Traveling in the United Arab Emirates

You can’t do without using some particular kind of transport while exploring the country. All the kinds of transports have common marking. The marking could be on a very decent level because the direction signs with names of the streets and roads are really on every corner, but they are confusing to foreign tourists.

The names are, besides in Arabic, also in English which is the sticking point because the transcriptions from Arabic often differ from original which causes for example existance of more garbled names for one place. That leads to many misunderstandings because locals mistake those garbles a lot. That’s why in most cities orientation points like for example statues, monuments, marts or shopping centres which are known to everyone.

Car

Car seems to be positively the best variant of traveling which you can easily rent either from a big supranational rental or from a little home hire. We dare to reccomend big supranational rentals which have many subsidiaries on many places (airports, hotels) in big cities. Comparing to home hires, they are more expensive, but they beat their home competitors in offered services undoubtely. The price includes training ride and notably assistence service which is ready to solve any problem.
To rent a car, you need only three things:

• International driving licence
• Passport
• International credit card

The allowable speed in town varies between 40 – 50 miles per hour, out of town between 60-75 miles per hour. No alcohol is tolerated for drivers. Be careful while driving on local roads – local people’s drive is often very chaotic.

The roads don’t lead to mountains or desert areas, so it is very difficult to get there on your own. Luckily, many tourist agencies organise jeep trips, and in this case, tourists should rely on them. If you still desire an independent trip to the desert, it is recommended that at least two cars travel together. It is far-sighted to carry GPS and cellphone in case that some problems occur.

Cab

Traveling by cab is a very reliable way of transport in UAE. Cabs are at almost every corner, so it is not difficult to get one. They divide into two basic types of cabs: classic which take people in the city for shorter distances, and the cabs for driving people on longer (out of city) distances. Although the price of transfer is mostly floating, it is almost always a cheap way of transport. However, before starting every ride, ask the price to avoid unnecessary unpleasant surprise.

Public transport

The city public transport exist in most towns and is ensured by bus transport. The buses are on a high level, they are clean and air-conditioned. But noone worries about respecting the schedule.
The long-distance transport is ensured by big busses and minibusses. It is difficult to orient in this system because there are actually no schedules, so this way of transport is extremely unreliable. Reliable bus connection exist only between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.