Dubai & Abu Dhabi: Transport Guide

There are many different options for transportation in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, all which worked well for us. Here are some additional details on how to best navigate these options. For more information on planning a trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, check out our post here!

Taxis

Taxis can be intimidating when visiting foreign countries, but in Dubai don’t be afraid of taxis! Full disclosure – at first we were.

Taxis in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are very regulated and are one of your best transportation options. Every taxi has a screen in front with a photo of the driver and their name. The fee also runs on the screen and includes any tolls or additional fees that happen. You can pay via cash or credit card.

Many taxi drivers do drive aggressive so if you get motion sickness, just be aware. And by be aware, we just had to not be on our phones during the drive which can make us feel a little sick anytime we are in a car. 

We never felt unsafe and they did seem to get us to our destinations quicker! Their cars are clean and all of our drivers spoke enough English to get by. We averaged around 3-4 taxi rides per day during a 10 day trip so we have plenty of experiences to judge.

Uber is also very widely available if you prefer. We started off using Uber in the beginning because I felt more comfortable using a service that tracked me and included my final destination. Overall, taxis were generally almost half the price of an Uber. It was also very easy to track a taxi down and typically there was a line of them waiting outside of our hotel and popular tourist spots. They have a red/green light on their roof which indicates if they are available (green = available to use).

What To Watch For

While this is more rare, we did run into 2 occasions where a driver was “calling out” for anyone that needed a ride. Outside of a bar in the Marina neighborhood in Dubai a man who was chatting with the hotel/bar attendants and stopped us and asked if we needed a taxi. We got in and noticed that his car didn’t have the normal taxi light on top or the regulated screen inside. We went with it and he got us to our destination just fine, but the fee we landed on was higher than a normal taxi. Another similar occurrence was a driver claiming to be with Uber who was stopping people outside the mall in Abu Dhabi asking if they were looking for a ride. We told him no and went the other way.

Our assumption is that these drivers were probably fine but were planning to take advantage of tourists not knowing what their ride should cost to charge more. Taxis and Ubers are literally everywhere so just look for the normal taxi car or use your Uber app instead. Don’t be afraid to tell anyone no that approaches you for a ride.

Walking

While things may seem close, walking between certain destinations is not always easy. Because taxis are so cheap, it’s far easier to grab a ride than hope Google won’t lead you through a private hotel area claiming it’s a normal walking path. We had a heck of a time trying to get to the fountain area in front of the Burj Khalifa from our hotel nearby. Google constantly led us down dead ends between buildings which was frustrating because we could see the fountain area the entire time. We also noticed that intersections took a long time to cycle through before allowing people to cross.

We never felt unsafe walking around any time day or night!

Metro/Subway

Dubai does have a metro/rail system available that primarily runs in a straight line from one end of the city to the other. It is cheap and easy to navigate. What we found, though, is that if you weren’t staying by a station or if where you were trying to get to wasn’t right by a station then for just a little more cost it was much more convenient to take a taxi. If you are looking to jump on the subway from the mall it is a very long walk with many moving sidewalks to get to the station. If it’s a busy time of day there will also be long lines for tickets.

Traveling Between Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Currently there is no quick public transportation option to get from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. There is a bus service available which is cheap and efficient but you have to make multiple connections and the overall trip is going to be much longer than other options. We had originally planned to use this and were going to use the instructions we found here.

After evaluating options, we found that the easiest way between the two cities is taking a taxi or Uber. This is over an hour long drive which made me nervous to be in a taxi or Uber for so long but it was fine. Drivers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not like America where they try to chat the entire time. Every driver we had just drove and did their thing and we didn’t have to keep an awkward conversation going for over an hour. You’re also on a busy highway the whole drive so it didn’t feel like you were being taken anywhere remote.

Note that there are many guided tours that will include transportation between the cities and even pick you up from your hotel. We did this on one of our day trips to Abu Dhabi and it was very efficient!

Soon, a rail system will be available to take directly from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. This will make the visit so much easier!