The United Arab Emirates landscape is dominated by desert, and many of Dubai’s best outdoor offerings include sand dunes, camels, safari and a lot of fun activities. After some research we found the Premium Red Dunes, Camel Safari & BBQ at Al Khayma Camp experience from Ocean Air Travels on TripAdvisor. Almost all their reviews are 5 stars, and yes, they really deserve it 5 stars! What a great experience! In this blog post I will explain in detail about the experience in the Dubai Desert.

The tour takes around 7 hours, so you must reserve half-of your day to visit the desert. There are a bunch of companies offering this kind of experience, and our tour included sandboarding, and optional ATV ride, safari in the sand dunes in a 4WD and the highlight is the visit at the Bedouin-inspired Al Khayma camp for a camel ride, falcon interaction, and cultural activities followed by a barbecue-buffet dinner and live shows.

Our experience in the Dubai Desert

Our adventure in the Dubai desert started when our guide Thilang from Ocean Air Travels picked us up around 2pm at the hotel in a 4WD. The drive was comfortable and the driver offered us cold water, turned on the AC, and while he narrated the fascinating stories about Dubai and the desert, we watched the roadside scenery. It takes around 1 and half hours for the first stop.

First stop: Getting ready for the desert

The first stop is a rest area with a few stores and restroom facilities. Guests can take a break of 20 minutes as the driver prepares the vehicle for the desert safari. If you are eager to start the adventure, you can go for an optional quad biking in the meantime. Several cars stop at this place at the same time and the top attraction at Lahbab is to buy the traditional headscarves, which the drivers and vendors are more than experts to help the visitors to feel like locals and be prepared for the pictures.

Second stop: Pictures and sandboarding at the desert

Then, everyone must hop back in the car and enjoy the thrilling dune bashing session for 30-45 minutes in the red dunes of the Lahbab desert. The tour is awesome, but is kind of scary as the vehicle glides up and down through the dunes. I recommend that you take a motion sickness medicine if you get sick easily. The driver then stops for sandboarding and pictures. At this moment, it’s sunset time in the desert, and as you can imagine, the landscape is incredible to take stunning pictures. Our driver helped us a lot with the photos. We brought our GoPros, but we do not recommend professional cameras, particularly if you plan to put your feet to a sandboard and slide down the sandy slopes in style.

Third Stop: Al Khayma Desert Camp for camel ride, dinner and lots of fun activities

After the safari, the drivers take the road and you don’t need to worry about the radical dunes anymore. When arriving at Al Khayma camp, you will be welcomed to feed and enjoy the camel ride. It’s super fun! The camel ride can be enjoyed in a group and it can be repeated. Then, the Safari Captain (driver) will usher you to your designated tent inside the camp, where you can get unlimited soft drinks and enjoy the activities.

Some activities include, try the traditional Arab attire (Abaya for women and Kandura for gents), enjoy dry dates with Arabian coffee and sweets, interact with falcons, try the shisha pipe, take the henna tattoo. In addition, there are few stores for shopping, a great barbecue-buffet dinner and an amazing show.  Although the name is barbecue,  the dinner was Mediterranean and included desserts. The food was great and only alcoholic beverages are not available (even for sale). While guests are eaten, the show starts! We met the group right after the show to return to Dubai.

The tour was $80/ per person, with dinner, drinks and all activities included.

We arrived at the hotel tired, full of sand and lots of pictures. Without question this experience must be at the top of your list when visiting Dubai.