Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
Stop researching. Start exploring.Discover all 71 highlights,ranked
and organized into practical routes.
Get instant access
Planning a backpacking route through UAE can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized UAE itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
No vaccinations are required to enter the United Arab Emirates for most travelers. Make sure routine vaccines (MMR, tetanus-diphtheria, polio, flu and COVID-19) are up to date, and many travel clinics also recommend hepatitis A and typhoid if you plan to eat at small local cafeterias. Hepatitis B and rabies are worth discussing with a doctor for long stays or work with animals. Travelers arriving from some polio-affected countries may be asked for a polio vaccination certificate.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in UAE, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
In the United Arab Emirates, dress modestly in malls, souks and public buildings, covering shoulders and knees, and save swimwear for beaches and pools. Public displays of affection beyond holding hands, swearing, rude gestures and drunkenness in public are illegal and can lead to fines or arrest, and alcohol should only be drunk in licensed hotels, bars and restaurants. Never photograph people, especially Emirati women and families, without asking first, and avoid filming government buildings or accidents. During Ramadan, don’t eat, drink or smoke in public in daylight even where rules have relaxed, and dress more conservatively than usual. Use your right hand to eat, pass and receive things, avoid pointing the soles of your feet at anyone, and don’t criticize the royal families or Islam, including online. Unmarried couples rarely face issues in hotels, but women should expect to sit apart from unrelated men in some traditional settings, and LGBTQ+ travelers should keep a low profile in public.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for UAE.
- Machboos (Majboos): Spiced rice cooked with chicken, lamb or fish, flavored with loomi (dried black lime), saffron and baharat. It is the dish families serve at weddings and Friday lunches, and the closest thing the UAE has to a national plate.
- Harees: Wheat and meat slow-cooked for hours and beaten into a smooth porridge, topped with ghee. It is a staple during Ramadan iftar, Eid and weddings, and it is on UNESCO’s list of Emirati heritage foods.
- Thareed: Layers of thin regag bread soaked in a meat and vegetable stew. Often called “Emirati lasagna”, it is a Ramadan favorite with roots in Bedouin cooking.
- Balaleet: Sweet vermicelli scented with saffron, cardamom and rosewater, topped with a thin omelet. A classic weekend breakfast that shows off the sweet and savory mix of Gulf cooking.
- Luqaimat: Crisp fried dough balls drizzled with date syrup and sprinkled with sesame. Sold hot at festivals and heritage villages, and the sweet most locals name first.
- Khameer and Chebab: Khameer is a soft, date-sweetened bread and chebab a cardamom pancake served with cheese and date syrup. Both are breakfast staples in Emirati cafes.
Tap water in the United Arab Emirates is desalinated and meets international safety standards at the source, but most residents still drink bottled or filtered water because older buildings store water in rooftop tanks of varying cleanliness. Travelers should do the same, which is easy since a 1.5-liter bottle costs around AED 1.50 to 3 in supermarkets and many hotels and malls have refill stations. Using tap water for brushing teeth and cooking is fine.
The main language in United Arab Emirates is
Arabic. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Arabic skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for UAE includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - is the everyday working language of the United Arab Emirates, spoken in shops, hotels, hostels, malls and on every road sign in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, largely because around 85 to 90 percent of residents are foreigners. Younger Emiratis speak it fluently, and even in smaller towns like those in Ras Al Khaimah or Fujairah you will get by, though accents and vocabulary can be more limited. Arabic is the official language and a few words like shukran (thank you) and salaam alaikum (peace be upon you) earn warm smiles, while Hindi, Urdu and Malayalam are widely spoken by taxi drivers and small-shop staff. Keep Google Translate with the Arabic pack downloaded for menus in traditional cafeterias and for the occasional address mix-up.
Money & Payments
The local currency of UAE is AED (د.إ).
Getting cash in the United Arab Emirates is easy: ATMs from banks like Emirates NBD, ADCB and FAB are everywhere in malls, metro stations and petrol stations, and most don’t add a local fee, so your cost is mainly whatever your home bank charges. Always decline the ATM’s offer to convert into your home currency and choose to be charged in dirhams, which saves you 3 to 5 percent. Cards, including contactless and Apple Pay, are accepted almost everywhere from metro ticket machines to supermarkets, but keep AED 50 to 100 in cash for souk stalls, small cafeterias, abra boat rides and tips. The dirham is pegged at AED 3.67 to US$1, so US dollars are the easiest foreign cash to bring, though euros and pounds exchange just as easily. Licensed exchange houses like Al Ansari Exchange and LuLu Exchange in malls give much better rates than the airport counters or hotel desks.
Tipping in the United Arab Emirates is not mandatory but widely appreciated, since many service workers earn modest wages. In restaurants, leave around 10 to 15 percent if no service charge is on the bill, round up taxi fares or add AED 5 to 10, and give hotel porters AED 5 to 10 per bag. Tip in cash when you can, as card tips don’t always reach staff.
v2.webp){kind=logo}
Best Backpacking
.jpg)
Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
.jpg)
Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.