United Arab Emirates on a budget is done easier than you think. Start with renting a car and drive around the country without spending loads of money. Check out our travel tips and tricks on how to do UAE on a budget.
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How to do a roadtrip around UAE on a budget?
Cheap travel tickets to UAE
With lots of airline promotion fares, you can already fly to UAE from Europe or even from USA or Asia for around 300€ return, and that is one hell of a deal! Stay alert with airlines like Emirates, Qatar, FlyDubai, Turkish, Alitalia, Wizzair.
Budget car renting in UAE
We always book a car for our rodtrips at www.economycarrentals.com and if you are not picky and demanding, you can get the cheapest car in UAE for about 13€/day – including insurance!
Cheap fuel prices in UAE
Another good point to rent your own vehicle in UAE is cheap fuel – you will pay 0,50€/liter. We only spent 88€ for 2500 kilometers. Instead of using taxis in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, we were driving around by ourselves, what saved us money as well.
Cheap accommodation in UAE
Wilderness camping is legal in UAE, what means you can save tons of money if you decide to pitch a tent somewhere in the wild. We have done just three nights in a hotel – two nights in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. All other nights were done as wilderness camping. It is completely safe and completely cheap! Otheriwse you can already find a fancy, modern, super clean hotel, with great location and a private rooftop pool for 70€/night. If you wish to stretch a bit more, check out our hotels we stayed in > Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Food and drink in UAE
You can spend a lot of money going in upscale restaurants and bars, but if you want to do your UAE travel on a budget, forget about that. Your best choice is to eat in Indian restaurants or buy your food in a grocery store. We have bought most of our food and soft drinks in supermarkets across the country, including fruit, veggies and meat, which we grilled on a single-use grills. We bought wood on petrol station to make camping fire in the evenings. We spent 50€/pp in 9 days.
Cost of entrance tickets in UAE
We wanted to do our UAE travel on a budget and that is why we decided to visit only few payable tourist attractions in UAE. Instead of spending tons of money, we spent only 72€/pp, but still experienced a lot! We visited Burj Khalifa (35€/pp), Miracle Garden (7,50€/pp), National Auto Museum (12,30€/pp), Dubai aquarium (17€/pp), did a ride in an abra (0,24€/pp), and seen lots of other tourist attractions, which were free of charge (forts, markets, desert, oasis, camel farms, Sheikh Zayed mosque and Al Bidjah mosque, fountain show in front of Burj Khalifa)
Cost of your visa
We did not need a visa to enter the UAE and that did save us some money. Make sure to check if you need a visa before traveling to UAE.
Travel insurance
This cost is optional, but we never travel without travel insurance. Luckily we have never used it, but better being safe than sorry.
International driving license
If you will be doing a roadtrip around UAE, make sure to have an international valid driving license as some renting companies don’t rent a car without it.
We are living example that also UAE on a budget can be done. All you need to do is make some compromises and you are ready to go. If you are not thrilled about wilderness camping, you can still stay in hotels, but that will cost you a little bit more – check out prices here. And remember, your travel budget is up to you and your travel style.
Do you know about doing a cruise from UAE? I am wondering how the prices compare from renting a car and doing it on your own. I find that generally it is cheaper to do a cruise than even backpack in expensive places!
Hi Megan!
hmmm… we are not familiar with doing a cruise from UAE, but it sure can be done. We noticed some cruising lines doing UAE and Oman together, what could be interesting. But unfortunately you normally have only a day in one place, what is not the perfect thing if you want to explore UAE or Oman more intensively. Happy traveling, Nina
wow. I think this is the first blog I came across for a budget trip for UAE. I was thinking that it isn’t doable being UAE an expensive place to visit.
Hi there, glad you found our travel blog 🙂 Well, lots of people thing UAE on a budget is not possible, but I guess you just have to make some compromises and everything gets much more affordable. And the best thing is that even you are traveling to UAE on a budget, you still can experience some luxury. 🙂