Morning or Evening Desert Safari in Abu Dhabi: How to Choose
Most visitors book the evening safari, and it is easy to see why. The photographs that sell Abu Dhabi are all shot in that last hour of light, when the dunes turn from pale gold to deep orange and the shadows stretch out behind the ridges. It is a good choice. It is not always the right one. If you are travelling with a toddler, or you have one free morning before an afternoon flight, or you simply do not enjoy heat, the morning trip may suit you better. Here is how the two actually differ once you are out there. The drive is the same Both trips begin with a pickup in the city and a drive of roughly forty-five minutes east, into the Al Khatim dunes. This is the stretch of desert that Abu Dhabi operators use, and it is noticeably quieter than the Dubai side. On a weekday you can go long stretches without seeing another vehicle. The sand here is softer and more orange than the coastal dunes, which is why the photographs come out the way they do. What the morning gives you Cooler air, for...