Guide · 6 minute read
Private hire of a whole dhow in Dubai starts at about AED 9,000 for two hours and carries up to a hundred guests with a buffet dinner included — roughly AED 90 a head. For any group above about thirty-five, nothing else on this coast is close on cost, because no charter yacht in Dubai carries that many people.
Published
Above thirty-five guests you have run out of yacht. The largest boat in our fleet is an 85ft licensed for thirty-five, and the licensed number is a hard limit. The two remaining options are chartering two boats to run together, or hiring a whole dhow.
Two yachts for seventy guests costs somewhere north of AED 20,000 for four hours and splits the party across two decks that cannot easily talk to each other. A single dhow takes all seventy for a fraction of that, with everyone in one place. For a wedding, a company dinner or a large birthday, that is usually the deciding factor rather than the money.
The whole boat, both decks, for the agreed hours, with the crew, the buffet and the sound system. Because the boat is yours, the things a shared sailing fixes become yours to set: the departure time, the menu, the music, the seating and whether there is a speech.
Marina dhows are the newest and largest, with the best upper decks, and private hire starts around AED 12,000 for two hours. The route is the modern skyline: the tower channel, JBR and Ain Dubai.
Creek dhows are older, plainer and cheaper — from about AED 9,000 — and the route is old Dubai past the souks and the cargo wharfage. For a company dinner with international guests, the Creek is more interesting. For a wedding where the photographs matter, the Marina.
The Water Canal boats sit between the two and are the most sheltered of all, which is worth knowing if you have elderly guests or anyone who worries about motion.
Boarding a hundred guests takes about twenty-five minutes, not five. Build it in, and put someone from your side at the gangway with the list.
Give the caterer a final headcount seventy-two hours out; a buffet for a hundred cannot be adjusted on the day. And agree in advance where the cake goes and who cuts it, because a hundred people on two decks do not spontaneously gather.
Two to three weeks' notice is realistic. For a weekend evening between October and April, make it a month.
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.