Dubai Camel Safari (Desert Safari with Camels!)

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Dubai Desert Safaris are popular with visitors to Dubai, but not all Desert Safaris offer camel rides or camel trekking. There are many places to take a camel ride in Dubai, including some beaches, but to combine camels with Dubai’s desert safari camps and entertainment, you need to book this tour!

Camels Dubai riding
Riding camels in Dubai is a must-do! Doing it at a desert camp is fabulous.

Dubai Camel Safari Review by World Travel Family, specialists in global family travel.

We’ve now taken this desert safari in Dubai twice. It included camel riding, desert camp in the sand dunes, a buffet dinner, a show with belly dancing and tanoura dance, and a 4×4 pick-up from our hotel. Other optional activities such as quad bikes, dune surfing, and dune bashing were available. Our original review and details on how to book a desert safari camp with camel safari, are below. We took kids on this Dubai desert safari tour twice and it was well worth doing, highly child-friendly and fun for the whole family.

Dubai camel safari in the desert. Family fun on a camel safari.
A sunset desert safari camel ride in Dubai. We loved this tour so much, we did it twice, with younger and older kids.

“Last night was the most fun we’ve had in a long time, and that’s saying a lot! The boys and I are in Dubai before catching our cruise ship to Australia and we’re doing our best to get a taste of what this amazing city offers tourists. We already took a cultural tour and lunch which was amazing and educational, visited Dubai Mall, watched the fountain show at the Burj Khalifa, and generally had a fantastic time, but you can’t come here without taking a Dubai Camel Safari or at least riding a camel, so that’s what we did.

It took some searching to book this desert safari tour, it’s hard to book anything in Dubai, but eventually, we found our perfect camel and desert tour online.

Our camel ride had to be in the desert not on the beach and we wanted dinner, a show, a pick-up, and everything to be easy, this trip was perfect.”

You can check out the exact desert safari tour we took at the end of our post. It comes highly recommended. There are various other Dubai, camel and 4×4 desert tours featured further down this page and they are all slightly different.

Always check exactly what each tour includes as they do vary from time to time and this tour may have changed since we took it. Check you’ll get a long camel ride not a short one if that’s what you wan

Dubai Camel Safari in the Desert

This Dubai camel safari is a standard desert safari, but with the major option being a longer camel ride across the sand dunes at sunset. Most of these desert safari options include the same desert camp, dinner and dancing. The whole experience was very good, well worth the price and well worth doing.

Dubai Desert Safari with Camel Riding for families.

For you, for Pinterest

Where Did We Stay in Dubai?

We stayed in a very nice and affordable apartment hotel with washing machine. Click through to check prices and availability on Agoda. This is by far the best apartment hotel we’ve used in Dubai out of, now, 3 visits.

2 of the apartment hotels we’ve used in Dubai were disappointing, old, smelly and tattered. Take a look at the one above, it’s also one of the cheaper options. Apartment hotels are absolutely the way to go in Dubai, Golden Sands is often mentioned, we’ve tried them and they weren’t as good as the hotel above but their standard varies as they own multiple buildings.

The Dubai Camel Safari

We thought we’d have one big, fairly expensive, touristy splurge on an evening in the desert, with camels, food, belly dancing, the full desert-camp extravaganza.
It cost us a fair bit, over $300, but it was totally worth it.

Are Dubai 4×4 Desert Safaris Good for Children?

My younger child at 8, gets car sick occasionally, but that wasn’t the reason we decided against the dune bashing. I just didn’t think the kids would enjoy it.

Four Wheel Drive Desert Safari Vehicles at Desert Camp Dubai
Four wheel drive vehicles converge on the desert camp at sunset.

We owned a 4 wheel drive back in Australia and they never liked being bounced about in the back when we went off-road. I read that children struggle to see out of the back windows of the vehicles, which was confirmed to us when we took the short 4X4 trip from the main road to our desert camp.

We were squashed in the back row of an 8 seater and the windows were tiny.  I don’t think we missed anything by not taking the popular option. If you’d like a little more excitement as part of your safari, dinner, and show package, quad bikes are also available.

Dubai Camel Riding at Sunset in the Desert with Kids

Enjoying the desert sand dunes on our Dubai camel safari .

Camels are cool. We wanted camels. Not on the beach (you can do that in Dubai too), we wanted camel riding in the actual desert, so I spent a morning trying to find a tour that would let us do this without the off-roading. It wasn’t easy, there didn’t seem to be many, but I eventually found one and booked online. The children were blown away by the desert biome and the camels much better behaved than those we rode at the Pyramids in Egypt.

Dubai Camel Safari, What’s Included?

Camel safari desert Dubai. Henna Painting Included
Both the boys went for henna painting during the evening entertainment, the local women were quick and skilled.

This is what was included on our desert safari in Dubai, with the camel riding option. Inclusions can vary so check details thoroughly.

  • Pick up from our hotel at 3pm in a new, comfortable vehicle. We picked up 4 other passengers.
  • 4 wheel drive transport from the road to the desert camp.
  • A 45 minute camel ride, just the 3 of us. Our camel-wrangler allowed the boys to get off and run around the sand dunes at the half-way point.
  • Water
  • Henna painting
  • Dress up in traditional Emirati outfits. Unfortunately, there were no child sizes.
  • Dinner at camp, buffet-style,and it was good!
  • A dance show with belly dancing and male dancers doing something very similar to the dervishes in Turkey.
  • Drop off at our hotel at around 9pm.
  • There was a hunting falcon at the camp but no photos without a $10 payment.
  • Endless running up and down sand dunes while mum enjoyed her first and only expensive beverage.
Desert Camp after the Dubai Camel Safari guests can enjoy dinner, belly dancing and a show.
The desert camp comes alive as the sun sets on Dubai.

Do Dubai Camel Safaris Run All Year?

Yes, Dubai camel safaris do run all year, with some seasonal adjustments. The frequency in summer is often reduced according to demand. During the very hot summer months, particularly July and August, it would be very hot, even at night on these tours.

Our Verdict on the Dubai Camel Safari:

We loved it. The boys adored the camels and the dunes. Dinner was great, there was lots of choice and plenty of food. The kids pronounced the dancing “better than expected”.

How to Book a Dubai Desert Safari with Camel Ride?

The company we used is below, booking through us costs you nothing extra.

We booked our Dubai camel safari here, check pricing and availability by clicking through. Highly recommended for the ease of booking, a few clicks and we were done, ready to picked up from our hotel. They offer loads of other quality Dubai tours too, you can see some featured on this page.

I’m in a rush, we join our ship tomorrow and my internet time will be limited, just time to squeeze out one last post for our followers. I’ll let the pictures tell the story with this one and tell you that the kids are begging to go camel riding and dune jumping again. If you have any questions just leave them in the comments and I’ll fill in the blanks once we’re back on dry land. I may just share my video of the belly dancer too.

Dubai with kids book a desert camel safari without dune bashing blog

If you hover over the images on this page a Pin It button will appear so you can bookmark to Pinterest Or, if you use the Pinterest buttons, you get a choice of pins, thanks.

Update: We did it all over again last year, the same desert safari without dune bashing. The boys were begging to go back and this Dubai camel safari tour was just as good 2nd time around. We did our research and we think we’ve found the best desert safari tour right here. This is the stuff of childhood dreams and I’m so glad they got to do this, twice. Use our links above to book. We also took a speedboat tour to see the palm and Burj al Arab at sundown, and a Dubai cultural tour with lunch, both with this company, we recommend both. Our Dubai travel blog page gives you heaps more information of enjoying your Dubai trip.

If you'd like to hire a car during your stay, use this car rental comparison tool to find the best deal!

We also suggest you take a look at this company to get a quote for all kinds of the more tricky adventure or extended travel insurance.

Try Stayz / VRBO for an alternative way to find rentals on homes/apartments/condos in any country!

About the author
Alyson Long
Alyson Long is a British medical scientist who jumped ship to chase dreams. A former Chief Biomedical Scientist at London's West Middlesex Hospital she started in website creation and travel writing in 2011. Alyson is a full-time blogger and travel writer, a published author, and owns several websites. World Travel Family is the biggest. A lifetime of wanderlust and over 6 years of full-time travel, plus a separate 12 month gap year, has given Alyson and the family some travel expert smarts to share with you on this world travel site. Today Alyson still travels extensively to update this site and continue her mission to visit every country, but she's often at home on her farm in Australia.

30 thoughts on “Dubai Camel Safari (Desert Safari with Camels!)”

  1. This article is very helpful to enjoy desert safari camp with camel safari, and we have get very important knowledge about Dubai Camel Safari, and this place is enjoyeable place in dubai.
    Make your trip enjoyeful with luxury car with chauffeur service

    Reply
  2. Thanks a lot for sharing with us this amazing trip report about your desert safari in dubai.

    Reply
  3. I look at the pictures and remember how we had a great vacation in Dubai too! Beach, sun, excursions. We also dubai safari booking Riding a buggy on the sand was the most exciting.

    Reply
  4. Hi, I’ve just stumbled across your page and this camel safari looks great – however I’m struggling to find the correct tour. When I hit the link it comes up with a huge amount of options and am unsure of which one you are talking about. would you mind giving some more direct link to the one you booked? thank you,

    Reply
    • @Alyson Long for World Travel Family,

      Hi. I am also struggling to find the link. I have followed your instructions above but firstly I can’t find the sentence’this is the exact one’ and secondly the link takes me to ‘Get your guide page’ with jo option shaded or flagged as ‘your pick’. Can you help find the company name or link please? it may changed since then so may be the full name when you click on it it’s listed or the price it gives could help me find it. Thanks

      Reply
      • It should be the one at the top if you go through to GYG. They won’t open the actual tour any more, they just take you to a results page, there’s no way round that. But I’ll have a look when I get some free time. A lot of these tours all go to the same camp, with different options for camels, 4x4s etc.

        Reply
  5. Do you think they have changed it since you first went? You mentioned that you did a 45 minute camel ride, but when I followed the link to the site, it refers to a ‘short camel ride’. Falconry & alcohol also no longer seem to be included (though it may mean these are additional extras). Could you take another look at the link and let me know what you think.

    Reply
    • I’ve looked and yes it is the same as far as I can see. Falcon holding and photos were always extra and of course you have to pay for your own alcoholic drinks. It’s very expensive, I think $10 for 1 beer. 45 mins is a short camel ride, to compare to people looking for extended camel trekking.

      Reply
      • Great, thanks. There were a couple of reviews I came across of other tour operators where the camel ride was described as being only a minute or so (basically get on and have photo taken & not much more), so wanted to be sure we don’t end up with one of those.

        Reply
  6. Dubai..!! So many times I have been there.!! Best part is the positivity of this place and the people are so freaking great.!!!
    I love the Desert Safari Dubai very much.

    Reply
  7. Nice article!!!!! Dubai is a beautiful travel destination in UAE. There are such best places for kids.

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  8. Great experience. I must come to the city this year. Never thought about camel riding, must be great

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  9. Dubai is the best city in UAE; I like camel riding Safari tour & your travel is amazing. Thank you very much for sharing your camel riding safari tour information.

    Reply
  10. Oh wow this sounds incredible and I love the title picture of the camel! 😀 What an amazing experience. I’d love to do all of it, the camel riding, visiting the dessert, getting henna, watching the belly dancing. What a wonderful day out! Thank you so much for linking to #whatevertheweather x

    Reply
  11. Your travel with kids looks amazing! It is so great that the kids can experience like this. The belly dancing is always a plus. Who doesn’t like belly dancing? Great choice! Look forward to seeing the vdo. Have a great cruise back to Australia! 🙂 #Whatevertheweather

    Reply
  12. It looks amazing! I would love it and I’m sure it would be much more exciting travelling by camel than car. I don’t think the boys could cope with the heat in Dubai yet (nor can we afford it!), but maybe when they’re older and we have more money saved up.
    Love all your fabulous adventures with your family, I really hope I can give my boys such great adventures as you are. Thanks for linking up to #Whatevertheweather 🙂 x

    Reply
  13. I do love camels – not a cheap one, but definitely an experience and a lot more fun for kids than a 4×4 I think. #whatevertheweather

    Reply
  14. your travel is so amazing, you need also visit the sahara of morroco

    Reply
  15. Hi, I am planning to visit dubai this year. I’ve read a lot of blogs about the great destinations in Dubai. Indeed your article add something for me to do. Do you have any recommendation for a 3-day travel? By the way, I am a natural food enthusiast and would like to taste something new every time I travel. I also heard from my Lebanese friends that Filful Beirut is opening in Dubai. Have any idea?

    Reply
  16. Hi!
    I can’t believe we just missed you in Siem Reap! We were there the same week you were and experienced the power outage on our last night! Tomorrow we fly to Dubai and want to do the camel safari like you did – can you please tell me which company you used? Thanks!!

    Reply
  17. Hi there – your kid friendly camel evening sounds just what we’re looking for … Could you please tell me who you did it with? Kate

    Reply

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