The authorities here keep close electronic tabs on you at the best of times. The city’s lockdown was one of the world’s toughest. You must have travel insurance covering treatment should you fall ill with Covid on your trip.Ĭheck with your airline to make sure that the type of test certificate you are arranging is acceptable.įurther information at gov.uk and /en/coronavirus-advisory.ĭubai has always been a safe city and that now goes for the virus, too. Were you to test positive on arrival, however, you may be required to self-isolate in a government-led facility, a hospital, or in your hotel or apartment. Visitors need to have proof of a negative Covid PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab test taken 96 hours before departure.Īlternatively, it is possible to have a PCR test on arrival. But with package and flight prices at historic lows, you will still have a cheaper Dubai experience than at normal times.ĭubai is on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s ‘travel corridor’ list -meaning you do not have to go into quarantine on return. That’s a serious upfront expense with the extortionate rates being charged by private clinics. The alternative is to take your chances with a test on arrival at Dubai airport.Īs a positive result leads to two weeks in a government hotel, I would take the test in the UK. You’ll need two things: an approved Covid test and a travel insurance policy that covers you should you fall ill with the virus.
That’s what Dubai feels like today: a city on hold, as I experienced first-hand last week.īut, for British travellers at least, the play button has been tentatively pressed after Dubai joined Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ pool of travel bubbles. Maybe next to the man-made Palm Islands they could build another one in the shape of a big pause button. This is an indelible experience in which you brush fins with some of the 65,000 marine creatures who call it home.Īs I wave at the tourists taking pictures on the dry side of the glass, I feel like an extra in the film Finding Nemo.ĭives are from £160.
Welcome to new AquaTrek Xtreme inside the Ambassador Lagoon at The Royal Atlantis hotel. Minutes later, I am walking along the bottom of an aquarium, trying not to trip over basking sharks or get side-swiped by manta rays.
Two guests try out the AquaTrek Xtreme experience inside the Ambassador Lagoon at The Royal Atlantis hotel in DubaiĪs I lower myself down an artfully rusted ladder, a big diver’s helmet is placed over my head and attached to a strap on my back.