Airport Transfers in Dubai

Dubai International is one of the busiest airports in the world and it isgenuinely close to the city, which changes the calculation. Most arrivalsclear into Terminal 3 - the Emirates terminal, and the largest building inthe world by floor area - while Terminal 2 sits on the opposite side of therunways and serves flydubai and regional carriers. The two are a long driveapart despite sharing an airport code, so the terminal on your ticketmatters more than the distance to your hotel does. Where you are staying splits the city into two very different journeys.Deira and Bur Dubai are the old city, immediately across the creek from theairport, and these are the shortest transfers in Dubai. Garhoud sits rightat the airport boundary. Everything along Sheikh Zayed Road is a differentproposition: Downtown Dubai and Business Bay are a straight run down thehighway, and Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residence and Bluewaters Islandare further again at the far end of the strip. Palm Jumeirah adds thetrunk-and-frond drive on top, and a villa on an outer frond is ameaningfully longer trip than a hotel at the base of the Palm - the address,not the postcode, decides that. The newer districts inland are the ones travellers most often misjudge.Dubai Media City, Jumeirah Village Triangle, Al Quoz and Ibn Battuta arespread along and behind Sheikh Zayed Road rather than clustered, and none ofthem is walkable to anything. Al Jaddaf is close to the creek and closer tothe airport than its reputation suggests. Two practical Dubai-specific things. First, the metro Red Line runs fromboth terminals along Sheikh Zayed Road, which is genuinely useful if you aretravelling light to a Downtown or Marina hotel - but it does not run throughthe night, it does not reach Palm Jumeirah, and for most addresses it meansa change plus a taxi at the far end. With luggage or a family that is threetransfers instead of one car. Second, taxi supply at Terminal 3 is reliable,but the queue at peak arrival banks - late evening and the small hours, whenthe long-haul flights land together - is where the time goes. A pre-bookeddriver waiting in arrivals removes exactly that wait. Traffic in Dubai is highly directional. Sheikh Zayed Road inbound in themorning and outbound in the early evening moves slowly, and Fridayafternoons behave differently again. A fixed price agreed at booking isworth more here than in most cities, because a meter running in stoppedhighway traffic is the one cost that grows while you are not moving.