Day Trip From Dubai?

[four_engines]

Hello Everyone

And especially those who live in the UAE.

I go to Dubai every now and then but my longest stay is over 3 nights before I fly off again. So the best I can do is to go for a day trip. So here come the questions:

- Where is the best bet for day trips? I've been reading up a little bit - I don't think I fancy wrecks in Dubai. So I guess it's down to the popular 2, Musandam or Khor Fakkan. Which of the 2 do you prefer?

- For Khor Fakkan, I know some shops arrange transport for you from Dubai to hook up with a local dive op. But since it's only me alone diving, I assume there'd be a premium on that transport. Can I travel to Khor Fakkan and arrive at the dive op myself, by say, taking a bus from Dubai? Have you done it before? How long does it take from the Creek or Jumeirah? And how much?

- Just to side-track a little. Ever since I returned from Eqypt and diving in the Red Sea, I've been dreaming of Shishas. I had a Shisha in Cairo at a unbelievable price. 1 Egyptian pound! That's USD 0.17! How much can you get a Shisha for in a Dubai coffeeshop?

Thanks for any input!

F/E

 

[jamea]

Hi
I heard that there is few diving centers in Khor Fakan but I have never been there myself, its a 1and half hour drive from dubai.
for the shesha it is alittle bet more expesive than egypt 2 - 30 Dirhams thats alost $0.60 to $8
hope this help.

 

[hedonist222]

four_engines, what you said is correct, you can use a Dubai dive center to take you to the east coast or Musandam, or you can get a ride to Dibba/Khorfakkan/Fujairah and use one of thier dive centers. There are plenty, such as MAKU, Boom Marine (branch of Boom Marine in Dubai), many of the hotels/motels in the east coast also have dive centers like Holiday Beach/ AlAqah Beach Resort and so on.

As Jamea said, the drive to Fujairah is about an hour and a half,give or take a few mins.

Sheesha's, at real sheesha stores, meaning not high-end coffee shops cum sheesha stores (the kind you find at some malls,coffee shops at hotels and such), it will be about $2.8 dollars to $3. I highly reccomend alDahleez (across from City Center mall) or Reem alBwaadi (on Jumairah Street) or alBedweyah on Shaikh Zayed road (next to Mazaya shopping center). I also reccomend Rose flavored sheesha, its an aquired taste, meaning the majority of ppl dislike,but those who like it, LOVE IT!
Feel free to ask more !

 

[MarkH]

I was there in 2003. I did alot of solo shore diving at Snoopy Island (just offshore from the Sandy Beach Motel). I took the bus from Dubai (I think it took close to 2 hours). The weird thing is that the bus is only "one way". It goes back empty and doesn't take passengers. I took taxis back, but it was expensive. The little boat diving I did was with Al Boom Divers(I might have the spelling wrong) based in one of the new big hotels on the East Coast. We had about 5 divers and they picked us up in a minibus in Dubai and drove us to the hotel.

 

[MarkH]

As far as Mussandam goes, when I was in the UAE, it seemed to be a bit of a pain to get a trip up there (it's in Oman). Sometimes they requre visas, sometimes they don't. The dive center at the Sandy Beach motel would take me there if I could find a minimum of 6 divers. I'm not that social so I went solo/shore diving instead.

 

[four_engines]

Hello All

Thanks for your replies!

The weird thing is that the bus is only "one way". It goes back empty and doesn't take passengers.

This is just so strange! I can't think of any logic in this? Anyone?

And, I have to ask everyone this: Which, in your opinion, is the best dive site accessible from Khor Fakkan or Fujairah? Is Dibba Island really very very good?

Thanks again!

F/E

 

[MarkH]

Hello All

Thanks for your replies!



This is just so strange! I can't think of any logic in this? Anyone?

And, I have to ask everyone this: Which, in your opinion, is the best dive site accessible from Khor Fakkan or Fujairah? Is Dibba Island really very very good?

Thanks again!

F/E

I think it's because the buses are licenced by the emirate of Dubai and not licenced to pick up passengers by the emirate of Fujairah. Or something like that. The only dives I did were Dibba Rock, Sharm Rocks and Snoopy Island. Dibba was my favorite. It had lots of hard corals and turtles in the shallows, and some soft corals, big rays,anemones/anemone fish, lion fish, and more othe stuff than I can remember down deeper (max=70 feet deep or so). The vis here was the best of the places I went (around 50 feet), but that can change from day to day. Sharm Rocks had almost no coral at all, but it had large schools of various fish. Snoopy Island had a bit of everything, but it was very shallow (10-20 feet) and the times I went, vis was only around 10-15 feet. There was a bit of surge when I went. When it is calm, the vis is supposed to be much better. By the way, the water at Snoopy was the warmest I've ever felt: 36 Degrees Celsius! I'll post my link again http://www.victoriadiving.50megs.com/uae.htmlto a page on my site with some photos from these dives.

 

[hedonist222]

yep, swank is correct. A taxi licensed from one emirate can take passengers to other Emirates,but cannot bring back passengers from the non-licensed emirate. This is to prevent the other Emirates from loosing customers and to avoid smugglers from smuggling.

 

[aboalreem]

I loved diving around dubai, Viz not that great. but if you go to ras al kema there are great diving, so many fish from clownfish to stingrays, to pufferfish, to cuttlefish

 

[Adel Khatib]

Arabian Diver represents a number of world-renowned, innovative, global associations such as PADI, IANTD, MSF, and brands such as Beuchat and Cochran which compliment Arabian Diver in offering solutions for company excursions, holiday seekers, and youth contingencies.

Contact:
adel@arabiandiver.com
www.arabiandiver.com
tel/fax: 00971 7 236 3102
mobile: 00971 50 2428128