If you were following the news earlier this year, this question is probably still sitting at the back of your mind — is the desert safari actually running?
Yes. It has been running normally for months, and so has almost everything else in Abu Dhabi.
Below is the honest state of things as of August 2026, with the dates attached, so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
One thing worth knowing before you read on: your own government’s travel advice page may still look alarming. That is usually because it has not been rewritten since the spring. We explain that below too.
What’s Actually Happening in Abu Dhabi Right Now?
The conflict began on 28 February 2026 and it did disrupt the Gulf badly for several weeks. Airports closed, flights were grounded, and a great many visitors were stranded. None of that is worth pretending away.
It ended. A ceasefire brokered by Pakistan stopped the fighting in the spring, and on 3 May 2026 the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority lifted every air traffic restriction it had introduced since the war began. Its own wording was that UAE airspace had returned to “normal status”.
Since then the airlines have rebuilt their schedules and visitors have come back. Abu Dhabi airport is operating normally, the roads are normal, and the camps are full on winter weekends. If you are reading a page that still describes closed airports, it is describing February and March — not August.
Why the Desert Was the Last Thing Affected
Think about where a desert safari actually happens. You are 45 to 60 minutes outside the city, in open sand, well away from airports, government buildings, energy plants and military sites. Those were the locations that appeared in advisories and conflict reporting. A Bedouin camp in the Al Khatim dunes was never on that list.
That is why the camps kept running through the worst weeks, when a lot of city-based tourism had paused. It is also why the desert filled up again first once flights resumed.
None of that is a claim that the desert is magically safe and the city is not. It is simply where the disruption actually fell.
Where Tourism Stands Now
Regional arrivals took a real hit this year — analysts were forecasting a drop of somewhere between 11% and 27% at the height of it. Recovery has been quicker than that suggested. In the partial reopening window alone, UAE airports handled 1.4 million passengers, and full airspace operations resumed in May.
What Is Running Today
Everything. Hotel and residence pickups across Abu Dhabi, the coach from Al Wahda, Mazyad and Safeer malls, the drive out to Al Khatim, dune bashing, camel rides, sandboarding, the BBQ buffet and the live shows. Morning, evening and overnight safaris all run to their normal timings.
What Changed, and What Stayed
A few habits from the disrupted months stuck around. They happen to be good ones, so we kept them.
What’s the Same
The evening itself never changed. You still get:
- 4×4 dune bashing across the golden sand dunes
- Sandboarding and 360-degree photo spots
- Camel rides and Arabic costume photography
- Live belly dance, Tanoura, and fire shows
- BBQ buffet dinner with vegetarian and non-veg options
- Shisha, henna, and traditional Arabian hospitality
- Pick-up and drop-off within Abu Dhabi city
What’s Different
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before pickup, on every booking
- A proper safety briefing before the dune drive, not a wave of the hand
- A WhatsApp message the evening before with your driver’s name and exact pickup time
- Payment on arrival as standard — nothing is charged in advance, so a change of plan costs you nothing
Should You Book a Desert Safari Right Now?
For most people the answer is now simply yes. But there is one thing worth understanding first, because it confuses a lot of visitors.
Why Your Government’s Page May Still Look Alarming
The US State Department still lists the UAE at Level 3, Reconsider Travel. That sounds bad until you look at the date on it: 3 March 2026. It was written five days into the conflict and has not been revised since the ceasefire or since the UAE reopened its airspace in May. Australia’s advice sits at “exercise a high degree of caution”, which is the same level it has carried for years on terrorism grounds.
Advisories are slow to come down by design — governments would rather leave a warning up too long than take it down too early. That is reasonable of them, but it means a March advisory is telling you about March. Check the date on any advisory you read, including the ones quoted on travel blogs.
Book With Confidence If:
- Your flights are confirmed — that is the only part of the trip that was ever really affected
- You are already in Abu Dhabi and want a few hours away from the city
- You are booking for the winter season, which is when the desert is at its best anyway
- You are travelling with children or older parents — the camp is calm, the drive is short, and you can ask the driver to take the dunes gently
The one thing we would still say: buy travel insurance, and read what it covers. That is ordinary advice for any trip anywhere, not a comment on the UAE.
Is Abu Dhabi Actually Safe Again?
For ordinary day-to-day safety, Abu Dhabi never stopped being one of the safest cities in the world. Crime against visitors is rare to the point of being unusual, and that did not change during the conflict or after it.
What the conflict complicated was the regional picture — airspace, flights, and the nerves of people watching from abroad. Even then, the UAE covered hotel costs for more than 20,000 stranded visitors rather than leaving them to it, which tells you something about how the place is run.
The stabilising happened faster than most people expected, as Gulf disruptions usually do. Airspace reopened fully on 3 May. By the summer the airlines were rebuilding schedules for the winter season. That is where things stand now.
What to Look For in an Operator
These were worth checking during the disruption and they are worth checking on any ordinary week too:
- Free cancellation — up to 24 hours before pickup, in writing, not as a favour
- Payment on arrival — if nothing leaves your account until you are standing at the camp, a change of plan costs you nothing
- WhatsApp availability — your operator should be reachable in real time, not just by email
- Clear pickup confirmation — you want to know exactly where and when, with no ambiguity
- Local operator — a company based in Abu Dhabi, not a foreign booking platform, will respond faster and know the ground situation better
All five are standard with us. We have been running desert trips out of Abu Dhabi since 2015, and you book on WhatsApp with a person, not through a form that sends your money somewhere before anyone has spoken to you.
What to Expect on the Day
Nothing about the evening is unusual now, but here is the shape of it anyway.
Your pickup happens from your hotel or one of the central pick-up points in Abu Dhabi. The drive to the desert takes around 45 minutes. Once you arrive at the dunes, the experience runs exactly as it normally would.
The desert has a way of putting the news at a distance. The silence out there is the thing most guests remember — not the dune drive, not the dinner, the silence. That part has never changed and never will.
The camp serves dinner from around 7:30 PM, and the live entertainment runs until return transfers around 9:30 PM.
Final Word
Is desert safari Abu Dhabi open now? Yes — and it has been, every night, since the spring.
The airspace reopened fully on 3 May 2026. The airlines are back. The camps are back. If your own government’s page still reads like February, check the date printed on it before you cancel anything.
And if you are in Abu Dhabi now, or planning for the winter, the desert is the quietest corner of this emirate. The dunes do not watch the news. For a few hours, neither will you.
Read next
Running as normal, then — here is what to book. Every package and pickup time is on the prices and timings page, the evening safari is the one most people pick, and the best time to go page compares the months if your dates are flexible.
Last updated 28 August 2026. Sources: UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (airspace restrictions lifted 3 May 2026) and the US State Department travel advisory dated 3 March 2026.
Book on WhatsApp: +971 50 277 1900 · Pickup from Al Wahda, Mazyad or Safeer Mall, or your own hotel or residence.