They say that Dubai is very expensive. Yes, it is! And in this article I will show how much our vacation in the Emirates cost us, as well as what the prices are in Dubai in general – from visiting attractions to the cost of travel and food.
My name is Lesha, my girlfriend and I came to Dubai for 6 days. A typical classic vacation. We walked around the sights, lived in a hotel.
But at the same time, we also wanted to see life from the inside - we went into regular grocery stores and looked at the prices, or met guys from Russia and found out from them the cost of living in Dubai.
So, our expenses
Let's start with the fact that we flew to Dubai through a tour operator. It turned out that taking a tour is more profitable than buying plane tickets and a hotel separately.
Well, you also need to keep in mind that it would be difficult to book a hotel in Dubai without a foreign card. We didn't have one.
The cost of a tour for two in a 4-star hotel is 167,000 rubles.
It was possible to find one for 120-130 thousand, but we chose a hotel with a good location in the Dubai Marina area. And although the hotel is 4 stars, I would not give it so many stars.
How do you pay in Dubai?
"Buying a tour is easy. But how do you pay once you're in Dubai?"
I think this question arises for every Russian who travels somewhere abroad.
We exchanged currency in advance, while still in Russia.
In Yekaterinburg we had only one place where you could exchange rubles for dirhams - the central branch of Sberbank.
We took 3000 dirhams (approximately 75,000 rubles )
And also $300 just in case, since they might be needed in some places. (spoiler - they weren't needed).
We arrived in Dubai, what are the expenses?
The expenses were actually not that high:
- need to have lunch and dinner somewhere (breakfast was at the hotel)
- travel (public transport or taxi)
- visiting attractions
- some little things (buy water, snacks, tips at the hotel)
Let's go in order:
Nutrition
We tried to look for inexpensive places. Since on average, having lunch in Dubai for two will cost 6-10 thousand for two. If you eat like this all the time, your entire budget would go only on this.
Several times we found food courts or just McDonalds or KFC. The prices there are 50% higher than in Russia. So overall it is affordable. For 1500 rubles you can eat normally at KFC for two.
We visited different cafes several times. And each time it was very expensive. But we wanted to splurge, we are in Dubai!
1 dish will cost from 2000 rubles. Even if it is a regular Caesar salad, for example.
We spent about 35,000 rubles on food in total for 6 days. There are still plenty of places where you can eat on a budget. So the amount was small, in my opinion.
Directions
We moved around Dubai mainly by public transport.
90% - metro
10% - bus
and 2 times by taxi
To travel on public transport, you need to buy a travel card, which then needs to be topped up. And each trip, 4 or 6 dirhams are debited from it (depending on the distance). This is 100-150 rubles per trip.
Over 6 days we spent about 5,000 rubles on metro and bus travel for two.
There were also 2 taxi rides, where we also spent about 5,000 rubles!
There are 2 ways to use taxis in Dubai:
1. Or catch a taxi on the street and go by the meter (there are many taxis in the city)
2. Or order a Yandex taxi (we were surprised ourselves, but Yandex entered the Dubai market)
the prices are about the same
For example, we paid 2700 rubles for a 25-minute trip.
For comparison, a taxi in Dubai is approximately 4 times more expensive than traveling the same distance in Russia, choosing the "Business" tariff.
In general, taxis are expensive.
The metro is ok.
We spent about 10,000 rubles.
Attractions
We tried to find interesting places where you either have to pay a little to visit, or you don’t have to pay at all.
For example, you can see the Burj Khalifa, the singing fountains and visit the Dubai Mall - for free.
Walking around the steep man-made island of Bluewaters is free.
But in some places we paid to visit.
For example, we climbed to the Sky View observation deck for 2,200 rubles per person.
Or visit the golden frame, with an observation deck and a museum, for 1250 per person.
The sightseeing costs were about 10,000 rubles.
Little things
We spent another 5 thousand on little things: grabbing a snack, leaving a tip, and so on.
And in Dubai you can always find strong price contrasts.
For example, a bottle of water in one grocery store can be bought for 15 rubles, and in another it will cost 150 rubles.
Results and conclusion
In 6 days we spent about 60,000 rubles.
The total cost including the tour is about 227,000 rubles.
And you know, it's very easy to spend that kind of money in Dubai in half a day, if you want. There are plenty of activities for any budget.
But if our budget didn’t allow it, we could have done it for a much smaller amount!
In addition to vacation prices, I was also interested in finding out how much it costs to live here if you come here permanently? To find out, I talked to 3 guys from Russia, each of whom has been living in Dubai for at least a year, and found out how much they spend on living in the Emirates.
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