Dubai Red Dunes: Self-Drive Quad Bike, Sand Boarding & Camel Ride

4.96

(1624 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I almost missed the pickup because I couldn’t find my sneakers — turns out you really don’t want to wear sandals for a quad bike desert safari in Dubai. Our guide, Ahmed, just grinned when I finally made it down to the lobby, shoes mismatched but on my feet. The drive out of the city was quiet, the air changing from that city-dust smell to something drier and sharper as we reached Lehbab. There’s a weird kind of silence in the desert except for the wind and the low hum of engines starting up.

I’d never driven a quad before. Ahmed gave us a quick rundown — “just go slow at first, dunes are trickier than they look.” He wasn’t kidding. The sand felt soft but somehow gritty against my hands when I brushed it off after getting stuck (twice). The sun was already strong even though it was still morning, bouncing off those endless red dunes. Sometimes I’d stop just to watch how everyone else was doing — one guy nearly toppled over and we all laughed, including him.

After that came sand boarding. I thought it’d be like snowboarding (it’s not). You get this whoosh of warm air as you slide down and end up with sand everywhere — still finding some in my socks later. We headed over to a little camp where they handed out Arabic coffee and these sticky-sweet lukaymat. One of the women showed me how to say thank you in Arabic; Li laughed when I tried to say it — probably butchered it. Camels were waiting nearby, looking unimpressed by all our excitement.

The camel ride was slower than I expected but kind of calming — you can see so far out there, just sky and dunes and nothing else moving. There was this moment where everything went quiet except for the camels’ footsteps and someone pouring tea behind us. I still think about that view sometimes when things get noisy back home.