Shared Evening Desert Safari at Al Badayer

About This Tour — Shared Evening Desert Safari

Shared Evening Desert Safari — the classic Dubai desert safari, run from our own camp at Al Badayer, and the package most first-time visitors should book.

I have driven this route several thousand times, and it still changes every week. Your afternoon starts with hotel pickup anywhere in Dubai in an air-conditioned Toyota Land Cruiser or Nissan Patrol. From Dubai we head out along the Dubai–Hatta Road (E44) towards Sharjah, and about forty-five minutes later the skyline is gone and the Al Badayer Red Dunes — the ridge everyone calls Big Red — fill the windscreen. We stop to drop tyre pressure, because soft sand needs a wider footprint, and then you get your 30 minutes of red-dune bashing: climbs, side slopes, ridge crossings and controlled descents, read live by a licensed desert driver who knows which faces are holding and which have collapsed since yesterday.

After the drive the pace drops. We park on a high dune for photographs while the sand turns from orange to deep red, then run a sandboarding session on a soft face and a short camel ride before the light goes. The evening finishes at our Al Badayer Desert Camp, where the BBQ buffet dinner, Tanoura and belly dance shows run under the open sky, with henna for the ladies, a designated shisha area and unlimited soft drinks, tea and Arabic coffee. You are back at your hotel roughly six hours after pickup.

This is a shared dune bashing desert safari: you travel with up to six guests in one 4WD, which is what keeps it at AED 150 per person. If you would rather have the vehicle to yourselves, the private evening safari is the same route with your own driver, and the full price guide compares every option.

Shared Evening Safari Photo Gallery

Real photographs from our Al Badayer desert camp and the Big Red dune field.

Desert Safari Step by Step

• Step 1

  Hotel pickup

  Your driver collects you from your Dubai hotel, apartment or residence in a shared air-conditioned 4WD.

• Step 2

  Arrive at Al Badayer

  We reach the Big Red dune area from the Dubai–Hatta Road (E44). The vehicle is prepared for soft sand and your driver checks that everyone is seated and belted.

• Step 3

  Red-dune bashing

  Around 30 minutes of guided 4x4 dune bashing: climbing dune faces, crossing ridges and controlled descents while the driver reads the sand.

• Step 4

  High-dune photo stop

  The pace slows at a scenic ridge so you can step out, take photographs and look across the open Al Badayer desert.

• Step 5

  Sandboarding and camel ride

  Slide down a soft dune on a sandboard, then take a short camel ride at the camp.

• Step 6

  Desert camp

  Refreshments, henna, the designated shisha area and the BBQ buffet dinner.

• Step 7

  Entertainment and return

  Fire show, Tanoura, belly dance and Yowla, then your drop-off back in Dubai.

Included & Not Included

Vehicle, pickup and desert base

Vehicle: Shared air-conditioned 4WD. Pickup: Afternoon pickup from your Dubai hotel or residence. Desert base: Al Badayer Desert Camp, Al Badayer Desert (Big Red), Sharjah, UAE, reached from Dubai via the Dubai–Hatta Road (E44). Plus Code XP57+V87, Al Badayer, Sharjah, UAE.

Pickup areas and any applicable transfer charge are confirmed before you book. Send us your hotel or building name on WhatsApp and we will check it.

Operated by BNB Travel & Tours L.L.C. · DTCM-Approved Tour Operator