Dubai, with the numbers attached
There is no shortage of writing about Dubai. There is a shortage of writing that tells you what something costs, where the figure came from, and how to check it yourself. That is the gap this site is for.
What this is
A practical Dubai site. Not a list of the ten best brunches, not a gallery of the skyline, and not a set of recommendations we were paid to make. What things cost, how to get about, and what is free, with the source for every figure linked at the foot of the article so you can check it.
That last part is the whole point. Prices and opening times in Dubai change often enough that any article is a snapshot, so the useful thing is not our number, it is knowing where the number lives so you can look at today's.
- The nol card explained, and what a Metro journey actually costsDubai runs on a single card for the Metro, the tram, the buses and the water buses. The confusing part is not the card, it is that the fare depends on zones rather than on how far you actually go.
- Dubai's free night swimming beachesFor a good part of the year the sea in Dubai is more pleasant at ten at night than at two in the afternoon. Dubai Municipality floodlights three public beaches for exactly that reason, and they cost nothing to use.
- What gets added to a Dubai hotel billA Dubai hotel room advertised at 400 dirhams a night does not cost 400 dirhams a night. None of what gets added is hidden, exactly, but it is spread across several lines with unhelpful names.
Why the sources are at the bottom of every piece
Because a new site has no reason to be believed. We have not been here for years, we have no reputation to lean on, and the honest way to handle that is to show the working rather than to write with more confidence than we have earned.
It also keeps us honest in the other direction. If a figure cannot be traced to a published source, it does not go in, and where a fact could not be confirmed we say so in the article rather than rounding it into something that reads better.
What you will not find here
No affiliate links, no sponsored recommendations, and no advertising. Nothing on this site earns a commission if you book through it, which means a recommendation here is only ever a recommendation.
No photographs either, for now. The rule we work to is that no image beats a generic one, and a stock photograph of a skyline adds nothing a reader cannot already picture. When there are real pictures worth publishing, they will go in.