Desert Safari Dubai
Recommended by 96% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- 6 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
Combine a thrilling, fast-paced desert safari with a relaxing dinner under the stars during this shared excursion in Dubai. Enjoy a comfortable hotel pickup and drop-off in a 4x4 vehicle. Go for a camel ride and try dune bashing with an experienced driver. Then, unwind over a music-filled, Bedouin-style dinner spread with five live dance performances.
- A shared desert safari in Dubai with Bedouin-style dinner with hotel pickup
- Get access to remote desert locations in a sturdy 4x4 vehicle
- Enjoy a range of outdoor desert activities, from camel riding to dune bashing
- Dig into a tasty, entertainment-filled BBQ dinner with vegetarian options available
What's Included
- Pickup Drop-off by 4x4 vehicle from home or hotel
- Dune Bashing in 4x4 Vehicle
- Short Camel Riding
- Sandboarding and View Point of Sunset
- Arabic Costumes for Pictures – Male / Female
- Arabic Hookah - Self- Service in Smoking Area
- Henna Tattoo for Females & Kids
- Unlimited Tea, Coffee, Soft Drinks & Water
- International Buffet Dinner, Vegetarian & Non-Vegetarian with BBQ
- Belly Dance Show 2 Times (Not available during Ramadan)
- Tanura Dance Show
- Arabic Traditional Dance Show
- Fire Show 2 Times
- Alcohol
Meeting and Pickup
Pickup points
Select a pickup point
Pickup details
Home or Hotel Pickup Drop off by luxury 4x4 Cars
Operating hours.2:00 pm
Itinerary
1
Desert Safari Dubai - Desert Adventure Group
6 hours • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infant seats available
- Not recommended for travelers with back problems
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 500 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Tomas_S
We enjoyed the experience with Arslan who is a very good driver. It was longer than expected, 8 hours instead of the 6 booked.
Reviews
4.9
based on 1,142 reviews
sadiqu_m, Apr 2026
Calls me on the day 1 hour before to tell me either I have to pay a further 800AED or reschedule to a day when there’s enough people booked. Very unprofessional and disappointing. Would consider a days notice, but 1 hour before excursion is unacceptable. Got my refund for Viator. Fishy people. Booked with Excursion Point instead had a fantastic day.
Cheryl_S, Jan 2026
Bottom of the basement tour. Knowing what I know now, I would have booked a much higher end tour. Very low end.
Mohammed_T, Jan 2026
The pickup was prompt. Driver made 2stops prior to actual venue. No communication from driver through out the trip. Wasn’t sure what was happening. Went to the desert the free camel ride is very small area so they try to sell 8min camel ride for extra Dirhams. And then just like everywhere else lots of selling for all things. Free henna is like a big coin size. They have 2 seating areas. An upgrade option is available for extra money with better seating, more dishes, early served food compared with what’s included there is less options and extra hour wait for food. Or driver was charged at the dessert. We asked to leave early as it was very cold and not much to do, both drivers had disappeared and took soo long to come and pick us up. It’s very long and tiring. Dune bashing was fun. Drive back home was safe :)
Pramod_M, Jan 2026
This was one of the most poorly organised and misleading “desert safari” experiences ever. This is the one of the experience we like to forget during our Dubai trip.
We booked a sunset 4x4 desert safari with a photo stop in the dunes, but instead were picked up in an old MPV, driven around for hours, and left waiting with no explanation while the sun went down and the promised photo opportunity vanished. We were shuttled between locations, repeatedly kept in the dark about delays, and only much later transferred to a 4x4 for a very short, underwhelming dune drive that felt like a box-ticking exercise.
At the camp, there was no welcome or guidance, just confusion. The buffet was extremely poor, with only the barbecue chicken being acceptable, and the “free” henna was just as disappointing. The only redeeming part of the evening was the stage performances, which were genuinely excellent.
The worst part was the end: after the show, we were forced to wait about 2.5 hours with no updates, then handed to a new driver who refused to properly confirm our drop-off location and almost took us somewhere else. We finally got back around 12:30 a.m., with two exhausted children after a day ruined by pointless waiting, bad planning, and a complete lack of respect for customers.
Mariana_C, Dec 2025
They left us in the street. They lied and humiliated us. After 2 hours, they said to ask a full refund or rebook. It was my b-day. The next day, we went back home, so we couln' t book another safari. Don' t go with them. They don' t have rispect for your memories, time and money! They are thiefs. Very bad experience!
Bec_D, Dec 2025
This is probably the worst tour experience I have had. There was no communication after booking. Pickup was selected for 14:00, the driver did not contact us until 14:30 and showed up at 14:45. The package says pickup and drop off is in a 4x4, that was not the case. Driver did not communicate at all during the driver, I don't even know his name. He dropped us off at the dunes & went in a 4x4 with other driver. No communication about itinerary was provided. Shared the 4x4 with another family, so it was pretty crowded & seating was terrible for the dine bashing.
Stayed at the camp until 22:00, as we had to call the driver several times after the shows were over & had to arrange for a 4x4 to go drop us off at the main road.
The shows were decent but food not so great, would recommend packing some food. All the experiences listed as being included required additional pay.
I would not book with this tour operator again, if you're after enjoying your experience.
Javid_K, Dec 2025
Be ready tobe deceived by tour operator, made me wait for one and half hour, once he came to pick me up not enough room to sit in the car for four of us, there are surprises when you get to safari, all in all I had bad experience
Tomas_S, Nov 2025
We enjoyed the experience with Arslan who is a very good driver. It was longer than expected, 8 hours instead of the 6 booked.
Hardik_S, Jan 2025
very old car, too many people fitted in small SUV.. loud annoying music, and unfortunately very importantly, driver pushed hard to get us out of the safari when the best performance had not happened yet.. when I said, wait for few minutes, he said, let's go let's go.. but when I resisted, the best performance started, and then I told him, why he did this, he had no answer.. if you really want best value for your buck, remember, do NOT let your driver dictate your return back. Also make sure you sit in front or middle row, (not in last row).
Raghavendran_R, Dec 2024
Very bad coordination and wait time. Poorly organized. Won’t recommend. There is none to contact in emergency situations needing attention. Picked up at 2pm and dropped at 4:30 and entered the safari at 6 post sunrise after 1.5 hours of waiting for Dune bashing vehicle to come. Same is the case on the return. Need to forgo couple of shows to stand in the line for drop back to hotel.
Songl_S, Jun 2024
The driver was very bad. It didn't solve any problems and wasn't helpful. He didn’t drop me off where he picked me up and when I asked him he said I had to walk for 5 minutes. It wasn't my first experience, it was my 3rd try, I would have preferred it every time, but after this last experience, I don’t think I will. Sorry for this feedback, but it was my sisters‘ first experience and it ended very unhappy, we couldn’t enjoy it.
Cassie_F, Nov 2023
This was by far the worst tour I have ever been on. I have been travelling the world these last few months, and have not had a single bad experience on a tour group until this safari experience in Dubai. First and foremost, we booked the tour that said it was a 6 hour duration when it actually lasted nearly 9 hours!!! I had to contact the company twice the day of the tour because no-one had contacted us to ask for our pick up location or to give us a time. We were sent no information. FINALLY at midday we were told we'd be picked up at 1:50pm. We were picked up in a dirty old car that barely had any air conditioning and I was sweating the entire time and really struggling. After 1-1.5 hours of driving we got dropped off at some random location that wasn't even listed as part of the tour because the driver was meeting someone to swap cars. We were there for an hour just sitting and watching people ride around on quad bikes in the heat. There was barely any shade, and a 1L bottle of water costed 30AED ($15 AUD!). It was 2-3 hours into the trip before we finally were to start the actual tour that we booked.
The dune bashing was only ok. Maybe 1-2 times we got a 'thrill' but mostly it was just him driving over bumps. When we got to the final location we couldn't even get out of the car before someone tried to sell us head scarfs, and the driver then basically left without much communication as to what we were to do now. We lined up for a camel ride for 40min, only to be on the camel for a total of 30 seconds. The camel stood up, walked maybe 10 meters towards a chair, walked around the chair, went back to the start and then sat down again. I have a video of the whole thing and it only goes for 30 seconds. Some people where getting walked for 5 minutes or so, and others just got the same treatment we did. It was so heartbreaking as this was something we were most looking forward to doing.
They had horses there too which were clearly completely underfed and treated badly. Basically just skin & bone - It was so awful to see and if I knew the company were involved in animal cruelty I never would have booked a ticket.
The night never got any better. We went inside to the area where you're seated for dinner and were told we could either sit in the regular space where the dinner station would not open until 8pm, and once it did we would have to line up with the 400 other guests to get food (it was only like 6pm at this point and we were starving considering we'd be on the road since 2pm). OR you could pay 55AED per person ($23 AUD), to sit in the "VIP" area where you could get dinner immediately. At this point, if we weren't in the middle of the desert, we would've ordered an uber to take us home. Unfortunately we were stuck there, so we paid the additional fee just so we could eat dinner. There were sales people everywhere, constantly in your face, coming up to you trying to sell scarfs, food, souvenirs, etc. The drinks that were included were only water and regular Pepsi. No other soft drink or non-alcoholic drinks were included. Alcohol was available for an additional cost.
We were counting down the minutes until the whole thing was over, but once again, our terrible night doesn't end there. The show ended around 9pm, and we were waiting for 40 minutes outside for our driver to even show up!! No apology, and no consideration for the fact that we were already at this point 7 hours into a "6 hour" tour. When we finally thought we were on our way home, we had to stop twice. Once for 10minutes so he could clean the car and then he stopped again 5 minutes later to change a tire. Don't get me wrong, I get that these things happen, but there was once again no apology or any real communication to us about what was happening. Driving back into the city, he drove straight past our hotel to drop the other family group off first. We calculated that this added an additional 25 minutes onto our journey. We had to sit in the car as he drove this other family home and then turned around to drop us back off at ours. It would've only been maybe 5minutes added onto their journey to drop us off first. It made no sense!!
There was nothing VIP about this experience at all. Not to mention sand boarding, Sheesha and Henna tattoo's were not offered to us as part of our inclusions at any stage. The whole thing was a complete waste of time and money and I am so so disappointed in this experience. I have used Viator a lot recently, but will be thinking twice about booking a future tour knowing now that they partner with these sorts of companies.
Gerald_G, Aug 2023
Activities were great, however the operators came across as cheats, at the the eve of the tour, I get a text that I would have to pay extra 100$ to accommodate 9 people private tour, it was almost extortion and then while returning the two extra people joint us and would occupy the front comfortable seats, very unprofessional,, my message to the operators, please treat guest with respect especially when they have extra for private tour
Tanuj_V, Aug 2023
The operator did not stick to the plan. Pickup / drop was really cramped in a dirty vehicle. The camel ride was supposed to be free but ended up paying for it (free was only photo taking for 1-2 mins). Sand boarding did not happen as there was no board. Food was not unlimited, rather pay for proper buffet / unlimited service. No juice available, only Coca Cola. Overall, not worth the money / time / effort. Viator also refused to take any responsibility of this terrible experience
antreas_o, Aug 2023
We have paid 7 hours safari and 3 out of 7 it was to find the other guys who shared the car.also our booking says unlimited drinks and in the camp they give you ONLY ONE .furthermore when we said buffet it means i can eat as i want.there they served as a bad quality of fries .and 2 small pieces meat.it was terrible
Vaibav_B, Mar 2023
the tour operator was a great guy but the partner venues with which you had tied up for live show dinner, dune bashing, etc... was not good. The food was not available and most of the things included in the package came with a lot of caveats hence limiting the experience. I would suggest you should set proper explanations for the things available in the tour including timings, limitations of F&B usage etc.
saeednasir71, Mar 2023
I have good experience with Viator but this was not even satisfying. The only exception was Driver Mr Arshad who was helping and cooperative.
Sudipta_N, Jan 2023
The pakoras were very tasty. But we were there for dune bashing which was wonderful. We didnot stop screaming all the time of ride. We would like to come back for squad bike💜
Response from Host, Jan 2023
Thank you so much for choosing us!
Yasir_S, Dec 2022
Overall the trip was good, the driver wasn't as social or interactive, but when I talked to him in local language and approached, he did talk and respond. The trip includes all the key elements of a desert safari from ATV riding to dune bashing in SUVs to a show at the end with food. Our driver did try to entertain us at the end with the ride back from the camp to home in the desert giving us a mini dune bashing experience since we were late to dune bashing and didn't get enough of it. This desert safari is setup in a way where there are a lot of people in the camp, 500 people, being served and taken care of. Overall I would say it is well organized and handled, certainly you wont get that intimate personable treatment you may get in some desert safaris when its really small, but it will give you a full flavor. The camel ride was a bit of a waste, just a 30 sec ride going in a circle, that could be improved, but when you have so many people to handle and only 2-3 camels it can be hard.
Chequana_W, Apr 2022
Trash. Not worth the time. The driver was extremely disconnected. He was more communicative preparing to pick us up (which I appreciated) than during the activity. Took us to the first stop that I didn't know would even be a separate stop (at the dune buggies and bikes), had us climb a 3-4 foot ledge and walk along some dangerous looking ledge path instead of the normal entry path everyone else seemed to take; didn't bother to look back or see if anyone needed help climbing up the unpaved dirt/cement ledge. The bathroom had no toilet paper, only one sink worked. Then we went on to the 4x4: got to the site and sat there in the car, driver didn't say anything or tell us we were waiting for the car to go dune bashing or even ask if anyone was uncomfortable about going which I thought would be curteous. We finally get into another car to dune bash, that driver then tells us we don't need seat belts -NONSENSE! But okay, entertaining simply because of all the fear and screaming of other passengers.
We get to the bbq/camel/sandboarsing site...very unorganized. No direction, no one told us how anything would operate,what time we'd be picked up, how we'd leave, NOTHING!
The camel ride was all of 45seconds. Literally, no exaggeration. It took my mother longer to get on the camel than the actual ride, real talk. The "sandboarding" was an absolute joke. There was a little board on barely a hill and people were randomly freely picking it up and attempting to slide. No instructor, no instruction, a single board, a tiny "hill". WASTE!!!!! It was unbelievable. I was extremely disappointed and irritated.
Then we walk into the bbq ...entrance or what have you, and get a little more info and are sat at a very low table, led to sit on the ground on pillows or pay for more comfortable seats. Then the servers at the barbecue were rude and very stingy, wouldn't allow any person to take more than a single player. Had to get mine and go back for my mother's. IRRITATING. the bathroom was unkept, the henna tattoo was pretty basic and the artists were not friendly. Then toward the end, the driver found us and told us someone else would take us back to our hotel, that the new driver would find us after the show...rather than giving the guy our numbers to communicate the same way we had in the beginning of the trip, we had to wait around for the new driver to find us. Then it was alike catching a cab in a parade. It was hectic and ridiculous..hated it.
I don't know if I simply chose the wrong vendor/company to book with or what, but this experience SUCKED! I would absolutely not recommend it.
Brenda_A, Mar 2022
Everything was wrong from the beginning. No one wearing masks, the driver treats tourists in a very rude way, lack of information in every stop, and almost everything that is supposed to be included in the tour you have to queue for a long time after hundreds of people or pay extra. Would not recommend it at all.
Rehansouk, Feb 2021
Apart from GAFFAR’S temperament everything was horrible food was not hot it seemed as if they served us leftover food
Mohammad_A, Dec 2020
Non organized and terrible transportation service to the meeting point , and food quality for dinner is very poor and sometime not eatable , the place was not comfortable , only the show was acceptable
Ilhem_A, Sep 2025
Everything was well organized: the guide was friendly, the pickup at the desired place, and the evening show was correct.
The price is attractive, but be careful: several paid options will be offered on site.
From the first stop, we take you to a camp with quad bikes (not included). As you stay there for a while, you will be encouraged to do so (approximately €40 for 30 min).
The included camel tour is limited to a quick photo in an enclosure. A real walk is extra.
You will also be offered a VIP upgrade for 50 AED, which may be worth it:
• The classic meal (Self-Service) only opens at 8 pm, waiting.
• VIP access from 6pm, less crowds, more choices, and drinks served at the table.
We took this option and did not regret it.
Auto-translated
Daniela_E, Mar 2023
La experiencia en el desierto fue muy emocionante, divertida y los shows de los artistas valieron mucho la pena, me gustaría dar un reconocimiento a ellos, el paseo en camello es pequeño pero bonito, hay que cuidarlos mucho. Recomiendo este paseo que hizo mi estancia en Dubái inolvidable.
Oscar_C, Mar 2022
No lo recomiendo, te llevan en una van pequeña y vieja, muy incomodo y solo 10 minutos en las dunas en un vehiculo prestado.
JeanPierre_G, Mar 2022
Retard chauffeur2.30 ,après il s’est pris pour un pilote de rallye panne autoroute organisation inexistante 5 min de 4x4 dans les dunes,la ballade chameaux se résume à s’assoir faire lever le chameau faire 20metres et descendre ,rafraîchissement chaud, apéro à vomir servit à la main ,repas hygiène douteuse seul point positif le spectacle j’ai passé la nuit sur les toilettes pour finir en apothéose cette journée de fou!
From $22.00
per personup to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
Compare Similar Experiences
Current
Desert Safari Dubai
1,142
6 hours
Free Cancellation
From
$22.00
Customers Who Bought This Tour Also Bought
Attractions in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- LEGOLAND® Dubai Tours & Tickets
- The View at the Palm Tours & Tickets
- Museum of Illusions Dubai Tours & Tickets
- The Dubai Fountain Tours & Tickets
- Dubai Parks and Resorts Tours & Tickets
- Al Farooq Omar Bin Al Khattab Mosque (Dubai Blue Mosque) Tours & Tickets
- Sheikh Zayed Road Tours & Tickets
- iFly Dubai Tours & Tickets
- Palm Jumeirah Tours & Tickets
- Burj Khalifa Tours & Tickets
- KidZania Dubai Tours & Tickets
- Motiongate Dubai Tours & Tickets
- Bur Dubai Village Tours & Tickets
- Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's House Tours & Tickets
- LEGOLAND® Water Park Tours & Tickets
- Cai Rang Floating Market (Cho Noi Cai Rang) Tours & Tickets
- Palm Islands & the World Tours & Tickets
More attractions near Dubai, United Arab Emirates