Dubai and Abu Dhabi: 5 days, and the things we would skip
Five days is the right length for a first Gulf trip. It gives you the old city, the modern city, a night in the desert or in Abu Dhabi, and one day with nothing in it. Four days works if you cut Abu Dhabi. Anything past six and we would be adding filler, and filler in Dubai is expensive.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 1
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar
- From
- $1,650 per person
The plan below is shaped around two constraints that most published Dubai itineraries ignore. The first is temperature: outdoor things happen before eleven and after four, and the middle of the day is spent indoors on purpose. The second is that a good half of the marketed attractions are not worth a morning, so we have left them out and said which ones.
Who it suits: first visits, couples and friends, anyone with four to six days, and anyone treating the Gulf as a stop on the way somewhere else.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Dubai, the creek in the late afternoon. Met at the airport and driven to your hotel. If you land in the morning, the first useful thing to do is nothing, because the heat and the flight will both catch up with you. Late afternoon we go to the creek: the abra across to Deira for a few coins, the spice and gold souks on foot as the light drops, and dinner in Deira rather than in the hotel. This is the half day that changes what people think Dubai is.
Day 2: Old Dubai in the morning, the modern city in the afternoon. Al Fahidi historical district at opening, when it is empty and cool, with a guide for an hour and a half because the wind towers and the merchant houses mean nothing without one. Coffee in one of the courtyard houses. Then indoors for the hottest part of the day: the Museum of the Future, which we think is genuinely well made, or the Etihad Museum if modern history interests you more than design. Late afternoon at Alserkal Avenue, the warehouse gallery district in Al Quoz, which is the most serious contemporary art in the region and which almost no visitor sees. Dinner somewhere with a queue of residents rather than a view.
Day 3: Desert. Collected in the early afternoon and driven out beyond the last of the development. We use small camps, six to twelve guests, not the coach operations that put sixty people in front of a stage. Dune drive for those who want one, a walk at sunset for those who do not, dinner outside, and a sky that is worth the drive. Overnight in the desert, or back to Dubai after dinner if you would rather not move hotels. In December and January take a jacket, because desert nights get down to around 60F (15C) and sometimes lower.
Day 4: Abu Dhabi, and stay the night. Ninety minutes south, about 85 miles (140 km). The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque first, which is the single most impressive building in the UAE and is best at opening or in the last hour of light. Louvre Abu Dhabi in the middle of the day, which is a serious museum in a serious building. Qasr Al Watan in the afternoon if palaces interest you, or the beach at Saadiyat if they do not. One night in Abu Dhabi rather than driving back, because a day trip turns the whole thing into a coach journey.
Day 5: Abu Dhabi to the airport, or back to Dubai. A slow morning, then to the airport. Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports are both about an hour from the Abu Dhabi hotels, so we route you to whichever your flight leaves from. If the flight is at night, we hold the room until the afternoon rather than putting you in a lounge for eight hours.
What is included
Four nights in the hotels and districts we recommend, one of them in the desert or in Abu Dhabi depending on the version you choose, all transfers and a private car with driver on the days that need one, an English-speaking guide for the old Dubai morning and the Abu Dhabi day, entries to the museums we have actually put in the plan, the desert camp with dinner, restaurant bookings across four different neighbourhoods, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant here and our partners in Dubai.
What we left out on purpose
The Burj Khalifa observation decks are not in the plan. If you want them, we will book a timed sunset slot and it is a fine hour. We do not build a day around them.
The large theme park cluster, the coach desert safaris and the dinner cruises on the big boats are all out. So is the mall as an activity rather than as shelter. If you want any of them, say so and we will add them without argument, but we would rather you spent the money on the desert camp and on eating well.
Two ways we change this
If you want a beach. Swap the Abu Dhabi night for two nights on Jumeirah or Saadiyat and cut a city day. Between November and March the sea is comfortable and this makes a much more restful five days.
If it is a stopover. Compress to days 1, 2 and 3 and skip Abu Dhabi entirely. Three nights, the creek, the old town, one museum and the desert, is the best short version of Dubai there is.
Honest notes
Five days in Dubai in July is a different trip and we would talk you out of it if your dates were movable. Highs around 105F (41C) with coastal humidity make the outdoor half of this plan unusable.
The distances are real. Dubai is a long, thin city along one road, and a hotel in the wrong district can add an hour a day. We choose the district before we choose the hotel.
If you have a fortnight rather than five days, this is not the trip we would build. Look at Dubai and Oman instead, and read our reasoning before you decide.
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