Dubai Desert: Sunset Camel Ride, BBQ & Al Khayma Camp

4.97

(646 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We were still brushing city dust off our shoes when our driver pulled away from Dubai’s glass towers and into that long stretch of sand — you know, the kind that looks endless until you’re actually in it. Forty-something minutes later, we stepped out to this strange quiet. Camels were waiting, big-eyed and kind of funny up close (one kept chewing like he had all the time in the world). The sun was already starting its slow dive, so we climbed up and just… rocked along. It’s not graceful at first — I nearly lost my sandal — but after a while you get into this rhythm, swaying as the light goes gold and everything cools down just enough to notice.

Our guide, Ahmed, pointed out shapes in the sand I’d never have spotted — fox prints maybe? He laughed when I asked if they ever get bored out here (“Never! Too many stories,” he said). The camel ride ended at Al Khayma Camp, where someone handed me sweet gahwa coffee before I could even sit down. There was this smell — smoky from the fire pit but also something floral from the shisha pipes. People wandered around in borrowed kanduras or abayas (I tried one; felt oddly regal), and a woman painted henna on my hand while her daughter watched cartoons on a phone nearby. It all felt both staged for us and somehow real at the same time.

Dinner was a proper spread: grilled lamb, flatbreads warm enough to steam your fingers, sticky dates that tasted like caramel. Between bites there were dancers swirling so fast their robes blurred, and a falconer who let me hold his bird for a photo (I looked terrified; everyone else laughed). Later they set up a telescope for stargazing — though honestly I just lay back on one of those low cushions and listened to people chatting in Arabic under the night sky. The drive back to Dubai was quiet except for someone softly snoring behind me. Still think about that hush out there sometimes.