The dunes are an hour from the airport. So is everything else.
Which desert safari actually reaches the red dunes. What a dhow through the Musandam fjords costs. Whether Petra works as a day trip from Amman. Reviews of what you can book across the Gulf and the Levant.
A dune camp, the Creek at dusk, the Siq, and a boat over the Daymaniyats.
Four bookings a first trip through this part of the world tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01Your first night outDesert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma CampRed dunes west of Dubai, a quad bike, a camel and dinner under the camp lights. The night everyone books first.
02Old Dubai on footOld Town, Souks, Street Food, Guided Tour & Abra RideThe spice and gold lanes, a wooden abra across the Creek, and enough street food to skip dinner.
03The Jordan classic2-Day Tour: Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea from AmmanTwo days out of Amman: the Siq at Petra, a jeep through Wadi Rum, a float in the Dead Sea on the way back.
04The Oman boat dayDaymaniat Islands Snorkeling Trip with BrunchOut to the Daymaniyat Islands from Muscat. Turtles under the hull, and the water is the colour the brochure claims.
Half of this region sells the same evening in the dunes. They are not the same evening.
A shared 4x4 with forty other people is thirty dollars. A private camp with a falcon on your arm is four times that. Four kinds of desert day, what boarding each one costs, and which emirate or emirate-sized country it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
The full safari eveningDune bashing, a camp, dinner and a show after dark.
Camel and sunset onlyAn hour on the ridge at dusk, back in town for dinner.
Engines in the sandQuad bikes and buggies over the soft red dunes.
Staying the nightA bed in the dunes, dinner, and the sky once the generators go off.
All 548 days in the sand →
Eight countries, and the day out each one is actually known for.
The Emirates hold the towers and the dunes. Jordan holds Petra. Oman holds the wadis and the fjords. Qatar holds an inland sea you can drive down to. Pick the country, and the itinerary mostly writes itself.
Dubai: the tower before breakfast, the Creek at dusk.
The rest of Dubai →
Nothing in this city is far from anything else, which is why most people over-book their first day. Go up early while the haze is still low, spend the afternoon on the old side of the Creek, and leave the desert for after dark.
Stop at 125, or pay up for 148
The standard ticket stops at 125 and the view is already absurd. Level 148 buys a smaller crowd, a lounge and a separate lift. Sunset slots cost more and go weeks ahead either way.
Gold, spice and a boat across the Creek
Deira and Bur Dubai still trade the way the city did before the towers. An abra across the water costs a coin, and the walking tours that end in a tasting are the cheapest good thing in the emirate.
Aquaventure, or an indoor rainforest
Atlantis runs the big water park and it is a full day. If the forecast says 45 degrees, the indoor options - rainforest, aquarium, ski slope - are not a consolation prize here, they are the plan.
The days out more travellers take than any others in the region.
The catalogue, top to bottom →Booked more than anything else across the eight countries, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + Options
Ride the Burj Khalifa’s high-speed elevator to Levels 124 and 125 for 360-degree views of Dubai, the Gulf, and desert. Step onto the open-air terrace, use viewing telescopes, study the tower’s engineering, and add a café treat, souvenir, or Dubai Aquarium entry. Sunrise brings lighter crowds, while late afternoon combines daylight, sunset, and city lights.
From · $43
Read our review →
2
Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
from $32
3
The View At The Palm Observatory Entry Ticket
from $29
4
Jetski to Burj Arab-Atlantis w Pic, Video & Icecream
5
Dubai Red Dunes ATV, Camels, Stargazing & 5* BBQ Al Khayma Camp
from $88
6
Dubai Marina: Luxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ Option
from $15
7
Museum of the Future Admission Ticket
from $46
8
Aquaventure World Waterpark Ticket at Atlantis Dubai
from $90
Marina yachts, wooden dhows, and a fjord with dolphins in it.
The Gulf is warm nine months a year and almost every coast here sells a different kind of boat. A yacht out of Dubai Marina for the skyline, a dhow through the Musandam cliffs for the quiet, a fast boat off Muscat for the turtles.
- 1Dubai Marina: Luxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ Optionfrom $15
- 2Half-Day Dhow Cruise, Dolphin Watching, & Snorkelingfrom $37
- 3Daymaniat Islands Snorkeling Trip with Brunchfrom $86
Jordan is four hours of driving and three of the best days in the region.
Petra needs a full day and rewards two. Wadi Rum is a jeep, a camp and a sky. The Dead Sea is on the road between them and takes an hour. Amman is where the hire cars and the guided runs both start.
All of Jordan →
What a day out in the Gulf and the Levant actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The cheapest band is not the weak one here: some of the best hours in Dubai and Muscat cost less than a taxi to the airport.
Old-town walks, abra rides, entry tickets and the shared desert evenings out of Dubai and Doha.
Full days: Petra from Amman, the Grand Mosque run to Abu Dhabi, the Daymaniyat boat, most wadi trips.
Private guides, overnight camps, balloon flights and the chartered yachts that earn it.
Oman keeps its best water inland, in the wadis.
A boat, a walk and a swim up a slot canyon at Wadi Shab. Green pools under date palms at Bani Khalid. Turtles off the Daymaniyats, cliffs dropping into the sea at Khasab, and a mud-brick fort in most of the valleys between them. Muscat is the base for nearly all of it.
Three of these exist in exactly one place, and it is here.
Deserts and old cities exist on every continent. A city carved into a cliff face, a sea that will not let you sink, and a drowned mountain range you cross by wooden boat do not.
The Siq at Petra
You walk a kilometre through a crack in the sandstone, barely wide enough for two camels, before the Treasury shows itself through the last gap. The Nabataeans cut the whole city out of the cliff faces around it and piped water in from springs miles away. The site is far bigger than the famous facade, and most of it is uphill.
- 1Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea 2-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,173 reviews
- 22-Day Tour: Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea from Amman★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,141 reviews
- 3Petra & Wadi Rum Private or group Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 750 reviews
The Dead Sea float
The water is nine times saltier than the ocean and the surface sits over four hundred metres below sea level, the lowest dry land on the planet. You do not swim in it so much as sit on it. Twenty minutes is enough, the mud is part of the ritual, and any shaving cut will tell you so immediately.
- 1Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,496 reviews
- 2Masada and the Dead Sea Day Trip from Tel Aviv★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,014 reviews
- 3Jerusalem, Bethlehem & Dead Sea★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 881 reviews
The Musandam fjords
A mountain range that sank into the Strait of Hormuz, leaving cliffs dropping straight into deep green water. Wooden dhows run out of Khasab most mornings, dolphins ride the bow wave, and the fishing villages along the inlets have no road in at all.
- 1Half-Day Dhow Cruise, Dolphin Watching, & Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 507 reviews
- 2Snorkeling Trip to Dibba Al-Fujairah★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 503 reviews
- 3Full-Day Sea Safari to Musandam★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 370 reviews
Four bookings here that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this region can be arranged from a hotel lobby the night before. These four run on timed slots, boat weather and permits that take no interest in your flight.
- 01Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + OptionsEntry runs on half-hour slots with a cap on each. The sunset hours go weeks out and cost roughly double the middle of the day.
- 02Daymaniat Islands Snorkeling Trip with BrunchThe islands are a nature reserve with a daily visitor cap, and the boats only run when the sea allows. Both decide the day for you.
- 03Luxury Hot Air Balloon, Land Rover Defender & Michelin BreakfastBalloons fly at sunrise or not at all, and a cancelled morning rolls into the next one. A one-night stay leaves you no second chance.
- 04Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea 2-Day TourThe site is two and a half hours from Amman and closes mid-afternoon in winter. Day trips leave before six, which is not a decision you make at breakfast.
Summer here decides your day. Plan the middle of it indoors.
From June to September the afternoon is genuinely dangerous outside, and every open-air site empties by ten in the morning. The answer is the same across the Gulf: do the outdoor thing at dawn, spend the middle of the day under air conditioning, and go back out once the sun is down.
The Holy Land days out of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Most visitors work from one of two bases. Jerusalem puts the Old City, Bethlehem and the Mount of Olives within a morning. Tel Aviv is an hour further out but runs the long days north to Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee, and south to Masada and the Dead Sea. Sites close early on Fridays and Saturdays, and modest dress is expected at all of them.
- 1Guided Day Trip to Nazareth & Sea of Galileefrom $98
- 2Jerusalem Old & New City Bus Tourfrom $95
- 3Day Tour to Jerusalem and Bethlehem from Tel Avivfrom $121
By place — the cities and the sand
By kind of day — sand, water, tower or old town
Amman, Jerash, the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum, Aqaba: the loop most people drive first.
Amman
Jerash
AqabaThe newest reviews across the region.
Further down the list →
Dubai Desert Safari with Camel Ride, Show, BBQ and Transfers
Read our review →
Dubai Desert Safari with Belly Dance, Fire Show and Tanura Show-The Full Package
Read our review →
Dubai Desert Excursions with BBQ Dinner & Live Entertainment
Read our review →
Private Abu Dhabi City Tour transfer from Dubai & Sharjah
Read our review →
Dubai Evening4x4Desert Safari BBQ Dinner,4 Live Shows,Camel Ride
Read our review →
Dubai Desert Safari with BBQ and 4WD Land Cruiser Dune Bashing
Read our review →
Private Evening Desert safari with BBQ Dinner & Entertainment
Read our review →
Dubai Desert Safari evening with VIP Treat , BBQ Buffet and Exciting Liveshows
Read our review →
Dubai Desert Safari: Dune Bashing, Camel Ride, Sandsurf & 5* BBQ
Read our review →
