The One Everyone Means

Dubai

The tallest building in the world, the oldest souk on the coast, and a desert forty minutes from both. Easier than it looks and cheaper than you think.

Dubai is easy to be snobbish about and hard to dislike once you are in it. Yes, most of what you photograph was built in your lifetime. It is also the only city in the world where you can go up the tallest building on earth in the morning, cross a creek in a wooden boat for a rupee-and-a-bit in the afternoon, and eat a properly good masala dosa between the two.

Three nights covers it and four covers it comfortably. Do the old city as well as the new one — the half-day on the Creek is what people remember afterwards, and it is the half most itineraries leave out.

Airport
Dubai International (DXB)
5 km from Deira and on the metro. Al Maktoum (DWC) is 50 km out and used by a handful of carriers — check which one your ticket says.
Best months
November to March
April and October are still fine if you plan around the middle of the day. May to September is 40°C and humid.
Temperature
15 to 42°C
The range is the whole story. January nights want a jacket; August afternoons want a taxi for a walk you would otherwise make in five minutes.
Nights to allow
3 to 4
Three covers the city and the desert. Four lets you add Abu Dhabi as a day trip without losing an evening to the road.
Money
Cards everywhere
Including taxis and most souq stalls. Keep a few dirhams for the abra across the Creek, which costs one.
Getting around
Metro and a Nol card
Two lines, air-conditioned, and it goes to the airport, the Mall and the Marina. Careem and Uber fill the gaps.

Getting there

Direct flights to Dubai

Direct flights from India to Dubai Map of India marking 24 cities with direct flights to Dubai — Dubai from Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Indore, Kolkata, Surat, Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mangaluru, Kannur, Kozhikode, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram. Amritsar Chandigarh Delhi Jaipur Lucknow Ahmedabad Indore Kolkata Surat Nagpur Mumbai Pune Hyderabad Goa Bengaluru Chennai Mangaluru Kannur Kozhikode Coimbatore Tiruchirappalli Madurai Kochi Thiruvananthapuram Dubai

Indicative map, not to scale. It shows which cities fly direct — not exact positions or distances.

24 Indian cities fly direct to Dubai.

  • Amritsar
  • Chandigarh
  • Delhi
  • Jaipur
  • Lucknow
  • Ahmedabad
  • Indore
  • Kolkata
  • Surat
  • Nagpur
  • Mumbai
  • Pune
  • Hyderabad
  • Goa
  • Bengaluru
  • Chennai
  • Mangaluru
  • Kannur
  • Kozhikode
  • Coimbatore
  • Tiruchirappalli
  • Madurai
  • Kochi
  • Thiruvananthapuram

Who flies it

  • Emirates
  • IndiGo
  • Air India Express
  • Air India
  • SpiceJet

On the ground

Getting in, and getting around

Getting in

For Indian passports

Which visa you need depends on what else is in your passport. Indian passport holders with a valid US, UK or Schengen visa or residence permit — a US green card counts — can get a 14-day visa on arrival, extendable once. Everyone else needs a tourist visa arranged before flying, through an airline, hotel or tour operator rather than applied for directly; we do it as part of the booking.

Your passport needs six months of validity from the date you land. Immigration can ask for a return ticket, a hotel booking and evidence of funds, so keep all three on your phone.

Check your medicines before you pack. Several things that are ordinary in India — codeine, tramadol and some sleep and anxiety medications — are controlled substances here, and carrying them without a prescription is a serious matter rather than a paperwork one.

Indian rupees are not accepted and cannot be exchanged usefully. Cards work everywhere, including taxis. UPI is accepted at a small and growing number of merchants — do not plan around it.

Getting around

The metro is the best thing about moving around this city and the thing visitors use least. Two lines, entirely air-conditioned, running from the airport through Deira, Bur Dubai, Downtown and the Marina. Buy a Nol card at any station, top it up, and a cross-city trip costs a few dirhams. The Gold Class carriage at the front is double the fare and usually worth it at rush hour.

Taxis are metered, plentiful and honest — the cream ones are the government fleet and the pink-roofed cars have women drivers. Careem and Uber both work and price similarly. What none of them beat is the abra across Dubai Creek: a wooden boat, one dirham, five minutes, and the best value in the Emirates.

Distances are longer than the map suggests and almost nothing is walkable between districts. Inside a district — the Marina walk, JBR, Al Fahidi, the souks — walking is the right way to do it, in season.

Decide first

Where to stay, and who each one suits

Under the tower 20 to 30 minutes from the airport

Choose it if

  • It is your first visit and you want the Burj Khalifa and the fountain within walking distance.
  • You are here for three nights and would rather not spend them in traffic.
  • You want the Dubai Mall on your doorstep — 1,200 shops, an aquarium and an ice rink inside one building.
  • The metro matters to you. Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station is on the Red Line.

Think twice if

  • You want a beach. The nearest real one is twenty minutes away by car.
  • You are on a budget — this is the most expensive district in the city.
  • You dislike crowds. The fountain draws them every half hour, every evening.

Decide second

When to travel, month by month

taller bar means hotter

Pick a month to read it in full.

Peak season

January

Heat
Cool
How busy
Busy
Daytime
15 to 24°C

The best month here. Cool mornings, warm afternoons, and the only time of year the souks and Al Fahidi are a pleasure at midday. Hotels are at their annual peak and the Shopping Festival runs through most of it.

Decide third

How long, and what shape

The long weekend

3 nights, 4 days

  1. Day 1 Land, settle, and the Dubai Fountain in the evening with dinner at Souk Al Bahar.
  2. Day 2 Burj Khalifa at opening, the Dubai Mall and the aquarium after it, then the Marina and JBR for the evening.
  3. Day 3 Old Dubai in the morning — abra, gold and spice souks, Al Fahidi — and the desert safari from four.
  4. Day 4 Museum of the Future or the Palm, then the flight.

The version most people book, and it does not feel rushed.

With the capital

5 nights, 6 days

  1. Day 1 Arrive, evening at the fountain.
  2. Day 2 Burj Khalifa, the Mall, the aquarium.
  3. Day 3 Old Dubai in the morning, desert safari from four.
  4. Day 4 Abu Dhabi — the Grand Mosque, the Louvre, and back by evening.
  5. Day 5 The Palm and Aquaventure, or Global Village if it is the season.
  6. Day 6 Last shopping and out.

What we book most often for a first visit with a family.

Dubai properly

7 nights, 8 days

  1. Day 1 Arrive and do nothing. The Marina in the evening.
  2. Day 2 Burj Khalifa and Downtown.
  3. Day 3 Old Dubai — souks, Al Fahidi, the Coffee Museum, dinner on the Creek.
  4. Day 4 Overnight in the desert rather than the four-hour version.
  5. Day 5 Back to the city, the Palm and Aquaventure.
  6. Day 6 Abu Dhabi as an overnight — the mosque, the Louvre, Yas Island.
  7. Day 7 Museum of the Future, Global Village, last of the gold.
  8. Day 8 Home.

For a second visit, or a first one that is not in a hurry.

What you came for

Popular places to see in Dubai

  1. Burj Khalifa, At the Top

    Levels 124 and 125, or 148 if you are paying for the fast lane. 828 metres, still the tallest building in the world sixteen years after it opened, and the view down onto the fountain is the point.

    Book a sunset slot online, weeks ahead. Walk-up tickets cost far more and sell out.

  2. The Dubai Fountain

    Free, every half hour from six in the evening, on the lake between the tower and the mall. Twenty-two thousand gallons of water thrown 150 metres into the air to a soundtrack, and nobody who watches it is cynical afterwards.

    Stand on the Souk Al Bahar bridge rather than in the mall crowd.

  3. The gold and spice souks, Deira

    The largest gold market on earth, with something like ten tonnes on display on any given day, and a spice lane beside it that has been trading since long before the towers. Prices are by weight plus a making charge, and both are negotiable.

    Cross by abra from Bur Dubai for a dirham. Mornings or after five.

  4. Al Fahidi and the Dubai Museum

    The oldest quarter in the city — coral-and-gypsum houses, wind towers, narrow lanes and no traffic. It is what all of this was in 1960, restored rather than rebuilt, and it takes an hour.

    The Coffee Museum and the Arabian Tea House are both inside it.

  5. Desert safari

    Dune bashing in a 4×4, a camel, a camp, a barbecue and a fire show. It is thoroughly packaged and it is also genuinely good — the hour before sunset in the Al Marmoom or Lahbab dunes earns the cliché.

    Afternoon departures. Skip it entirely between June and September.

  6. Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis

    An artificial island in the shape of a palm, visible from orbit, with a monorail down the trunk and Aquaventure at the end of it. The waterpark is one of the best anywhere and swallows a full day with children.

    The View at the Palm gives you the shape from above for a fraction of the Burj ticket.

  7. Museum of the Future

    The silver torus with Arabic calligraphy cut through it, on Sheikh Zayed Road. More an experience than a museum, and the best-designed building in the city after the mosque in the capital.

    Timed entry, book ahead. Ninety minutes is enough.

  8. Global Village

    Ninety countries in pavilions, a funfair, street food from everywhere, and about seven million visitors a season. Cheap, chaotic and much more fun than it sounds.

    Late October to April only. Evenings.

Small print

Worth knowing

Book the tower online, weeks ahead

At the Top sells out its good slots and the walk-up price is roughly double. Sunset is the slot worth having and it goes first — book it the day you book the flight.

The metro is better than the taxi

It is air-conditioned, it runs from the airport to the Marina, and it costs a few dirhams. Buy a Nol card at the first station. Traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road at six in the evening is not something a taxi solves.

Public behaviour is regulated here

Drinking outside a licensed venue, affection beyond holding hands, rude gestures in traffic and swearing at someone are all offences, including in a message. Photographing people without asking is one too.

Gold is sold by weight, and the rest is negotiable

The rate is fixed and posted daily; what you argue over is the making charge. Ask for it separately, compare two shops, and reclaim the VAT at the airport with the tagged receipt.

Pairs well with

Which cities you can combine

All of United Arab Emirates

Ready to book

Dubai packages

All packages
The Dubai skyline along Sheikh Zayed Road, towers stacked to the horizon. 4N / 5D

Dubai in Four Nights — City, Desert and a Dinner Cruise

Dubai 4N

from ₹28,500 per person

The palm avenue leading to the white domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi. 5N / 6D

Dubai and Abu Dhabi in Five Nights

Dubai 5N

from ₹35,000 per person

Not sure where to start?

Talk to someone who has been. We will tell you honestly whether Dubai suits the trip you have in mind.

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