F50 made for very pleasant flights.

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Website: http://www.dubaiairport.com/