Travel to Dubai on a budget – 7 tips for a Dubai cheap trip

Do you want to travel to Dubai on a budget? Most of the people think it’s very expensive to travel to Dubai. It’s a popular belief that you need to be rich to travel to this kind of destination. Still, that’s not true at all! It is not hard at all to travel to Dubai on a budget, so I have the perfect 7 tips for a Dubai cheap trip!
If you are interested in further advice about traveling on a budget, I have an article with 20 of my best tips. You can access it by clicking here. Also, you can check this article with 10 cheap countries to visit. There are a lot of cheap countries to visit, but I chose my favorites among the cheapest.

So let’s start with the tips!

1. Use apps for discounts

There are some applications that actually help you find discounts and offers.

A free one would be the Guzzle application which usually offers 2 for 1 offer. Another choice is a very popular website called Groupon. Before going anywhere or trying any new activity, you should check it out to see if you get any offers. You can find a lot of them, from discounts to 2 for 1 offer or deals.

There is a paid one too, called the Entertainer. If you’re not traveling alone, I think it would be worth it for lots of discounts at restaurants, bars, and activities.

2. Choose to do the free experiences first

This is actually a very important trick I do to save money when traveling. Even if I have some paid experiences I want to try, I will start with the free ones first. This way I can make sure I finish all the free activities I want to do in that place, then I can focus on the paid ones. This is a great method to reduce costs at a minimum.

Some free things you can do in Dubai are:

• Walk around Dubai Marina Walk
• Jumeirah Beach
• Shiva and Krishna Mandir temple (Hindu temple)
• See a horse race in Meydan
• Dubai Mall
• Walk around Souq Madinat
• Also, walk around Al Bastakiya
• See Camel racing

My favorite part was walking around Dubai Marina Walk. It’s just amazing and so relaxing! You can find lots of restaurants there too if you get hungry. One day we decided to walk randomly from Dubai Marina and see where we arrive and we actually saw a sign we got outside Dubai at some point. So careful how much you’re walking, especially if you’re a walking lover as us! haha

3. Avoid eating in hotels or touristic spots / cook at home or choose local restaurants

This is actually very common travel advice for budget travelers. Still, I must mention it here too, because you will save plenty of money in Dubai also. Imagine you’re going to a normal restaurant (not too cheap, not too expensive) and you spend $20 on dinner. From the supermarket, I usually spend $20 or less for three days (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). So you can save absolutely lots of money this way.

There is obviously more to add here, for example, what you buy from the supermarket. If you get fruits and vegetables, it will be clearly cheaper than getting fish, for example. If your budget for this trip is very low, there are lots of things you can purchase from your supermarket to keep your costs really at the lowest point. 

4. Take the metro

This is absolutely the cheapest way to travel inside Dubai. It’s very important if you want to travel to Dubai on a budget. Also, don’t buy single tickets, get an NOL card. Even if it costs 20 AED, it has 15 AED free credit. I would recommend you to read more about it and decide if it’s the best choice for you.

If the place where you want to go is far away from the metro, I would still get the metro until the closest point possible to the destination, then walk or get an Uber.

Important notice: if you are traveling with other people, you can also see the prices for renting a car. This is a very convenient transport and so easy! You can explore more and faster this way, you don’t have to wait for any bus or metro and you don’t have to walk extra. It could be way cheaper for all of you traveling and also gas is pretty cheap.

5. Choose a good location for the accommodation

Think this way: where you want to stay most of the time, you should have the accommodation there. If it’s a very expensive area, you can be a bit further away, but make sure you have a way to reach it without taking a taxi or an Uber.

I stayed right close to the beach in Dubai Marina and it was absolutely amazing! I tried to travel to Dubai on a budget to have a cheap trip and this location was perfect for this. I almost never took the metro or an Uber or any bus. I had both the Dubai Marina Walk and the beach very close to me. I was always walking there and I was also in the middle of great restaurants!

Indeed, if you want to travel to Dubai on a budget, it can be tricky. But for sure, it’s not impossible! I’ve used Airbnb to get accommodation on the 36* floor with an incredible view of The Palm for just $80 per night. I split the price with my boyfriend, so it was just $40 per night. The location was great, so if you don’t want something so “fancy”, you can get it for a way cheaper price.

6. Happy hours!

7. Enjoy the beach

Again, if you choose to stay in accommodation close to the beach, you can go and relax as much as you can, it’s free! The beach is great! It’s actually not too crowded and you can be sure the weather is great. The country is a very hot one, so you don’t have to worry about rain. 

P.S. I recommend you to travel just from December to February to avoid extremely hot temperatures that can ruin your vacation

7. Wrapping up – travel to Dubai on a budget

These are my best tips for a Dubai cheap trip. If you have any other ones, feel free to leave them down below in the comments. I will check them out and also you may help other people searching for tips.

Honestly, my trip to Dubai was actually cheaper than most of the trips in Western Europe. It was indeed more expensive than Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe, but not by a lot. If you want to keep the budget low, it’s totally possible to do so. Dubai can be both a very expensive place to travel to or a cheap place to travel to. Your decisions and comfort level will decide which one of them will be in your case.