5 Reasons Why Dubai is a Great Budget Travel Destination
Back in 2020, while I was ‘stuck’ in Turkey for seven months during Covid, I spent a lot of time researching where I else could travel to from Turkey during the pandemic. So many country borders were closed and others were open but had heavy requirements for entry. It was difficult to figure out where to go.
One of the regions I researched in depth was Dubai, UAE and its neighboring countries in the Middle East. Since Dubai has so many ultra-contemporary, ultra-high skyscrapers and because UAE and neighboring countries are so wealthy from oil, I’d always assumed that it would be extremely expensive to visit.
Much to my great surprise, I discovered that Dubai actually has a lot of budget accommodations! I also found out that Dubai has a huge diversity of things to see and do, beyond just gazing at mind-blowing skyscrapers. Looking at photos online and reading about all the amazing things to do there really got me ultra-hyped to visit.
Now that I’m finally going to visit Dubai, I’ve done even more research about entry requirements, costs, safety, getting around the city and things to see and do. To my great delight I’ve found out that Dubai is an easy budget travel destination for more reasons than just cheap accommodations. Here’s what I’ve discovered….
1. Free Tourist Visa on Arrival for Americans and other G1 countries
Nowadays a majority of countries in the world do not require visiting Americans to buy a visa or pay upon arrival to enter and explore their country. However, that’s not always the case. There are many countries that require a visa, usually a reasonably-priced one of about $10-25 US. That includes a few of UAE’s neighbors like Oman and Qatar.
And there are a few countries with really expensive visas, even for Americans, such as China, Bolivia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
Happily, UAE gives out free 30-day visas-on-arrival to Americans and citizens of other G1 countries, like Europeans countries and other first-world nations.
That makes UAE and Dubai less costly and considerably easier to visit for everyone, but especially nice for budget travelers, like me, who are always pinching pennies.
2. Lots of Cheap Accommodation Options
As I mentioned already, I was astounded to discover that Dubai has heaps of budget accommodation options. I don’t mean a handful, but dozens and dozens of places. They include hostels, small private rooms called ‘partitions’ and various shared rooms and private rooms on Airbnb.
I’m talking many for about $10 US per night, with a total cost of about $77-90 US per week (Airbnb fees). There are many others in the $14-20 US per night range and a total of about $115-150 per week. Some of these are in prime city locations!
If you can afford the $20-30 US per night range, $150-250 US per week, then you can find some quite luxurious private and shared rooms in key locations like Dubai Marina and central Dubai near the world’s tallest skyscraper, Burj Khalifa.
And these rates are found even during Dubai’s best visiting season, in winter from December through February or March. That’s when the notoriously HOT weather conditions in the region notch down to daytime temps of about 24-28 C / 75-82F and night-time temps of 18-24 C / 65-75F.
Now that I’ve spent hours and hours searching and re-searching for budget accommodations in Dubai, I do have to make some qualifications about these places. You do have to be careful about choosing rooms and making reservations. There are issues about how far places are located from attractions, potential scams, shared rooms filled with immigrant laborers and so on.
In fact, there are so many things to look out for and be careful of when selecting budget accommodation in Dubai, that I’ll write an entire post with tips, do’s and don’ts.
3. Great & Inexpensive Public Transportation
I was also very happy to learn that Dubai’s public transportation network is modern, clean, diverse, efficient and…very inexpensive! Yeah!
There are extensive lines of regular buses, trams, metros (subways) and river ferries, in addition to carefully regulated, relatively inexpensive taxis. These all fall under the government transportation system. That means you can buy a transport card (actually various choices of transport cards) that can be used on all the different modes of transportation, including the taxis!
Even better, it’s all pretty cheap. Depending on how far you’re traveling, a one-way fare costs 4 AED / 6 AED / 8.5 AED. That’s about $1.10 US / $165 US / $2.30 US. The latter fares cover a distance of about one hour.
Even better, passengers are allowed 180 minutes for that one-way fare. Within that time frame, you can switch between metros, buses, ferries and trams, as long as the time between any two doesn’t exceed 30 minutes. Your transport card keeps track of it all and charges you the final fare at the end of your last vehicle.
In my experience using public city transoration all over the world, a $1 US fare is about standard and reasonable. In some countries, it’s even less, maybe $0.25-0.50 US per ride!
But I’ve discovered this year that in UK and Europe, city transportation fares are MUCH more expensive. A one-way fare in most cities I’ve visited are 2.50-3.00 GBP or 2.50-3.50 Euro. That’s about $3-4 US for a one-way single bus or metro ticket! In many cities, if you switch modes, you have to pay again!
So heading to Dubai after traveling around UK and Europe for a year, Dubai’s transportation seems really cheap! But it’s at a normal low rate found in most countries around the world. And it certainly fits easily into low budget travel.
4. Reasonably Priced Groceries
I was expecting grocery prices in Dubai to be quite expensive, especially fresh fruits and vegetables and quite possibly meats as well. None of those things can be grown or raised in UAE, with its HOT desert climate, so all of it has to be imported.
I was a little nervous that it would cost me a small fortune to feed myself there. So I was pleasantly surprised when my pet sitting host in Dubai, a Scottish expat woman, informed me that grocery prices for everything are about the same prices as in UK / Scotland.
Well, I’ve found consistently that grocery prices in UK (including Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) are considerably cheaper than in the USA right now! So if Dubai grocery prices are like those in UK, I guess I will be eating for my usual $10 US per day. Saweet!
There are some great internationally-known supermarkets in Dubai, such as Carrafour, one of my personal favorites. Then there are also many local fruit & veg shops, fish & seafood markets, nuts & spice vendors and other food goods on sale at low prices all over the city.
5. Lots of free things to see and do
Dubai has so many amazing & diverse things to do that are completely free!
Besides admiring stunning skyscrapers and city skylines, there are beautiful parks, spectacular beaches with powdery sand and turquoise seas, historic districts full of ancient architecture and culture, museums, exotic traditional markets, huge modern shopping malls and public evening light shows.
Besides all the freebies, several fantastic activities and attractions have very low entry fees. These include guided tours of huge Jumeirah Mosque and many key museums.
Dubai has so many free and budget things to see and do that I will write a separate post detailing them all. So stay tuned!
Summary
As you can see, many factors come together to make Dubai a great budget travel destination. No visa is required for a 30-day tourist visit for most major countries’ citizens. A variety of accommodations and public transportation are very inexpensive. And there are dozens of fantastic free & inexpensive things to see and do.
I’ll be spending about one month in Dubai, so I’ll be sharing lots of photos and useful travel information about this exciting city as I go. Stay tuned for more on Dubai!
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In the meantime, you might also enjoy:
12 Things I Most Love about Turkey
18 Surprising Facts about Cyprus
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Hi! I'm Lash, an American nomadic world traveler who's been traveling solo since 1998. I’m passionate about traveling the world nomadically and then sharing it all with you. I hope to inspire you to travel the world, to entertain you with tales from the road, and to help you reach your travel dreams. Welcome! 
