Dubai Desert Safari

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Riding Rough! Or Not.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
23 April 2015
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Anyone new to Dubai will be asked this question: "have you experienced Desert Safari yet?"

It's not as thrilling as the rides in Ferrari World, but it's also fun in a sense that it gives you (sort of) an idea how the locals managed to live-- and even thrive-- amidst the vast, and more often than not, unforgiving desert.

Don't Hit The Camel: in the UAE, you will be fined 200,000 AED

if you hit a camel in a car accident-- same goes with a Palm Tree

How to plan for a Desert Safari?
Visit cobone.com for deals. This activity is typically priced at around 200 AED for a complete experience package, but you can actually find cheaper deals. Make sure that you browse through the advert and scrutinise every detail before making the purchase.

A complete experience package, more or less, includes the following activities:

• Pick-up and drop-off (there will be location/s specified in the add)
• Dune bashing (where the driver will go bat-shit-fast-and-the-furious-crazy in the desert)
• Camel Riding (because... duh, you're in the desert)
• Photos with local Arabic dresses
• Henna painting (a word of warning: henna stains!)
• Shisha (try grape-mint flavour or double apple)
• Unlimited drinks: tea, coffee, cold drinks and water)
• Separate comfortable rooms for males and females
• Dinner table with carpets and pillows (depending on which campsite, the carpets and pillows may be a bit too... too sandy and in desperate need for washing)
• Sand boarding (a favourite activity)
• ATV Ride (they usually charge extra for this one, around 100 AED for an hour)
• A picture with the resident bird (a falcon, they will charge you 20 AED for a picture!)
• BBQ buffet dinner (vegetarian and non-vegetarian available)
• 3 Entertainment shows: Tanoura Dance, Belly Dance, and Fire Dance show

NOTE: During the Holy Month of Ramadan, Belly Dancing and Live Music are omitted from the itinerary, so keep this in mind.

Pick-up

Once you've purchased the deal, you will need to contact the organiser via email or phone to secure a slot. Give a date, and they will arrange for your pick-up on a specific location-- if you reserve the entire trip for your group, you may get the chance to bargain; whereas, if you're going with a bunch of other people, you will need to go to the pick-up point. They will usually have this detail in the brochure or the organiser will tell you once you've contacted them.

The van leaves the pick-up point at around 3:15pm.

Activities

The order of activities is as what's written above. After pick-up, you travel towards the desert and change cars-- from vans, you will be ushered into 4x4 vehicles to zoom around the desert. It CAN get rough so for those with motion sickness problems, I'd advise you to bring a brown bag or something. The driver will stop in the middle of the desert and allow you to take pictures, and then you will head towards camp where you can ride camels and ATVs, take pictures with falcons, and sand-board. 

Meet Pia, the Falcon :D

Facilitators will then usher you in once the entertainment show would start, and then they will announce once the buffet is served. You will have the option to try shisha at this point and have henna tattoos and other such activities.

The program ends at around 10pm. They will usually drop you off on your pick-up point, unless you've made prior arrangements. They will also consider dropping you off your place if it's on the way to the pick-up point.