A cook slicing shawarma from the spit at a Dubai restaurant counter.

Layover guideDubai · DXB · DWC

Eating near the crew hotels in Dubai

Alcohol is legal in licensed venues and illegal everywhere else, and in Ramadan the daytime rules extend to your car.

You do not need a personal licence to drink in a licensed venue. Hotels, restaurants and bars that hold a licence can serve you, and most crew hotels do. What needs a licence is drinking at home, which is a resident question rather than a layover one.

Drinking in public places anywhere in the UAE is illegal, and so is being under the influence in public. The legal age for buying and drinking alcohol is 21 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Walking between a licensed venue and your hotel is where crew get caught, not the venue itself.

During Ramadan the FCDO advises against eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum in public in the daytime, and is explicit that this includes in your car. A crew bus is not private space.

UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office travel advice: United Arab Emirates, local laws and customs · checked 2026-08-31

The rest of Dubai

The whole guide

Getting out of the airportMetered RTA taxis from the rank, or the Metro Red Line straight out of Terminals 1 and 3.Ride-hailingCareem and Uber both operate legally.Local laws that catch crew outDrinking in public, kissing in public and swearing are all criminal offences, including online.Staying connectedA visitor SIM is registered against your passport and capped at two per network, and an unregistered line is cut off rather than warned.WeatherThe number that matters is the overnight low: about 29.7C in summer, so the night never cools down.What to buyVAT is 5% and refundable over AED 250, and the authority's own refund terms are better than the government portal still says.TippingNo authority publishes a tipping norm for Dubai, and the percentages already on your bill are not tips.