Dibba Beach Camping

Sunrise on Dibba Beach looking south towards the Golden Tulip Hotel
Sunrise on Dibba Beach looking south towards the Golden Tulip Hotel

Dibba is probably the best beach within easy driving of Dubai – about two hours.  It is a long sandy beach with a large 30m high sand dune that runs along the edge of the cliffs.  At the  Southern end the beach is quite wide and open.  At the northern end there are the stone remains of several buildings. You have to cross into Oman just half way through the Dibba township.  As of September 2012  the process had changed requiring you to provide evidence of a hotel reservation so that we think there was some record of people crossing into Dubai from Oman.    We turned up in October and luckily managed to get across but were warned that next time we would not be so lucky.

Before September you could quite freely cross over the UAE/Dubai border at either the beach road or on the inland road.  If your plan was to camp on the beach this looked like being a problem.  Contact me for the answer.

The best place to camp is at the far northern end of the beach beside the cliff face.  It is a popular spot so there is plenty evidence of previous campers and day trippers   The beach at the northern end is a little rocky at low tide which may suit those who wish to snorkel.   Over the years we notice that there were quite of variety of places to camp from right on the beach,  close to the cliffs at the far end or right on top of the large sand dune.

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Sunset Dibba Beach

The best directions are to head to the Golden Tulip Hotel (see google map ref below) which is about a 15 minutes drive once you pass the Lulu shopping center when coming from Dubai.  We used to stop here for ice and water as we could never work out when the little stores closer to the hotel were open.   When you get to the hotel, just beyond the hotel, the road enters onto the beach via a large open area.  A toilet block on the far side signals where the soft sand and the mandatory “airing down” of the tyres is required.  We didn’t attempt the sand dune climb but many do which can be entertaining. The beach sand is very soft but our 3 tonne Nissan Armada was fine at about 18psi.  The first time  we ventured on to the sand it was a little scary as there is not much advice around on what pressures to use or even what 4 wheel drive settings to use.   Getting stuck with a car full of gear and four kids on a tidal beach was not an appealing thought.  It did happen later when we visited Snoopy island beach.  For the Armada low ratio seemed to work a treat

The toilet block use to have running water but now seems to be disconnected.

The Omani police vist regularly and at night which initially caused us some concern but came to be reassuring after awhile.  The best format we came to was two nights stay with lunch at the Golden Tulip on the full day.  Most people only stay a night as you need day time cover and lots of water.

Dibba harbour with the boat trips to the Oman Fjords round the corner is very close to the Hotel but we did not explore much else in the area.

Camping site location – Map

{google_map}25°40’34.5″N 56°16’21.6″E{/google_map}

7 thoughts on “Dibba Beach Camping

  1. Great article! I want to go and camp there and will appreciate if you can share your tips and secrets with me. Please send me mail. Thanks!

    1. Hi Paul, when they introduced the border controls at Dibba, we booked lunch at the hotel at the other end of the beach. The hotel sent us an email to confirm and we showed this to the guards at the crossing. We’d then have lunch and a swim at the hotel on one of the days we were there – quite nice to have a shower!! It worked for us, but I know how things can change so quickly over there. We miss the camping! Hope that helps.

  2. Finding a decent beach in the UAE for camping is near impossible. I ve searched from the stretch between jebel Dana to Fujairah. There are very few beaches, and they are often not tranquil and quiet due to either late night parties or local quads n 4x4s zipping up and don the beach.
    I used to camp a lot in tranquil and secluded musundam until the border changes.
    I’m hoping dibba Oman might be just the ticket. I wondering how to get in for 2 nights camping. Would you mind sharing your secret with me? Happy camping 🙂

    1. Hi Paul, go a little bit further into Oman – that’s where we had the most spectacular and beautiful camping: from stunning, empty beaches to incredible vistas on Jebel al Akhdar. The beach next to the mangroves in Khor Kalba. But Oman’s our favourite!

  3. Hi we are 2 South Africans (pensioners) who have visited Oman previously and enjoyed a day drip on a dhow out out of Dibba. We would like to visit once again, but this time we would like to stay with a local family who offer accommodation for hire. We do not need hotels or campsites. We would like to experience the lifestyle of the local people. Do you perhaps have any information on this type of trip?

    1. There are no campsites – it really is true wild camping. We found that camping was a way of meeting locals as we were the only non-local people in the various places we’ve camped. The Omani people are kind, generous, welcoming and particularly fascinated by a British family camping! For accommodation with a local family, I’m not sure, but maybe try Airbnb or homestay.com. Good luck and enjoy Oman, it is a beautiful, unspoilt country.

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