Before arriving in Abu Dhabi, neither of us was expecting any issues at all, but we were surprised.
Where is it located?
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, is situated right at the Arabian Gulf and about 150 km away from Dubai. The United Arab Emirates are sharing borders with Saudi-Arabia and Oman.
Immigration
The immigration was quite simple, for both German and Australian passports. Depending on your nationality, most nations are not having strong difficulties. The entry was for both of us for free and nothing due to covid was getting controlled.
The flight went from Budapest, direct to Abu Dhabi for less than 50 Euros, similar cheap flights are also possible from Vienna in Austria, when being somewhere in Europe.
After the immigration everything went quite smoothly and the first option was to change money and get a sim card. The rates for changing money will not get better sadly and the sim cards seem to be expensive, that could be normal in the country though.
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How to get into the city?
The airport is located not close to the city, a bit over 30 min, by an almost non-stop bus. There are of course like everywhere else the option to get a taxi or getting picked up. When you don’t have someone to pick you up and don’t want to spend much money, then the bus is the only remaining option, besides hitchhiking or walking.
The bus itself is not bad, but beforehand you are going to struggle with some things. Here is what you need to know!
What you need to know!
- You can’t pay in the bus itself, a special card is needed.
- The card you will be getting in the airport at the bus sign with a big i on it.
- You need cash to pay for it.
- You are going to get scammed, by needing to change it at the currency exchange, where you lose around 20%. At the ATM I haven’t checked, but maybe for larger amounts it makes more sense there.
- Get enough on the card, to get from the airport into the city and back. You will pay for the card, which will cost 20 AED (5,03 Euros) per person, including the two rides. At the bus itself you are not getting scammed, the card is valid for five years.
- Check before, which buses are going near to where you need to go. The free wifi, which is everywhere over the city, is free, but you need a number from the UAE. Also downloading the map from Abu Dhabi and getting a bus card can help you.
The buses are coming regularly, but waiting can be for sure a thing. We took over 1,5h to get to the place in which we were located.
Also important to know, the front seats are only for women. These seats are marked and most people do speak English, when you have questions.
When going in the bus, you need to scan your card and the same, when you are leaving the bus as well.
Summary
When you don’t know what to do and what to expect it can be stressful. Both of us were really stressed when arriving there. It was not enjoyable and besides the stressing part it was also really annoying. Due to the time of the year, January, it was not that hot, but in Sommer I can believe that it can also be stressful to wait for 20 min or longer for the bus.
How to spend your time in Abu Dhabi, for that a different article is going to come, this one should just help you to prepare you for what to expect. The bus is going to save you money, even though you need to exchange money at the airport. In the city so far, there was no issue, by paying with a card, but of course there will probably be places where this could not be the case.
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