Desert Safari in Dubai without Dune Bashing

Dubai is located in the Middle of the desert, but you won’t feel as standing in the middle of the desert as you are surrounded by high rise skyscrapers. Dubai culture is somewhat like westernised from food to shopping and brands. It’s in some ways on of the luxurious living city in the world. The city is not massive but like a super fun theme park.

Dubai is a worth visiting place filled with historical landmarks and unique attraction sites. The main attraction of the city lies in its magnificent sandy deserts and tall buildings reaching the sky. If you want to experience cultural tourism, Head to the Ibn Battuta Mall. Dubai also organizes the annual entertainment festivals which are attended by visitors from all over the world. Enjoy the day by shopping at one of the largest shopping malls in the world, or lazing at the natural sand of Jumeirah Beach.

The local emirati culture is not very visible in the city. If you’re really interested to experience emirati culture, you must visit to Al Ras and gold souk in Deira and bur Dubai - the old part of the city. You must visit the other emirates like Fujairah, Al Ain, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah if you truly wants to explore and know more closely about United Arab Emirates.

The city is not walk able, specially in summer, you must have car to drive everywhere and the public transport is within some limits. Dubai metro is one of the world class metro with strict rules and regulations. Getting cab is much costlier here. The metro is divided into two different zones, red line and green line and both the lines intersect at two metro stations i.e union metro station and burjaman metro station. Riding Dubai metro, you’re not allowed to eat, drink, chew gum or nap.

The palm island in Dubai, new Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest man made island in the world and can be seen from space. Yes, the heat is unbearable in the month of may to September. But the climate from November to march is really amazing and you can see lot of tourists in these months.

Dubai is one of the shopping destination in the world with biggest world class awesome malls like Dubai mall and mall of the emirates. The city of Dubai is super fun for a visit. Great nightlife, great entertainment and lots of fun things to do. The Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai, the world's most luxurious hotel in the world . It stand on artificial island in the sea.

The city is a great fun, glamorous, super shiny high rise skyscrapers and very futuristic.

We got up early and went by subway back to the Deira area to return the cell phone we had bought the day before. When crossing some streets we saw the hidden side of Dubai and the low level of life in this area. After waiting a lot in the store they returned the money and we drove to the Dubai Marina Mall, and left the car in the free parking lot of the mall.

From there we went outside and started to explore the Dubai Marina Walk in the direction of the spinning skyscraper. The walk is frankly beautiful, although there are several areas still under construction. We rest from the heat in the shadows and stock bottles of water from one of the supermarkets and shops scattered around the promenade.

Once the tour was finished, we had lunch and returned to our apartment hotel. Meanwhile, we take the opportunity to be in the pool relaxing a bit. We ate at the apartment and about 3:30 we went down to the reception to wait for the 4x4 to enjoy the desert safari excursion through Dubai. There are many companies that perform on the same route and with quite different prices.

We choose the one with good reviews we had read on the internet and because it is one of the few that includes accident insurance for travellers. When the driver arrived we went through another hotel to pick up two girls who also came to the safari in the same 4x4. So it took us directly to the desert without the typical stop in an agreed store that is usually mandatory in such excursions.

After a journey of half an hour through a landscape that was becoming increasingly arid, we stopped in a desert area where there were also many 4x4. The driver deflated the wheels to get into the dunes and we took pictures for a while. We rode again and the fun began. The 4x4 lined up and began to slide across the dunes. Our driver expertly drove the 4x4, going up and down the dunes and skidding continuously.

After a very fun time for about 45 minutes, we reached an area where we got off the car and went barefoot to a fairly high dune from where we only saw dunes and desert on all sides. Here we enjoyed a wonderful sunset. We set off again and went to a typical camp in the desert, where in the central area there was a stage surrounded by very low tables covered with rugs.

In addition all activities were included in the price from camel ride, sand surfing, henna tattoos, photo with a hawk, dressing in traditional clothes, smoking in shisha. The only thing that was paid separately was the use of quads and alcoholic beverages. We quickly took a good place and dressed in traditional Arab costumes to take a picture of us. We then rented a quad to go around the sand, rode a camel and made some tattoos with henna.

We sat down and saw the show of a dancer who was doing a very interesting dance going around very fast on himself with a suit that sometimes lit up. In the break we had a barbecue dinner, with which we could try different types of meat, snacks, salads and sweets typical of the area, as well as all the non-alcoholic beverage we wanted. Except for the rental of the quads, everything was included in the price of the desert safari.

Then we enjoyed a belly dance show and dervish and we saw the show of a girl dancing the belly dance and about 9 we started the return trip and arrived at the hotel around 10:30 pm.

Desert Safari in Dubai
Kalyan Panja