Guide · 5 minute read
Book a dhow cruise if there are fewer than eight of you and dinner matters more than privacy: AED 99 to AED 149 a head, everything included. Book a private yacht from about ten guests upwards, where the per-head cost converges and you get the boat, the route and the timings to yourselves.
Published
A Creek dhow is AED 99 per person for two hours with dinner. A 48ft private yacht is AED 750 an hour with nothing but drinks — AED 1,500 for the same two hours, for up to twelve people.
For two people, the dhow costs AED 198 and the yacht AED 1,500. For twelve, the dhow costs AED 1,188 and the yacht AED 1,500 — a difference of AED 312 across the whole group, at which point the private boat is obviously the better buy.
The crossover sits at around ten to twelve guests. Below it the dhow wins on cost; above it the yacht wins on both cost and everything else.
A dhow cruise is a fixed product: board at 19:30, sail at 20:00, buffet downstairs, tanoura performance mid-cruise, back at 22:00. You share the boat with a hundred or so other people and the route does not change. It is good, and it is the same every night.
A private charter is the opposite. You set the time, the route, the music and the guest list. There is a swim stop if you want one, no buffet unless you arrange catering, and nobody else aboard. It costs more per head for a small group and is a different kind of evening entirely.
For a first visit to Dubai with two or four people, take the Creek dhow. It is cheap, it includes dinner, and it runs through the part of the city that is hardest to see any other way.
For a birthday, an anniversary, a company day or anything with a guest list, charter privately. The moment you need control over timings or want to swim, the dhow stops being the right product regardless of price.
For a party of fifty or more, hire a whole dhow rather than trying to fit onto a yacht. From about AED 9,000 for two hours with dinner for a hundred guests, nothing else in Dubai comes close per head.
FAQ
Check a date
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.