Dubai Desert Safari: Dune Bashing, BBQ Dinner & Shows

4.98

(232 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I’ll be honest — I almost missed the pickup because I was hunting for my sunglasses (which I never found). The driver waited, grinning, like he’d seen this a hundred times. We piled into the Land Cruiser with two other travelers from Germany who kept asking about sandboarding. Our guide, Ahmed, just winked and said “wait for it.” The city faded fast behind us — glass towers swapped for endless yellow dunes that looked soft but felt gritty when I brushed my hand against them at our first stop.

Dune bashing is… hard to describe. It’s loud — tires crunching over sand while everyone clings to whatever they can grab. My stomach dropped more than once (I may have yelled), but Ahmed seemed totally calm, even laughing as we slid sideways down a steep slope. When we finally stopped for sunset photos in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, the air was cooler than I expected. There was this burnt sugar smell from someone’s shisha pipe drifting by while we tried to look casual for photos but mostly just squinted into the wind.

The camp felt like walking into another world — carpets on sand, lanterns swinging a little in the breeze. We were handed tiny cups of cardamom coffee and sticky dates; I spilled half of mine because I was distracted by a woman painting henna on someone’s hand (she smiled at me later and insisted I try it too). Dinner was a blur of grilled chicken, smoky lamb kebabs, salads that tasted way better than hotel buffet stuff. There was a moment during the Tanoura dance when everyone went quiet except for this one little kid clapping off-beat — honestly, that stuck with me more than any fire show.