With kids
A camel ride Dubai kids remember is almost never sold on its own. On all twenty listings here the camel sits inside a desert day, and the honest question for a parent is not whether there is a camel — there is one in the name of every listing on this site — but how long the rest of the day runs and how late it finishes. This page lays out the camel ride Dubai kids get at the camp, the six listings that suit a family best, and what to check on the listing before you pay. Prices run from $30 to $305, and the tour this site leads with is $69.
Quick answer
The short answer. For the fullest family day book $69: seven hours, three buffets at Al Khayma Camp and a camel ride Dubai kids will talk about on the drive home. For the shortest evening with the same camel and the sky afterwards, book $35. For the version with the most feedback behind it, book $30. And if the camel is the reason you are going at all rather than one stop among many, book $79.
How the day works
A desert day out of Dubai has a shape that barely changes between operators. You are collected — part of these listings include hotel pickup, and that is written on the listing rather than assumed — and you are driven out of the city until the buildings stop. Then there is a stretch of sand, a camp, and a set of things arranged around it. The camel ride Dubai kids are promised is one of those things, and it is a loop on a led animal rather than an expedition.
What surprises families is the arithmetic of the day rather than the camel itself. A four-hour listing is four hours door to door, and a good part of that is the road. A seven-hour listing such as $69 or $46 is most of an afternoon and an evening, ending after dark with dinner and a show. That is a wonderful evening for some children and a very long one for others, and nobody can make that call for you.
The order at the camp is loose. People arrive, and then the activities are open in parallel: sandboarding on a dune, henna, the camel queue, tea. The camel ride Dubai kids join usually has a line in front of it early on and almost none half an hour later, which is worth knowing if your child would rather not wait. Guides lead the animal on a rope; an adult can walk beside a smaller child, and on the listings that seat two, a parent and a child often go up together.
Then the evening settles. The buffet comes out, the show starts, and the desert goes quiet and dark around the camp lights. This is the part parents describe best afterwards: the camel ride Dubai kids came for turns out to be the opening act, and the hour of sitting on a carpet under a very dark sky is what the family remembers.
Every trip, current fare
Six of the twenty listings on this site, chosen because the day around the camel is the gentlest of the set. The cost-per-hour column is the honest way to compare a four-hour evening with a seven-hour one, because they are not the same purchase.
| Tour | Length | Price | What is included | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai: Evening Desert Safari with Camel Ride & StargazingDubai: Evening Desert Safari with Camel Ride & Stargazing | 4 h | $35 | An evening desert safari with a camel ride and stargazing | $8.75 | 4.8 · 2,080 |
| Dubai: Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma CampDubai: Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp | 4 h | $30 | A desert safari, a quad bike, a camel ride and Al Khayma Camp | $7.50 | 4.9 · 71,790 |
| Dubai: Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride, and Buffet DinnerDubai: Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride, and Buffet Dinner | 7 h | $46 | A safari, a quad bike, a camel ride and a buffet dinner | $6.57 | 4.9 · 33,555 |
| Dubai: Premium Safari, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp 3-BuffetsDubai: Premium Safari, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp 3-Buffets | 7 h | $69 | A premium safari, a camel ride and three buffets at Al Khayma Camp | $9.86 | 4.9 · 30,728 |
| Dubai: Sunset Camel Trek, Al Khayma Camp, Stargazing & BBQDubai: Sunset Camel Trek, Al Khayma Camp, Stargazing & BBQ | 6 h | $79 | A sunset camel trek, Al Khayma Camp, stargazing and a BBQ | $13.17 | 4.8 · 2,630 |
| Dubai: Desert Safari, Camel Ride, BBQ Dinner & Live ShowDubai: Desert Safari, Camel Ride, BBQ Dinner & Live Show | 4 h | $30 | A desert safari, a camel ride, a BBQ dinner and a live show | $7.50 | 4.9 · 5,807 |
Choosing between them
Four hours is the safer bet with younger children. $35 runs four hours in the evening and puts a camel ride and the night sky in the same trip, rated 4.8 across 2,080 reviews. $30 is also four hours and carries 71,790 reviews, which is the largest pile of feedback anywhere in this niche. Both get you back at a reasonable hour.
Seven hours is a whole evening out. $69 is the day this site leads with: a premium safari, three buffets at Al Khayma Camp, a camel ride Dubai kids can join, and a rating of 4.9 across 30,728 reviews. $46 is the same length with the buffet dinner as its centre. These are excellent evenings and they are long ones, so think about your own children rather than about the listing.
If the camel matters more than the rest, there is a listing for that. $79 is six hours built around a sunset camel trek, with Al Khayma Camp, stargazing and a BBQ after it, rated 4.8 across 2,630 reviews. Here the camel is not a queue at a camp, it is the shape of the evening, which is a different day for a child who came for the animal and nothing else.
The show is a real factor. $30 runs four hours and ends with a BBQ dinner and a live show at the camp, rated 4.9 across 5,807 reviews. Some children sit through a show delighted and some are asleep by the second act. You know which one you have.
Before you book
None of this is difficult, and all of it is easier to sort out the night before. The right-hand column is what tends to happen when it is left.
| What to check | Where it lives | Why it matters | If you skip it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The minimum ageand any restrictions | Requirements on the listing | Operators set their own rules and they are not identical across listings | A conversation at the camp that should have happened at booking |
| Whether pickup is includedand from where | The listing and your confirmation | Part of these listings collect from hotels, others use a meeting point | Standing outside the wrong entrance with tired children |
| What time it endsnot what time it starts | The duration on the listing | A seven-hour evening finishes long after dark, a four-hour one does not | A bedtime that turns the best day of the trip into the worst hour |
| Food at the campand anything your child cannot eat | The inclusions on the listing | Buffets vary between listings, from one at a BBQ to three at the premium camp | A child who ate nothing and a parent who brought nothing |
| Who rides with whomif your child is small | Ask the operator at booking | It decides whether an adult goes up alongside or walks beside the animal | Finding out in the queue, when the answer is harder to change |
Book direct
The six listings above, with the current price, the rating and the number of reviews behind each one. Every tour on this site has free cancellation, which is worth having when you are booking around a family that has just landed.
★ 4.9 · 30,728 reviews
★ 4.8 · 2,080 reviews
★ 4.9 · 71,790 reviews
★ 4.8 · 2,630 reviews
★ 4.9 · 33,555 reviews
★ 4.9 · 5,807 reviews
What to expect
All of it comes from what the listings themselves sell, or from the shape these desert days have in common.
The camel ride Dubai kids get at the camp is a loop with a guide holding the animal. None of these listings put a length in minutes on it, so we are not going to invent one either.
The desert camps sit well outside the city. A four-hour listing spends a real share of that four hours in a vehicle, in both directions.
The seven-hour days end after dinner and the show. That is the best part of them, and it is also the reason they are not right for every child.
Sandboarding on a dune, henna, tea, the buffet and the show run alongside each other. Children rarely stand still waiting for one thing.
The camel line is longest when the group first arrives and shortest later. Going second rather than first is often the quieter choice.
Closed shoes, a change of top for a small child and a bag you do not mind emptying out afterwards will do more for the day than anything else you pack.
It applies to every tour on this site, which matters when you are booking a family date weeks before you know how the week will go.
When to go out
The listings on this site run at different times of day, and with children the departure time decides more than the price does.
Morning
A morning run gets the desert done and leaves the rest of the day open. It suits families who have other plans and do not want the evening eaten by a drive.
Afternoon
Most of the four-hour listings sit here and roll into the early evening at the camp. This is the slot with the most choice, including the most reviewed listing in the niche at $30.
Evening
The seven-hour days and $35 live here. Dinner, the show and the stars are the payoff, and the cost is a late finish.
Sunrise
$305 flies at sunrise with a camel ride and breakfast after it, rated 4.8 across 437 reviews. It is by far the highest price here and it means an early start, which is a lot to ask of a small child on holiday.
The verdict
For the fullest day, book $69. Seven hours, three buffets at Al Khayma Camp, rated 4.9 across 30,728 reviews, and the camel ride Dubai kids came for sitting inside a proper evening in the desert. This is the day this site leads with and the one to take if you are only going out once.
For the shortest evening, book $35. Four hours, a camel ride and stargazing, rated 4.8 across 2,080 reviews. The camel ride Dubai kids want and the dark sky they did not expect, without the late finish of a seven-hour listing.
For the safest choice by weight of feedback, book $30. Four hours with a quad bike, a camel ride and Al Khayma Camp, rated 4.9 across 71,790 reviews — more than any other listing in this niche.
For a child who came for the animal, book $79. Six hours around a sunset camel trek with stargazing and a BBQ, rated 4.8 across 2,630 reviews. Here the camel ride Dubai kids get is the evening itself rather than one stop in it.
And if dinner is the deciding factor, book $46. Seven hours ending in a buffet at the camp, rated 4.9 across 33,555 reviews.
Travelling as a family rather than with small children? The family page lays the whole set out differently.
See the family listings→Common questions
Operators set their own, and it is written in the requirements section of the listing you are booking. We are not going to publish a number that applies to twenty different listings, because it does not. Read the requirements before you pay, and if anything is unclear, ask the operator through the booking rather than guessing at the camp.
The listings do not state it, so neither do we. What they do sell is a loop at or beside the camp on a led animal, with a guide holding the rope. The camel ride Dubai kids get is a short, calm part of a much longer day, and the rest of the camp is what fills the hours.
On many listings a parent and a child ride together or an adult walks alongside, but this is the operator’s call rather than ours. Ask at booking. It is a simple question to settle in advance and an awkward one to settle in a queue with a child who has already decided what is happening.
The four-hour ones. $35 at four hours is the shortest of the family picks, and $30 runs the same length. The seven-hour listings such as $69 and $46 end after dinner and the show, well into the night.
The review counts answer that better than we can: 71,790 reviews on $30 and 30,728 on $69, both rated 4.9. What decides it for a particular family is length and timing rather than content, which is why this page keeps coming back to the clock.
Go deeper
Where the camels actually are, and what the ride is like.
Safari + camelHow the camel fits into the afternoon, and which safaris give it more time.
At sunsetThe hour everyone wants, and which trips reach the dunes in time.
At sunriseThe quiet, cool half of the day, and the balloon that goes with it.
What it costsTwenty trips line by line, and what actually moves the price.
What to wearClothes, shoes and the scarf question, by season.
Dubai: Premium Safari, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp 3-Buffets
★ 4.9 · 30,728 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h