# Retro Desert Safari: A Stylish Journey Through Dubai's Dunes > We take you inside a stylish desert safari in Dubai: classic Land Rovers, Bedouin dinners under the stars and old-school luxury. Discover the details. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/retrosafary-na-peske-stylnoe-puteshestvye-po-pustniam-dubaia/ - Language: en - Published: 2026-01-09 - Categories: Culture, Leisure, Tours, UAE, Animal Rides, Relaxation --- Hammad, a local Bedouin camel farmer everyone calls "uncle," is looking at me as if I've just insulted him. I'm in the middle of a lavish desert safari, exploring the sands of Dubai, and Hammad is chatting with me over a traditional Emirati breakfast of cardamom-scented pancakes drizzled with date honey. I've just asked how it felt to watch Dubai transform from a desert outpost into an international city in 25 years, and now I'm bracing for a lecture on the ills of modern life and how materialists like me are defiling his land. "My grandfather had a tent and a camel..." He pauses and raises his greying eyebrows at me, then his face crinkles into a sun-weathered grin. "And I have a five-bedroom villa with air conditioning and a racehorse! You think I don't like it?" Turns out he's a happy man. Dubai's Bedouins are no longer dusty nomads searching for a home; today they're part of the emirate's modern landscape of luxury golf clubs, soaring towers, shopping malls and theme parks. Yet beneath the surface, their history and culture are still there to be discovered, as I found out the day before when I joined the Platinum Heritage safari team on the edge of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. ## Untouched Desert The "platinum" part of this safari refers to the Reserve, the most pristine desert in Dubai, though it could just as easily describe the five-star service we receive while exploring it. Heritage? Open-top Land Rovers from the 1950s, in bright yellow or deep green, older than the unified country they roll across, with wheels like concrete and engines that sound like lawnmowers. Before we set off, Sharaf, our Egyptian driver in mirrored aviators, handed out black-and-white keffiyeh headscarves. ![Open-top vintage Land Rover on a Dubai desert safari](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-231-1-2025.jpg) As we tied them on under his guidance, I cringed inwardly (who doesn't feel like an impostor in another culture's national dress?), but I soon understood how essential they are. As the cars pick up speed they kick up sand, and the tail of the scarf can be pulled across to shield your face from the grains. There would be no "dune bashing" on this trip, Sharaf explained. Beyond the obvious mismatch with these classic cars, it can be devastating for the desert ecosystem. It destroys the fragile habitat of the underground creatures that make up 95% of the land fauna found in Dubai's nature reserves. We glided gently over the dunes and stopped at various points for photos. In some places the sands were golden, bare and barren, scattered with the bones of petrified trees and rippling away to the horizon. In other areas the sands were reddish, shaded by giant ghaf trees and Arabian acacias, with shrubs sheltering the tiny animals that live there. ## Aerial Acrobatics Near one meagre watering hole, delicate gazelles and ungainly oryx waited on the fringes. They weren't afraid of the camera, but they wouldn't come back until we'd gone. Later we were driven to higher ground, where rugs had been spread across the sand before a natural amphitheatre. Falcons waited on their perches, hooded but untethered. DEWA, a peregrine falcon (named after the local energy company on whose power lines this lazy bird loves to sit), and Wasp, a Barbary falcon, put on a show with their trainer as the sun slipped behind the distant city lights of Dubai. The birds never once touched us, but they buffeted our heads with gusts of air as they swooped close enough to make us squeal. At dusk we entered our camp for the night, a stone-walled compound established by Sheikh Butti al-Maktoum and granted to Platinum Heritage on the condition that they offer a genuine window into Emirati culture. We chatted with a few of the other passengers and drivers over dates and gahwa (Arabic coffee) before the ouzi (a whole spiced roast lamb) was lifted from a charcoal pit. In the desert silence we ate a traditional meal, wonderful and exotic, even to me, a longtime Dubai resident. When the luqaimat (addictive little Emirati doughnuts) arrived, we were entertained with traditional Khaleeji dances, in which the women sway their long black hair, and Yolas, in which the men beat out a rhythm with camel canes. We smoked shisha, sitting on rugs around the fire, until the desert chill sent us off to sleep in our camel-hair tent nearby. ## Terrifying Driving The Platinum Heritage experience is a world apart from many of the desert safaris on offer. Others vary in the details and intensity, but the formula is usually the same: a pickup in a white Land Cruiser, a convoy drive to the edge of the desert, where the tyres are deflated for better grip on the sand. ![White Land Cruiser dune bashing on a Dubai desert safari](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-231-2-2025.jpg) The drivers then proceed to scare tourists half to death, hurling the cars over the dunes in ways that would surely void Toyota's warranties. I once took a GoPro on one of these rides. All the footage I got was sand and sky, the odd glimpse of the car's interior and the wail of a terrified Scottish woman in the back seat, a broken record of "No, no, no, no, no, no, nooo!" punctuated by the occasional squeal or the sound of someone gagging. Some of these safaris then round off the horror with disappointment: an evening in a fenced compound packed with camels and quad bikes, a low-grade buffet, beer and a belly dance from a Russian performer. I'd been on far too many of them without realising what I was really missing, until now. The morning brings both sunshine and a clear head. The cold night wind has swept the sands clean, leaving only the tracks of the desert's mysterious wildlife. Hammad laughs and chatters as if we're family, welcoming us into a culture that stays hidden from many visitors to the UAE. He shows us that it's open to anyone willing to seek it out; they just need to know where to look. ## How to Explore the Sands Platinum Heritage offers a range of safari options, including vintage Land Rover tours, private overnight safaris, dinner safaris, camel safaris, wildlife-watching trips, as well as Bedouin breakfasts and falconry experiences. If dune bashing and belly dancing are more your thing, Arabian Adventures is the biggest operator. There are others, too. Those who prefer to drive themselves should get in touch with Off Road Zone, which runs half-day desert driving courses. Al Maha Resort offers nature without the adventure, but with plenty of luxury. The resort is linked to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve and has gazelles and oryx roaming freely across its grounds. Rates start at around 6,000 AED (US$1,600) per room per night.