As of February 25

Food

There are huge shopping malls near larger towns where you can buy everything you need for everyday use and much more. Alcohol can be bought in specialty shops. Spinneys has a department for non-Muslims, where you can also buy pork, for example.

Water

Water was not always easy to get. You can often ask for water at gas stations or car laundry, but not all of them give water. Treated drinking water can also be bought at certain shops.

Diesel

Diesel is not a problem in the UAE. There are gas stations everywhere which always have diesel and are very cheap, a little more expensive than in Oman. We were always able to pay with credit cards without any problems.

Money

The currency, the Dirham (AED), is freely convertible. It can be obtained from an ATM. However, in larger shops and especially at petrol stations, payment by credit card is always possible.

Overnight places

We saw one official campsite in the United Arab Emirates, a horrible site in Dubai on the beach in front of the construction site for the second palm. The first two rows of the site are occupied by local “holiday homes” that run their air conditioning units and generators at night. The fresh water is brought in by truck at night and the black water tanks are emptied by another truck. Near Dubai, we parked at a large hotel for several days to do our errands in the big city. Otherwise, we always parked freely. That’s easy to do, we could park anywhere.

Internet

With Etisalat, we could only buy unlimited data packages for 28 or 14 days. The reception with 4G and 5G is exemplary, we always had a network even in the desert.

Streets

The large roads always have at least four lanes and are separated by direction. To turn left you often have to drive to the next U-turn. Almost the entire country is asphalted, we had to keep looking for dirt roads, but of course they were the roads that were really fun.

Regulations for heavy motor vehicles

We did not find any regulations that differed from those in Europe. The local trucks all have an orange rotating light mounted on the roof, which they have to switch on at night. The country roads look accordingly lit at night. The driving permits for trucks, on the other hand, are incomprehensible. Trucks are often not allowed to use the roads during rush hour! The times vary from emirate to emirate and sometimes from road to road. There are truck driving bans on many roads, but these are often just to indicate that there are truck bans on this road. For example, there is a truck driving ban on the motorway entrance, and later on a speed limit sign for trucks on the motorway! We decided that we are not a truck, but a camper van or at most a bus, since we are not transporting goods. We saw very few police and if we drive on a road with a truck ban and overtake a police car, the police don’t care. Fines are only distributed via the many cameras and probably not from tourists. In any case, we haven’t received any so far.

Customs formalities

Entry

We entered UAE in Al Batha from Saudi Arabia, Al Ain and Ash Sham from Oman. The visa is available on arrival. Entry was always problem-free and the Emiratis don’t want to stamp a CDP. It is worth knowing, however, that motor vehicle liability insurance for the UAE must be taken out in the last town before the border in Oman. No such insurance can be taken out at the border in Al Ain and it is strictly forbidden to drive on the roads without insurance!

Processing time: average 1 hour

Visa fees: free, vehicle insurance: 630 AED for 2 months

Exit

We left at Al Ain and Ash Sham for Oman and at Al Batha for Saudi Arabia. Leaving UAE for Oman was always very easy, sometimes with an x-ray, sometimes without, but always with a fee! We had to pay 60.48 AED each time to be allowed to leave the UAE for Oman. Leaving for Saudi Arabia though was a bit time-consuming. As a heavy motorhome, we count as a bus and we had the pleasure of having to queue at the exit after a fully occupied bus. That was the first 45 minutes. When we finally got to the line, the officer wanted a ticket from us. I explained to him that we were driving ourselves and didn’t have a bus ticket, so he took our passports and vehicle registration documents, and we were allowed to wait for a police officer. Behind him we had to drive through various loopholes in the customs area to the truck side, past all the waiting trucks to a customs hut, where he parked us. The nice officer wanted another ticket from us. Finally, he explained to me what the ticket had to look like, he wanted the liability insurance policy. He checked it and accepted it and instructed us to take the same back roads and have our passports stamped by the intelligent officer!

Transit time to Oman: 1 hour, to Saudi Arabia 4 hours

Personal observations

We had almost no contact with Emiratis, they live as far away from tourists as possible. They are very arrogant towards foreigners (over 95% of the population). They are filthy with their garbage; I saw a local who got out of his large car and simply threw all his fast-food packaging next to his car. The Emiratis employ an army of Asians to sweep and pick up the garbage from the streets for them, which is why the country is quite clean despite the bad behavior.

Our personal highlights

1          95 entlang der Grenze zu Oman, deep sand track, N22° 42.407′ E54° 32.934′
2          Liwa Desert Festival, exciting desert festival, N23° 40.199′ E53° 48.650′
3          Wadi Kub, small mystical wadi, N25° 29.343′ E56° 06.259′
4          Falkon Training, training with falcons, N24° 19.179′ E55° 19.689′
5          Liwa Wüste, very high dunes , N22° 54.119′ E53° 28.241′
6          Falkon Spital, special hospital for falcons, N24° 24.682′ E54° 41.859′

Our statistics

Average daily expenses for 2 people in CHF:

Food                                        48.80
Alcohol                                     7.33
HH non-food                             0.00
Clothes                                      0.00
Excursions                                3.97
Restaurant                               18.69
Accommodation, campsite       0.00
Transport, road customs         18.32
Internet/phone                           7.40
Fees                                           8.41
Personal care                             0.00
1 liter diesel                              0.66