Bucket List - Dubai Desert Safari
The other thing on my bucket list for Dubai was to see the desert. I booked the Dubai Desert Land Rover Safari with Dinner tour through Viator after doing a ton of research. My musts for this tour were: a vintage Land Rover ride, a camel ride and a traditional dinner at a Bedouin camp. The pluses for this tour were: henna tattoos, shishas and a falcon demonstration. At the time of booking, this tour had a 5/5 star rating with almost 2,000 reviews on Viator!
When I booked the tour, it said it started at 2:00 but we would be contacted the day before with a more accurate timing. They do this to plan around the sunset throughout the year and our actual pick up time was 4:00. This was actually even better for us as it gave us a few more hours to rest. We were picked up right on time in a brand new Ford Expedition and headed out to the desert with one other couple. Our tour guide gave us some fun facts along the way and pointed out where they do camel races, the history on camel racing and where the camel hospital is.
The cutest mini Land Rover in the desert with Platinum Heritage.
Arabian Oryx in the desert
Even at 4:00, the temperature outside was a sweltering 40 Celsius (104 F). It’s been years since I’ve seen temperatures that hot and our tour guide let us know that even though we’d booked the vintage Land Rover tour, we’d have the option to choose to stay in the Expedition for the desert part if we wanted. This is a great safety precaution, and even though we stuck with the Land Rover, an Expedition did follow along on the tour in case anyone changed their mind.
As we drove towards the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve our tour guide gave us an overview of what we had planned for the evening and explained what goes on at the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. Just 45 minutes outside of Dubai, the DDCR is the UAE’s first national park. Along the drive up to the park you can see the Arabian Oryx that they have successfully bred and moved from extinct to vulnerable. In the 1970’s, the Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild as they had been hunted for meat and hide. With the help of the Phoenix zoo in Arizona, 9 became 270. They were transported back to Dubai over two phases and today over 1000 Arabian oryx have been released back into the wild desert of Dubai.
Once we arrived at the DDCR we were given aluminum water bottles and got to choose our head scarves that would be ours to keep. We also got to walk around and see the camels and the Land Rovers for the tour. Once all groups were dressed and ready, we headed off into the desert! Chartreuse is one of my favorite colors so I was pretty excited that that was the color Land Rover we ended up in.
On our drive through the desert we stopped to look at the Oryx and we spotted several gazelle along the way. I actually spotted all the gazelle for our group that day to the delight/annoyance of my husband. We stopped along the drive for the tour guide to point out different plant species, spots where snakes and scorpions tend to hide, a water hole that the Oryx tend to congregate at and then we stopped for some fun in the sand. They took professional photos of us and we took some on our phones with the sunset. It was gorgeous! Brandon and I rarely take pictures together, much less professional shots, so this was fun - and we bought copies of them before the night was over.
Enjoying my hot cinnamon tea in the 100+ degree weather
After a little fun in the desert, we traveled to see the falcon show. Falcons are not native to the UAE but they’re rooted in Dubai’s history for thousands of years. The Bedouin people were able to capture and train falcons as they migrated south during the winter. They were trained to help the Bedouin people hunt and as the weather warmed up, they were released back into the wild. Nowadays, it’s illegal to hunt and falcons are a status symbol. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum has a house here where he breeds and raises falcons.
We were served juice, hot cinnamon tea and refilled our water bottles before sitting down for the falcon presentation. We got to see the falcon up close before we watched him fly around, catching the lure in the sky. They are rewarded with their favorite snack, which is actually the only time these falcon eat during the day. It was pretty cool to watch and even more fun to hold one!
Bedouin camp in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
After the falcon show we drove to a Bedouin-style desert camp for dinner and more fun Emirati activities. Arriving here just as the sun was setting was stunning and the camp glittered with torchlight against the night sky. After washing our hands with rose water, we were offered Arabic coffee and we were first given a tour of the campground. We were offered oysters - Brandon and I both love oysters and the grilled ones were some of the best I’ve ever had. I asked for seconds! - and were shown where we would have dinner, the Arabic coffee station, the henna artist, the overnight camp rooms (not used during the summertime) and where camel rides were offered. We made sure to do everything!
Next came dinner! There was camel meat (we thought it was similar to fajita meat), chicken skewers, several different varieties of rice and vegetables. We did not smoke a shisha (Arabic water pipe) although the option was there. While we were eating dinner there was Arabic folk dancing and music and everyone was welcome to join in. We were too full from dinner but for dessert there was fruit and ice cream.
Once the stars came out, everyone was invited to the middle of the camp to lay back and watch a show of the stars. With an incredibly long laser we found the North Star as well as a few constellations. It was magic being able to see so many stars in the sky at night! After the show they brought around iPads to show you the pictures they took of you during the day and offers to purchase them, along with a video of your day. No need to bring cash, it was credit card only, and they air dropped them to my iPhone.
As anticipated, we left camp around 10:45pm, almost 11:00pm, to head back to the city. Apart from 2 one-ish hour naps during the day, Brandon and I been awake since about 3am, with very little sleep on the plane ride over. We were beyond exhausted and this tour still managed to keep our attention and our energy levels up all afternoon. It was such an amazing tour and I can not recommend it enough. It was worth every penny and something that I think my girls would absolutely enjoy!
Living out all my desert dreams
Okay… now what should we wear?
During the winter months, they recommend bringing a sweater or a light jacket because the weather gets cooler at night. This is not necessary during the summertime. These ballet flats were not the best nor the worst option for shoes, but I was constantly dumping sand out of them. Good thing they clean easily! I would not recommend wearing sandals though! Brandon’s tennis shoes have an open knit design and his feet were also full of sand. My dress was actually very comfortable, I wasn’t too hot or too cold and there was a nice breeze as we were driving around the desert. Keep in mind that you’ll be climbing in and out of the Land Rover as well as sitting on the ground for the falcon show and during parts of the Bedouin dinner. Despite the high temperatures, we did not feel overheated at all. Brandon was sweaty but overall comfortable for most of the day.
For more pictures and videos of our tour, find me on instagram @sarahsymbalisty and check out my saved Dubai highlights!
Riding through the desert in our vintage Land Rover
