Best Things to Do Near Bab Al Shams -- The Desert Activities Nobody Tells You About

By the DubaiSpots Editorial Team

You Drove 45 Minutes Into the Desert. Now What?

If you have read our complete guide to Bab Al Shams Desert Resort, you know the property sits in the Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve -- the largest unfenced nature reserve in the UAE, spanning over 40 square kilometers of protected desert ecosystem. What most hotel reviews skip entirely is that this location is not just scenic backdrop for your Instagram grid. The Al Marmoom reserve is one of the most activity-rich desert environments in the Emirates, and Bab Al Shams sits at the epicenter of experiences that range from heart-pounding dune buggy circuits to contemplative heritage safaris that connect you to Bedouin traditions stretching back centuries.

The DubaiSpots editorial team spent four days testing every activity accessible from the resort. What we discovered is that most guests massively underutilize their desert location. They book Bab Al Shams, spend two days at the pool, eat at Al Hadheerah, and drive back to the city having experienced maybe twenty percent of what the location offers. The other eighty percent is what separates a nice hotel stay from a genuine desert adventure -- and it is all within thirty minutes of your room.

Here is the honest, price-verified, time-tested guide to making the most of your Al Marmoom base. Every affiliate link below supports DubaiSpots at no extra cost to you, and every recommendation reflects genuine editorial conviction.

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The Night Safari That Changes How You See the Desert ($695)

Every tourist in Dubai does a "desert safari." They pile into a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers, get driven over a few dunes while screaming, arrive at a fenced compound, eat mediocre food, watch a belly dance, and drive back. It is a commodity experience so thoroughly standardized that it has become a parody of itself. Reviews on GetYourGuide and TripAdvisor give these tours four stars because tourists have no frame of reference for what the desert can actually offer.

The Night Safari departing from the Al Marmoom area is a fundamentally different product. This is a small-group, expertly guided experience through the conservation reserve after dark -- a time when the desert transforms into something most visitors never witness. As temperatures drop and the tourist convoys retreat to the city, the nocturnal desert ecosystem comes alive. Arabian red foxes emerge from burrows. Desert hares dash across the cooling sand. Owls patrol the dune ridges. And if your guide is skilled -- and ours was exceptional -- you will spot the elusive sand cat, a palm-sized predator so perfectly adapted to desert life that it leaves no footprints.

The experience operates in vehicles equipped with specialized low-impact lighting that illuminates wildlife without disturbing natural behavior. Your guide carries a thermal scope for locating animals in the dunes. The pace is deliberately slow -- this is observation, not adrenaline. Between wildlife sightings, the guide delivers ecological context about the Al Marmoom reserve's conservation mission, the reintroduction programs for Arabian oryx and sand gazelles, and the traditional Bedouin knowledge that modern conservationists are integrating into their management strategies.

At $695, the Night Safari is the most expensive activity on this list by a significant margin. It is also the one we recommend most emphatically. This is a genuine conservation experience, not a themed entertainment product. It reveals a side of the desert that pool loungers, dune buggies, and standard safari convoys will never show you. For nature enthusiasts, photographers, and travelers who want to understand the desert rather than just drive through it, this is the activity that justifies the Bab Al Shams location.

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Dune Buggy Adventure ($390) -- Controlled Chaos Across the Al Marmoom Dunes

If the Night Safari is the intellectual desert experience, the dune buggy is its adrenaline-soaked opposite. And we mean that as a compliment. This is two hours of controlled chaos across some of the most dramatic dune formations in the UAE, with you behind the wheel of a high-performance buggy that was engineered specifically for this terrain.

The experience begins with a safety briefing and vehicle familiarization at a staging area near the reserve. The buggies are proper off-road machines -- roll cages, harness seatbelts, long-travel suspension, and enough engine power to climb near-vertical dune faces at speed. Your guide leads a convoy of four to six buggies through a route that escalates in difficulty: flat desert terrain to build confidence, then increasingly steep dune approaches, side-angle traverses, and controlled descents that test your nerve and your steering precision simultaneously.

The sensation of cresting a major dune -- that moment when the nose of the buggy tips over the edge and you see nothing but sand dropping away below you -- is genuinely thrilling. Your instinct screams to brake. The guide's radio crackles with calm instruction to maintain momentum. You trust the physics, commit to the descent, and the buggy surfs down the dune face with sand spraying from the tires in a golden rooster tail. By the third or fourth major descent, you are grinning involuntarily. By the tenth, you understand why people become addicted to desert motorsport.

At $390 for the two-hour session, the dune buggy sits in the premium tier of desert activities but delivers value that standard dune bashing (typically $60-100 in a shared Land Cruiser) simply cannot match. The difference is agency -- you are driving, you are making decisions, and the physical engagement transforms you from a passive tourist into an active participant in the landscape.

Physical note: The buggies vibrate significantly over rough terrain, and the harness belts compress your torso. Guests with back problems, neck injuries, or pregnancy should skip this one. The minimum age is typically 16 for drivers, with passengers accepted from age 8-10 depending on the operator.

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Heritage Safari ($254) -- The Desert Your Grandchildren Will Ask About

The Heritage Safari is the experience we almost skipped and now wish we had booked first. In a landscape dominated by motorized adrenaline and luxury resort amenities, this quiet, culturally rich experience reconnects you with the desert as the Bedouin understood it -- not as a playground, but as a home.

The format is deliberately traditional. You travel in vintage-style open-top Land Rovers that echo the vehicles used by early Arabian Peninsula explorers. The pace is slow. Your guide -- a local with deep knowledge of traditional desert life -- narrates the landscape through a cultural lens: which plants the Bedouin used for medicine, which dune formations signal underground water, how camel caravans navigated by star patterns that have not changed in two thousand years.

The route passes through sections of the Al Marmoom reserve where Arabian oryx have been successfully reintroduced. Seeing these elegant, white-horned animals moving freely across the dunes -- creatures that were hunted to near-extinction in the wild and have been painstakingly restored through decades of conservation work -- is quietly emotional. The guide explains the reintroduction timeline, the genetic management programs, and the traditional Bedouin reverence for the oryx as a symbol of resilience.

The safari includes a stop at a traditional Bedouin camp where Arabic coffee is prepared over an open fire using the centuries-old method: green beans roasted in a shallow pan, ground with a brass mortar and pestle, brewed with cardamom in a dallah pot. The entire process takes twenty minutes. In a city where everything operates at maximum speed, the deliberate slowness feels radical. The coffee itself is light, fragrant, and genuinely different from anything a machine can produce. Dates and camel milk are served alongside. The guide shares stories of desert hospitality traditions -- the obligation to welcome strangers, the three-cup courtesy, the communication conveyed by how the coffee is poured.

At $254, the Heritage Safari is the most accessible activity on this list and the one most likely to surprise you. It does not deliver adrenaline. It does not deliver Instagram moments (though the oryx photographs are stunning). What it delivers is context -- a framework for understanding the desert landscape you are sleeping in, the culture that shaped it, and the conservation work that is ensuring it survives. For families with children old enough to listen and absorb (age 8+), this is an educational experience that will resonate long after the dune buggy thrill has faded.

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Can-Am Off-Road Experience ($250) -- The Middle Ground Between Buggy and Safari

The Can-Am experience occupies a useful niche: more adventurous than the Heritage Safari, less extreme than the dune buggy. You drive a Can-Am Maverick side-by-side vehicle -- essentially a high-performance ATV with a roll cage and two seats -- through a guided desert route that balances scenic exploration with bursts of off-road excitement.

The Can-Am vehicles are more forgiving than the dedicated dune buggies. The wider wheelbase provides stability on side slopes, the power delivery is smoother, and the enclosed cab reduces the physical intensity. This makes them ideal for couples where one partner wants adventure and the other wants to survive it, for guests who are intrigued by the dune buggy concept but wary of the extreme terrain, or for anyone who wants a self-driven desert experience at a more controlled pace.

The route typically covers a mix of hard-packed desert trails and moderate dune formations. The guide calibrates the difficulty to the group's comfort level, which means you can push the pace if you are confident or cruise at a sightseeing tempo if you prefer the landscape over the speed. The two-hour session includes photography stops at scenic points, and the late-afternoon time slot -- when the desert light turns everything golden -- is the one to book.

At $250, the Can-Am is the most accessible motorized desert experience near Bab Al Shams and the smartest choice for guests who want to drive the desert without the full adrenaline commitment of the dune buggy.

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On-Property Activities: Pool, Spa, and the Desert Itself

Not everything requires a booking and a credit card swipe. Bab Al Shams itself offers activities that capitalize on its extraordinary location.

The infinity pool is one of the most photographed in the UAE, and for good reason. The vanishing edge aligns with the desert horizon, creating the illusion that you are swimming at the edge of the world. Morning laps before 8:00 AM, when the pool is empty and the desert is still cool and gold, are transcendent. The poolside service is attentive -- towels appear without asking, drinks arrive cold, and the staff manage the lounger allocation with a fairness that avoids the 6:00 AM towel wars that plague busier resorts.

The spa offers a menu of treatments that integrate regional ingredients -- desert honey, argan oil, sand exfoliation, camel milk wraps. We tested the signature 90-minute desert stone massage (AED 650) and found it genuinely excellent: skilled therapists, authentic heated stones sourced from the local terrain, and a post-treatment relaxation room with floor-to-ceiling desert views. The spa is small by Dubai resort standards (four treatment rooms), so book on arrival rather than hoping for day-of availability.

Walking the desert at sunrise is free and possibly the most powerful experience at the resort. From any desert-access room, you can step off your terrace onto the sand at 5:45 AM, walk thirty meters into the dunes, and stand in absolute silence as the first light transforms the landscape. No guide required. No booking needed. No fee. Just you and one of the oldest landscapes on earth, doing what it has done for millennia. We walked the desert at sunrise on three of our four mornings. Each time, the light was different. Each time, the silence felt deeper.

Stargazing from the desert is exceptional due to the minimal light pollution. The resort is far enough from Dubai's city glow that the Milky Way is visible on clear nights. Bring binoculars if you have them. The resort occasionally organizes guided stargazing sessions with telescopes -- ask the concierge on arrival.

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Staying Connected: VPN Essentials for Dubai

Here is something that surprises first-time Dubai visitors: the UAE blocks VoIP calling services including FaceTime Audio, WhatsApp calls, and most video chat platforms. At a resort forty-five minutes from the city, where your primary connection to the outside world is your phone, this restriction bites harder than it does at a city hotel.

The solution is straightforward: install a reliable VPN before you land. The DubaiSpots editorial team has tested multiple providers across UAE networks over the past four years, and NordVPN consistently delivers the fastest connection speeds, most reliable unblocking, and easiest mobile setup. Install the app on your phone and laptop before departure, connect to a server outside the UAE on arrival, and WhatsApp calls, FaceTime, and streaming services work exactly as they do at home.

This is especially critical at Bab Al Shams, where you may want to share live sunset videos with family, make work calls from the desert terrace, or stream content during the long desert evenings. The resort WiFi is reliable (30-50 Mbps in our testing), and NordVPN maintained strong speeds throughout our stay.

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Your Bab Al Shams Activity Plan: Day by Day

The optimal activity strategy depends on your stay length, but here is what we recommend for a three-night visit:

Day 1 (arrival day): Settle in, explore the resort, swim in the infinity pool, and walk the desert at sunset from your terrace. Evening: Al Hadheerah dinner (book in advance).

Day 2 (adventure day): Morning: Heritage Safari ($254) for cultural context and oryx sightings. Afternoon: Pool and spa. Evening: Ya Hala dinner, then stargazing from the desert.

Day 3 (adrenaline day): Morning: Dune Buggy ($390) or Can-Am ($250) depending on your intensity preference. Afternoon: Recovery at the pool. Evening: Room service on the desert terrace, watching the stars from your private space.

For a fourth night: Book the Night Safari ($695) on this evening. After two days of desert exploration, you have enough context to fully appreciate the nocturnal ecosystem that most tourists never see.

For couples prioritizing romance over adrenaline: Replace the buggy/Can-Am with a morning Heritage Safari and spend the afternoon at the spa. The desert sunrise walk (free) and the stargazing (free) are the most romantic activities at the resort and cost nothing.

The bottom line: Bab Al Shams is not a beach resort where activities are optional add-ons. The desert is the product. The resort is the base camp. The activities listed here are what transform a hotel stay into an expedition -- and an expedition is what you drove forty-five minutes into the Al Marmoom desert to find.

Book Bab Al Shams as Your Desert Base →

For the complete resort review including rooms, dining, spa, and booking strategy, see our Bab Al Shams Desert Resort -- Complete Guide.