Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 77/w14

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 14, Edition 77

Here’s your latest edition of Dubai news, deals & tips, every Thursday, in 10 mins or less 👇

💸 New My Emirates Pass is out.

⛲ Dubai Fountain, Global Village confirm closing dates.

🚕 Driverless (Autonomous) vehicles (AVs) to launch in Dubai on Uber.

💡 Travel Gear recommendation - AirFly Pro.

🚗 All you need to know to be driven around Dubai (taxis, Careem, Uber, Hala etc)

Please note: I’ve tried two new sections this week, and I’d appreciate any feedback at all if you like, dislike etc. via the two polls below. I’m always keen to improve and make this newsletter the best it can be for you, and your feedback really, really helps.

Thanks for reading 👏 

Shaun

PS. You can always email me here

Please note: some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links, and will be denoted with an asterisk (*). This is a link to a partner site that may pay me a commission - at no further cost to you - and if so, helps to support me & this newsletter. For more info, please see Disclosure and Policies

DUBAI DEALS

New My Emirates Pass Is Out

Emirates has a promotion called My Emirates Pass that enables passengers to use their boarding pass for discounts around Dubai.

Whilst they usually run twice a year, roughly winter and summer, the current My Emirates Pass runs from 01 April through to 30 September. It started immediately as soon as the previous period finished, maybe due to Ramadan being earlier in the year. It doesn’t appear to be called Summer this time round though, maybe because Summer usually is mid June onwards in Dubai.

I’ll post a detailed run through on Eat Drink Stay Dubai after the weekend, and will also do an updated video on the YouTube Channel. In the meantime, check out the official Emirates Pass link below and last year’s explainer video and an article here.

By way of a teaser, here are some examples from the Leisure category. There are also Retail eg MMI (ie buying drinks), Mind & Body and Dining Experiences :-

• Aquaventure Waterpark

• At The Top

• IMG Worlds of Adventure

• Inside Burj al Arab tour

• Legoland

• Motiongate Dubai

• Platinum Heritage

Just remember the Golden Rule - do compare and shop around, as sometimes there are better discounts (ie a two for one with Entertainer may be better than a 20% discount).

🔗 My Emirates Pass

🔗 Eat Drink Stay Dubai: Emirates Boarding Pass Discounts

1 BIG DUBAI TIP

Taxi, Uber or Careem? Tips for Being Driven Around Dubai

Unlike many cities, Dubai runs taxis through one central authority - Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), who also manage all public transport. Dubai Taxi Company (DTC) is the main taxi operator, which is part of RTA. There are also niche taxi services such as female-only, Hatta taxi etc. Other companies than DTC do run taxis in Dubai, and you can identify them by their roof colours, but DTC are the most common.

On arrival at the airport, each terminal has its own taxi rank, which will feature both saloon and MPVs for bigger groups. Marshalls will help guide you. Expect to pay approx. 2.75 AED per km from the airport and approx 2.5 AED per km elsewhere. These ballpark rates should cover tolls (Salik) and even a small tip, but the meter should always be on.

Dubai taxis may try the ‘card machine not working’ trick, as the drivers of prefer cash. IF the card machine is not working, the journey HAS to be free. The way to deal with this if it happens is to make to call RTA on 0800 90 90 or +971 4 605 1414 - there is also an information plate in the vehicle - and you will often find the machine miraculously starts working, as the driver will get in trouble with RTA or be told to allow the journey for free.

Whatever you do, avoid the offer of ‘limos’ - which are often unliveried prestige saloon cars such as Lexus - as they’re not metred, and often at least 30% more expensive. These vehicles are generally private contractors, often on platforms like Uber or Careem, and NOT taxis.

You can hail Dubai taxis in the street, or call RTA central number to book. Most popular places such as Dubai Mall often will have a taxi rank, and taxis may often hang around car parks of hotels, or hotel staff will often call a taxi for you.

Dubai Taxi Company (DTC) also has its own app which you can hail through.

The ride-hailing platform Uber is available in Dubai, along with the local competitor (which Uber bought out but still runs separately) Careem. Bolt recently started operations a few months ago, and you can also arrange airport taxis via Bolt. I would generally tip Careem over Uber in Dubai, but of course it depends on your needs.

Careem offers a service called Careem Kids, which solves the problem of child seats (children under 4 must be in a child seat according to local law).

Be wary of ‘surge pricing’ if you are using ride-hailing apps. The apps also allow other things like food ordering and delivery.

Where it can be get a little confusing is there is ‘app overlap’, as everyone tries to encroach onto each other a little in terms of operations. RTA tried to get into the ride-hailing business with their ‘Hala taxi’, which is available as a standalone app, but these are also available on Careem.

Similarly, if you need a bigger vehicle - ie more than 4 passengers - you can use the ride-hailing apps or RTA/DTC. For example, Careem will offer “Max” but also “Hala Max”, the former being private vehicles for 6 whereas the latter is RTA vehicles for over 6.

There are also other platforms and companies which offer niche vehicles - I’m not going to go into Supercars though! - such as Blacklane, which is a worldwide service offering prestige, chauffeured vehicles with the advantage that you can book in advance as well as hailing. There are also several local companies offering similar services, such as Black Limo.

Last but not least, the one thing I would always advocate to be careful of is, things like this often need done the right way. When you hire a taxi via RTA, it’s a vetted driver with authorisation, insurance and the like. One body will govern all operations, and Dubai authorities put a strong focus on customer service. There will always be the ‘man with a van’ type fellas that can do it cheaper, but you need to consider what you may be giving up as a concession to get that lower price - such as, quality of vehicle, authority to drive for reward, registrations, insurance, breakdown etc. It won’t be a ‘apples to apples’ comparison to price a RTA taxi with an everyday, random ‘guy with a car’ to run you around.

One last tip, and it’s a personal opinion - if you are thinking of hiring for self-drive, I’d suggest it’s only really worth it if you’re going to do big miles, such as driving to other Emirates. If all you’re looking to do is move around Dubai, taxis are convenient and cheap enough whereas when you self-drive you need to consider the pitfalls such as :-

• there are lots of ‘reseller’ hire car companies; stick to the ‘main’ international ones I’d suggest

• hire car companies often make money on charges, damage, fines etc as well as the hire cost

• driving standards are likely very different, as is navigation and road layout

• local laws can take some getting used to - eg minimum speed lanes in Abu Dhabi

• it’s difficult enough understanding all those documents, more so if some forms are in Arabic

TRAVEL GEAR

My Travel Gear, That You May Like: AirFly

Following on from last week’s poll, I’ve been asked to include a few more general travel tips, gear recommendations or my ‘loadouts’ (i.e. stuff I travel with). I’m undecided whether I should launch a separate newsletter for this type of content, and just keep this one to ‘Dubai’-centric content. If you’ve any feedback either way on this one, do let me know with the poll below.

So as a tester, I thought I’d share one of the many things I travel that I think is pretty cool. I love my Airpods, and airline headphones - even in premium classes - don’t quite cut it for me. I use the Twelve South AirFly Pro*, which simply plugs into the headphone jack of seat socket and then transmits to wirelessly connect your Airpods to ICE/whatever in-flight entertainment system. It’s not just airplanes they work on - you can use them on the treadmill, for instance.

You can check the links below to see the different models and which may be right for you, as some will allow two passengers to connect to one AirFly*.

🔗 Twelve South Air Fly on Amazon*

DUBAI NEWS

Dubai Fountain and Global Village Announce Closing Dates

Dubai Fountain has confirmed the final show before closure will be 19 April.

Global Village will end its 29th season on 11 May. Dubai Miracle Garden, Dubai Garden Glow and Dubai Safari Park haven’t confirmed their summer closure dates, but keep an eye on this article which will likely be updated when they do.

Dubai Police recently showed Supercar Blondie their world’s fastest police boat.

How Dubai International Airport is “taking layover dining to new heights”.

Uber and WeRide will bring Automonous Vehicles (AV) to Dubai in cooperation with Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA). WeRide will be the ‘technology partner’ providing the vehicles, with Uber being the platform that will match the vehicles to passengers. No dates have been confirmed as yet, so don’t hold your breath!

Great to see Frying Pan Adventures and Orfali Bros listed amongst “9 Exciting food experiences in Dubai”.