United Arab Emirates

Around fifty nationalities — the UK, US, Canada, Australia, every EU/Schengen state, plus Japan, Korea, China and others — get free visa-free entry stamped at the airport, increasingly for 90 days within a 180-day window rather than the old 30. Everyone else applies for an eVisa in advance through the government apps or their airline. The list keeps expanding, so it is worth a last-minute check on u.ae, but for most Western travellers there is nothing to arrange. Passports need six months’ validity, and visit visas extend twice by 30 days without leaving.

Ramadan changes the rhythm rather than closing the city: no eating, drinking or smoking in public during daylight, and some venues keep shorter hours, but hotels and most restaurants stay open (often screened), licensed bars still serve in the evening, and nights come alive with iftar. It shifts about eleven days earlier each year — in 2027, roughly early February to early March.

What’s relaxed: alcohol is legal in licensed venues for over-21s and the personal-licence requirement was dropped in 2023; unmarried couples have been able to cohabit legally since the 2020 personal-status reforms, and hotels don’t ask for a marriage certificate; swimwear is fine at the beach and pool. What isn’t: public intoxication is a real offence even when the drink was legal — it can mean detention — and drinking in a park or on the street is out. In malls, souks and public buildings, modest dress (shoulders and knees covered) is expected, and public displays of affection beyond hand-holding draw complaints.

Two cost-and-conduct facts that surprise people. Dubai’s 30% alcohol tax is back — suspended for a 2023–24 trial, reinstated 1 January 2025 — so a bar beer runs around $12 and a night out adds up fast. And Sharjah, the emirate next to Dubai, is entirely dry: no alcohol sold, possessed or consumed, which catches people staying there for cheaper hotels.

Dubai is the easy one: the driverless Metro’s Red Line links the airport, Downtown and Burj Khalifa, the Marina and Expo City, you tap in with a Nol card for a few dirhams, and taxis plus Uber and Careem fill the gaps. Abu Dhabi has no metro — its sights are dispersed and it leans on taxis, so a car or a lot of ride-hailing is the reality there. Between the two, public coaches run about 90 minutes for a flat AED 25 (Nol card only).

The change to watch is Etihad Rail’s passenger service, which is arriving in phases through 2026: the first route opens mid-year, the Dubai station is targeted for late September, and a ~57-minute Dubai–Abu Dhabi link is the promise — but it is not fully live at the start of the year, so confirm the status before relying on it.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is free, but needs a pre-booked timed slot and enforces a strict dress code — modest, ankle-to-wrist, and women must cover their heads, one of the few places in the UAE where that is required. The paid headline sights are timed-ticket and sell out days ahead in season: Burj Khalifa’s At the Top decks (from around AED 169, more for sunset and the higher Level 148), Dubai’s Museum of the Future (AED 169, regularly sold out), and the Louvre Abu Dhabi (around AED 65, closed Mondays).

The desert safari — dune drive, camel ride, BBQ dinner — is the standard tourist half-day, typically AED 130–250 a person and pricier in peak season. The engineered islands are a category of their own: Palm Jumeirah is fully built out, Bluewaters holds the 250-metre Ain Dubai observation wheel, and the World Islands are reachable only by boat.

The UAE spans the full range: the metro costs a few dirhams, Deira and Bur Dubai serve excellent South Asian meals for $6–8, and hostels exist — so a genuinely budget trip is possible, unlike Saudi’s thin budget tier. But two hidden costs bite. Alcohol is expensive with the 30% tax back — a bar beer is $12-plus, and drinking can add $50 a day, the single biggest swing versus dry Saudi. And a per-night Tourism Dirham (AED 7–20 by hotel rating in Dubai; a 4% tourism fee in Abu Dhabi) is added at checkout on top of the room rate.

The summer heat traps you indoors — June to September visitors describe bouncing between air-conditioned malls and taxis, unable to use the outdoors, and it’s the humidity they single out, not just the temperature. Everything can feel manufactured — the sights are largely engineered, the islands, the indoor ski, the world’s-biggest-everything — which some travellers find soulless next to older Middle-Eastern destinations. Abu Dhabi’s distances and car-dependence frustrate people expecting Dubai’s walkable metro. And two money gripes recur: the cost of alcohol and eating out, worsened by the 2025 tax, and persistent timeshare and tour touts at malls and tourist spots — verify any operator before you pay.