Dubai
6 options, all bookable direct with the operator: no OTA commission baked into the price, free cancellation up to 24 hours before travel.
A standard balloon carries two dozen strangers and one of their elbows is in every photograph you take. An exclusive basket carries your party only, lifts at the exact minute the light turns, and comes down to a breakfast laid on linen in the sand.
7 hours
from $3,540per vehicle · up to 7 guestsHyundai StariaRolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge from $5,623
Book this experienceAl Maha sits inside 225 square kilometres of protected sand that almost nobody is permitted to drive on, and that enforced emptiness is the actual product; the suite and the private pool are just where you sleep in it. The price covers the night, half board and two guided activities inside the reserve, and we drive you out and back so the escape does not start at a rental desk.
24 hours
from $1,498per vehicle · up to 2 guestsHyundai StariaRolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge from $4,833
Book this experienceThe reserve caps how many vehicles enter and where they may go, so this is the rare desert afternoon where nothing appears in your photographs except oryx, sand gazelle and the light. The car has no roof, no air conditioning and no doors, which sounds like a compromise until the first hour, when you understand it is the whole point.
6 hours
from $1,089per vehicle · up to 6 guestsHyundai StariaRolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge from $3,159
Book this experienceOur desert rule is a Nissan Patrol and nothing else, because soft sand punishes vanity, and the G 63 is the single exception: it is one of the very few road cars built with three locking diffs and it earns the exemption honestly. A second Patrol runs behind you the entire time with tow gear and a deflator, which is the difference between an expensive afternoon and an expensive anecdote.
4 hours
from $1,879per vehicle · up to 4 guestsHyundai StariaRolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge from $3,948
Book this experienceThe reserve caps how many vehicles are allowed inside it, which is why the dunes here look the way brochures pretend the rest of them do. Our Patrol takes you to the gate and a sixty-year-old Land Rover takes it from there, at a speed chosen to suit the landscape rather than the adrenaline.
6 hours
from $1,307per vehicle · up to 6 guestsHyundai StariaRolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge from $3,376
Book this experienceThe reserve caps how many vehicles may enter, which is why the oryx stand still and why the photographs have no tyre tracks across them. This is the desert evening for a family that wants the animals, the falcon and the dinner without the dune bashing and the sound system.
6 hours
from $1,307per vehicle · up to 6 guestsHyundai StariaRolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge from $3,376
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