Five Road Trips Across the UAE, Planned for a Motorhome

The Geography Is the Gift

The UAE is roughly the size of a mid-sized European country, and it contains a genuine desert, a proper mountain range, two coastlines on two different bodies of water, and some of the best road surface anywhere. For a motorhome, that combination is close to ideal: you are never more than a few hours from something completely different, and you are almost never far from fuel.

All five routes below assume the October–April season. In summer, halve your ambition and double your power planning.

1. The Hatta Loop — Two Nights, Easy

Dubai → Hatta → Dubai. Roughly 300 km round trip.

The best first trip in the country, and the one we send every nervous first-time renter on. Take the E44 out through the desert, watch the landscape flatten and then rise, and arrive in a mountain town with a dam, turquoise water, kayaks and mountain-bike trails.

Day one: drive out mid-morning, stop at Big Red (Al Badayer) for an hour to watch the quad bikes, arrive Hatta by early afternoon, set up, walk the dam.

Day two: kayak in the morning before the wind, Hatta Heritage Village in the afternoon, second night, home Saturday.

Motorhome notes: entirely sealed roads, no sand driving, established facilities. The mountain road has real gradients — use engine braking on the descent. Fuel in Hatta before you head back.

2. The East Coast Run — Three Nights, Easy to Moderate

Dubai → Fujairah → Khor Fakkan → Dibba → back. Roughly 450 km.

Cross the Hajar Mountains — out via Masafi — and the country changes underneath you. The Gulf of Oman is a different sea: deeper blue, cooler, and the snorkelling around Khor Fakkan and Snoopy Island genuinely justifies the drive on its own.

Motorhome notes: paved throughout. Several established coastal campsites and beach areas — but beach access and overnight rules vary by municipality and change, so confirm locally rather than assuming a spot is open because it was last year. Humidity on this coast is high; if your unit has AC you will run it, so plan power. The mountain crossings are steep in places.

3. Al Ain and Jebel Hafeet — Two Nights, Easy

Dubai → Al Ain → Jebel Hafeet → Dubai. Roughly 350 km.

The most underrated trip on this list. Al Ain is greener, calmer and older than the coastal cities. The oases are shaded and cool even when the road is hot, Al Jahili Fort is worth an hour, and then there is the mountain.

The Jebel Hafeet road is, by any honest measure, one of the great driving roads on earth — 11 km of engineered switchbacks to a summit with a view over three countries' worth of haze. In a motorhome it is a workout rather than a thrill, but the view at the top is the same view.

Motorhome notes: all sealed. The Hafeet climb is sustained — watch temperatures going up, use low gears coming down. Fuel and facilities throughout.

4. The Northern Mountains — Three Nights, Moderate

Dubai → Ras Al Khaimah → Jebel Jais → Wadi Shawka → Dubai. Roughly 400 km.

The most scenically rewarding route that a motorhome can genuinely complete.

Day one: north to RAK, along the coast, night near the water.

Day two: the Jebel Jais road. The highest point in the country, a properly engineered climb, viewing platforms, and in January a summit cold enough to want a jacket. Overnight parking at the top is controlled — check what is currently permitted before you plan to sleep there.

Day three: Wadi Shawka. Gravel wadi beds, acacia, pools after rain, and firm ground that a heavy vehicle can handle.

The serious note: do not camp in a wadi bed if there is rain forecast anywhere in the Hajar Mountains. Flash floods arrive from catchments you cannot see, under a clear sky. This is the one rule on this page that is not negotiable.

5. Liwa and the Empty Quarter — Four Nights Minimum, Serious

Dubai → Abu Dhabi → Liwa → Moreeb Dune → back. Roughly 800 km round trip.

The real thing. The Rub' al Khali is the largest continuous sand desert on the planet, and standing at the edge of it at dusk is an experience people describe for years afterwards. Moreeb Dune is enormous. The silence is total.

Motorhome notes — read carefully:

• This is a long drive. Dubai to Liwa is most of a day with stops, and the last stretch is empty.
• Fuel and supplies thin out considerably as you head south. Fill everything — fuel, water, gas — in Madinat Zayed, not further on.
• Stay on paved routes and use established sites. Do not improvise a shortcut across sand in a motorhome. Recovery out there is slow and expensive if it is available at all.
• Travel with a second vehicle. Tell someone your route and your expected return time.

Practical Notes for All Five

Salik works automatically on Dubai's gates — make sure the tag is active and the account funded before you leave. Fuel is straightforward everywhere except deep in the Western Region. Traffic on the E11 through Dubai and Sharjah at rush hour will cost you an hour you did not budget; leave early. Sandstorms can reduce highway visibility very fast — if one hits, exit the road properly rather than stopping on the shoulder, where you will be hit.

And on the Shamal: retract the awning before you sleep. Every trip, every night.