Dubai is known to be a luxurious and costly place. It is well-known for the tour destination of mostly the wealthy people. The hotels, foods, travel in the city, even the relaxing chairs in the beach let alone the plane fare to Dubai cost a lot of money. But if you plan it wisely, you can save more money and travel around Dubai and its beautiful places in such an affordable cost. Here I will discuss how to plan a budget for a Dubai trip efficiently.
First of all, the transportation. The local transportation modes include metro rails, buses and to some places- boats. Among them the metro is the most cost efficient, but it doesn’t connect all the places. So, to some places bus is the only mode of transportation. The metro can be as low as 2 USD, so if you are on a budget, you should definitely go with the metro. You can also travel by taxi. The taxi fare is pretty much inexpensive. For a 25 minutes’ drive, the taxi cost almost 13 USD.
Dubai comes with attached spa, swimming pools, beach view and luxury ocean-view restaurants. They are very expensive. Hotel rooms are as low as 60 USD for one-star hotels to as much as 24,000 USD in a suite in Burj Al Arab. That’s huge!!!!
However, you can stay at the one-star hotels with great comfort. Because even the one-star hotels are more luxurious than the 5-star hotels in many countries. Though the two areas- Mankhool and Deira are two of the cheapest places in Dubai. The downtown area is also cheap and next to the world famous Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall. Dubai Mall is the largest shopping mall in the world. So, living in the downtown can come in handy.
Right across the Dubai Mall there is the Business Bay Dubai. From the downtown, the Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) is 25 minutes’ drive away. The beach is one of the most beautiful places to visit. These places are all connected by the metro system. In Jumeirah Beach There are a lot of activities one can do in the beach for free. The beach volleyball, soccer, trampolines etc. are free to enjoy. The restrooms are also free of cost to use.
The resting facilities in the beach are not so cheap. The beach chairs are as much as 10 USD per hour and the cabanas with sunshades and towels facilities and more comfort are more expensive, too. The Palm Jumeirah is located near the Jumeirah beach and connected to the beach by sandy road. Together with Palm Deira it increases the shoreline by almost 500 kms. One can go the island by 5.4 km long Palm Jumeirah Monorail. It carries on average 3,000 passengers per day. A one-way ticket of the monorail costs 5 USD and return ticket for 7.5 USD.
The foods in Dubai are not very cheap. The foods are as low as 1.5 USD for tea and 50- 80 USD for the main dishes in lunch or dinner. But the foods are so delicious that you have to try most of them and the cost isn’t a waste of money. Delicious foods like falafel, camel meat biriyani, lamb leg roast and so on make Dubai the city of food.
The cost of crossing the river and go to the other part of the city is 0.5 USD. You should check the other part of the city if you want to get acquainted with the culture of Dubai.
The tour cost in Dubai is costly, but if you spend efficiently and wisely, you can save more. The tour budget of Dubai can be as low as 1000 USD if you spend very low on shopping. With expense on shopping, the cost can be as much as 2000 to 3000 USD for general expense.
