Dubai Expensive
Skip hotel restaurants. Eat at Al Mallah (shawarma), Ravi (Pakistani), or Bu Qtair (seafood shack on the beach). Friday brunch is a Dubai institution.
Budget travel in UAE
What a visitor's money does in UAE: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Expensive average across 1 guide · 5 is very cheap
Money
UAE Dirham (AED) · 1 USD = 3.67 AED · 1 EUR = 4.21 AED
The dirham is pegged to the USD (1 USD = 3.67 AED, fixed). Exchange at Al Ansari or UAE Exchange offices in malls — very competitive rates.
ATMs
Avoid: Travelex machines at the airport, hotel lobby ATMs
Use: Emirates NBD, ADCB, Mashreq, FAB
Getting around
A short ride in Dubai: AED 15–35 across town — middling
From the airport: Dubai airport to Downtown AED 60–90, against AED 8 on the metro
Level with the cream taxis, which are metered, clean and plentiful.
City by city, cheapest first
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
