Pamela G.
Google
Yesterday we had a very nice evening with Shihab, who was our fantastic driver. Shihab was very punctual to pick us up in Abu Dhabi and even sent a message before to confirm pick up time and location. During the trip he was always very attentive, explained very well the program and asked many times if everyone was fine in the car (we had kids with us). He is an excellent pilot in the dunes, we had a lot of fun during dunes bashing! During photo break in the desert, he took lovely pictures of us! When we arrived to the camp he explained everything about the activities and made sure we enjoyed our time! There was sand boarding, mini camel ride, quad bikes (extra charge 100aed for 10min) traditional clothes for pictures, henna tattoos, falcon, shisha lounge, tea/coffee and dates.
The dinner buffet was very good, many options available and all food was tasty. The atmosphere in general is very welcoming, all staff attentive and kind, overall good organisation, very well arranged, the whole place is comfortable and tidy and even toilets are very clean! During dinner we had tannura dance, fire show and belly dance (and it was nice to see that the belly dancer had decent covering clothing, not vulgar attire like in some other places). In general we are very happy with the time we spent with Emirates Tours, the kids were super excited and we really appreciated the extra caring of Shihab. The only downside is that the sunset is pretty early, so once we arrived at the camp, it was dark pretty fast, just in time for a quad ride and a picture on the camels and thats it.. it would be nice to arrive a bit earlier to have time to try all activities before dinner... especially some extra time for pictures in the desert during dune bashing and some extra time at sunset... the desert is a magic place so it would be great to have a bit more time to really enjoy it without rushing ;)
The other thing is in high season there are around 200 people participating in the tour, so it doesnt feel intimate, there are people everywhere and you need to queue for everything (quads, camels, dinner buffet etc) but again everything is very well organised!
A small advise: please play arabic music during dinner, not party electronic music ... it will feel more aunthentic!