School trips to Dubai

Why visit Dubai?

Discover Emirati culture

Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates and is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai. Your students may not yet have had the opportunity to visit the Middle East, so a school trip to Dubai is a fantastic introduction to Emirati and Arabian culture.

On your school trip to Dubai, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to explore the history and culture. On a visit to the Dubai Museum, you’ll learn more about the traditional way of life in the Emirate. You’ll discover what life was like on the coast and in the desert and you’ll step on board a dhow, explore a traditional souk and enter a Bedouin tent.

You mustn’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a desert safari – at the end you will be welcomed into a real Bedouin camp for an Arabic coffee, barbecue dinner and belly dancing.

Another experience not to be missed is a cruise around Dubai Marina on a traditional dhow, where you’ll enjoy warm Arabic hospitality, a delicious dinner and fantastic views of both traditional and modern Dubai.

You can also choose to include tours of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, to widen your students’ understanding of the United Arab Emirates and its culture.

Explore rapid urbanisation

Once a sleepy fishing village on the Persian Gulf, Dubai is now a bustling metropolis, famous for its wealth. Home to the world’s tallest building and the world’s largest artificial island, there is a sheer excess of luxury here in the playground of the world’s rich and famous.

Dubai has one of the world’s fastest growing economies and attracts many foreign workers, who often come to work in the oil, construction or tourism industry. The population of Dubai was around 500,000 in 1990 – it’s now well over 3 million.

After a construction boom in the 1980s which really accelerated in the 1990s, Dubai’s skyline has completely changed in the last 30 years. The city is now home to one of the world’s densest collections of skyscrapers – itself an impressive feat thanks to the high temperatures, high winds, lack of water and bedrock buried under 130m of sand.

All this makes Dubai a fascinating choice for a geography school trip focusing on the cause and effects of rapid urbanisation and urban growth and change.

Learn more about sustainability

When the World Wildlife Fund declared the UAE to be the country with the world’s largest ecological footprint in 2006, it prompted the city to change. It now aims to get 75% of its energy from clean sources by 2050 and has already made huge leaps in terms of sustainability. All this makes Dubai a great choice for a geography school trip focusing on sustainability.

Of course, building a city in what was once desert obviously comes with its own set of challenges, not least the management of resources such as water. It barely rains in Dubai – in fact the Emirate sees less than four inches of rainfall per year, on average and there are no permanent rivers.

On your geography school trip to Dubai, you’ll be able to visit the Al Hefaiyah Mountain Conservation Centre in Sharjah. Here, your students will see how the UAE are using reed beds, or constructed wetlands, as a natural way to recycle water.

Another challenge facing Dubai is the lack of soil suitable to grow crops. At the Emirates Bio-Farm, your students will discover how the Emiratis have adapted organic farming practices to the Gulf environment, to allow them to farm crops sustainably.