TL;DR: You probably do not need a car for the whole trip. Dubai itself works on the Metro and taxis. Rent for the days you leave the city. Check whether your nationality needs an International Driving Permit before you fly. Treat the posted speed limit as the limit, especially in Abu Dhabi where there is no buffer. And film the car before you drive it away.
Should you rent at all?
Dubai is better served by public transport than its reputation suggests. Downtown, Dubai Marina, JBR, the Palm, Deira and Bur Dubai all work on the Metro, the tram, and the Red Line from the airport costs a fraction of the taxi fare.
A car earns its keep the day you leave the city. Hatta, Al Ain, Jebel Jais, Khor Fakkan, Liwa, Al Qudra. Buses reach most of them, but they run every couple of hours and they will eat your day.
Run the numbers before you book. A delivered economy car plus fuel, tolls and parking lands around AED 180 to 300 a day, all in.
Price It Yourself in Two Minutes
Download the Careem app before you fly. Hala is the RTA taxi option inside it and it quotes a fare in seconds: enter your pickup and drop-off, then switch between car sizes to see what a bigger car costs your group. Do that for every leg you are planning, double it for the return, and compare the total against a rental day. Around town, taxis usually win. For Hatta or Abu Dhabi, the car wins before you have even parked.
Budget for the extras while you are at it. Fuel, tolls, parking, and a delivery fee if you are outside the free zone. Valet is everywhere here, at malls, hotels and restaurants, and it is usually free, but some places only waive it for guests and customers and will want to see a receipt from somewhere inside the building. Keep your dine-in bill and hand it over with the ticket.
The pattern that works for most visitors: do the city on foot, Metro and taxis, then rent for the two or three days you are heading out, delivered to your hotel and collected at the end.
Your licence, and what counts
We drive on the right, and cars are left-hand drive. Some nationalities can legally drive here on their home country licence alone. Everyone else needs an International Driving Permit (IDP), and you have to get it at home before you fly, because you cannot buy one in the UAE. The accepted list is short and specific, so check yours against the official list published by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism before you book anything.
Carry Both, Always
Carry your IDP if applicable and original home licence with it at all times, and keep a digital copy of your passport on your phone. The rental agreement stays in the glovebox rather than in your hotel room. You need to be 21 to rent and 25 for anything premium, and most companies want the licence held for at least a year.
Children and car seats
This One Is Not Optional
Children under four must be in a child safety seat. No exceptions, no "it is a short drive". Separately, nobody under ten or shorter than 145 cm may travel in the front seat. Book the car seat when you book the car, because they are not always in stock at short notice, and check it is actually in the boot before the delivery driver leaves.
Speed limits, and the buffer you should ignore
In Dubai and the northern emirates, radars are set to trigger at roughly 20 km/h above the posted limit. Everyone knows this. Nobody in authority has ever put it in writing.
Pretend the Buffer Does Not Exist
Drive to the number on the sign. The buffer is a camera setting rather than a legal allowance, no authority has ever confirmed it, and it can be changed without notice. One kilometre over the posted limit is already an offence carrying AED 300. Treat the sign as the limit and nothing will surprise you.
Abu Dhabi has no buffer at all. It was removed in 2018 and the posted limits were raised to compensate, so the sign is the limit and one kilometre over will fine you. Abu Dhabi also runs variable limits on digital gantries along some roads, which shift with weather and traffic. And when visibility drops below 200 metres in fog, limits fall automatically to 80 and the radars reset to match. Fog season is November to March, and it arrives at dawn.
Radars, fines and black points
Since March 2025, Dubai's AI radars catch eight things at once, including phone use and unfastened seatbelts, and they see through tinted glass. Abu Dhabi runs its own system watching for hard-shoulder overtaking and tailgating. Assume you are on camera on every major road.
Black points attach to a driving licence, and 24 in twelve months suspends it. On a foreign licence you have no UAE traffic file for points to land in, so your exposure is money.
Fines are issued against the number plate, which belongs to the rental company, so they see them before you do. You settle up when you hand the car back, which is why the deposit is held rather than released on the spot. Most companies add a handling fee of around AED 50 per fine. A fine can take a few weeks to appear on the system, so anything that surfaces late comes off the deposit or the card on file. Check the plate yourself before you return the car and nothing will surprise you.
Impoundment is the part worth fearing. Anything above 50 km/h over takes the car off you at the roadside for 15 to 60 days. The rental company recovers it, then bills you the release fee, the recovery and every day of lost rental income. That is how a AED 1,500 fine becomes a five-figure problem.
Jaywalking is a five-figure offence too. Crossing a road signed 80 km/h or above away from a designated crossing carries a minimum AED 10,000. Use the footbridges on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Salik, Darb and parking
Every rental car already has a Salik tag fitted, so you register nothing. The company pays the tolls and rebills you, usually with a small admin fee per crossing.
Salik in Dubai is AED 6.30 a gate at peak, meaning 6am to 10am and 4pm to 8pm Monday to Saturday, and AED 4.20 off peak and all day Sunday. Free between 1am and 6am. Public holidays are charged at full peak rates, which surprises everybody.
Darb in Abu Dhabi is AED 4 a crossing, charged Monday to Saturday from 7am to 9am and 3pm to 7pm on the four bridge gates, and free all day Sunday. The daily and monthly caps were abolished in September 2025, so every crossing now counts.
Parking, Emirate by Emirate
Dubai: paid 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, free overnight from 10pm to 8am, free all day Sunday and on public holidays. Standard zones are AED 2.10 for the first hour off peak and AED 4.20 an hour at peak. Premium zones, which sit within 500 metres of a Metro station and cover Downtown, Business Bay, Deira, Bur Dubai and Jumeirah, are AED 6.30 an hour at peak. Multi-storey car parks are AED 5.25 an hour, or AED 42 for 24 hours.
Abu Dhabi: paid 8am to midnight, free all day Sunday. Standard bays with black and turquoise kerbs are AED 2 an hour or AED 15 for the day. Premium bays with white and turquoise kerbs are AED 3 an hour, four-hour maximum. Inspectors patrol on foot, and paying does not make a resident-permit bay legal.
Sharjah: paid 8am to midnight since 1 July 2026, roughly AED 2 for one hour rising to AED 8 for three. Free on Fridays and public holidays, except in the designated year-round zones. Note the difference: Dubai and Abu Dhabi go free on Sundays, Sharjah goes free on Fridays.
The SMS shortcodes bill to UAE mobile credit, so a foreign SIM will not work. Use the Parkin or RTA Dubai app in Dubai and the Darb app in Abu Dhabi, both of which take a card. Mall parking is separate and free for the first few hours, and Dubai Mall bills any overstay through the Salik system, which means it reaches you via the rental company.
Contesting a fine
Abu Dhabi is the clearest. You have one month from issuance to object, through the Abu Dhabi Police portal or TAMM, with photos attached. It also runs a standing discount of 35% if you pay within 60 days, or 25% within a year. Sharjah matches that discount and takes objections through the MOI UAE app.
Dubai handles objections through the Public Prosecution at dxbpp.gov.ae, with two catches: the objection has to be written in Arabic, and the form wants a UAE mobile number. A decision takes about ten working days, and if it is accepted the matter goes to Traffic Court and you attend in person. Dubai has no standing early-payment discount, so any ad offering 50% off Dubai fines is a scam. RTA has said so publicly.
Before You Argue, Check
Any fine is searchable by plate number with no login, through the Dubai Police app or 901, TAMM in Abu Dhabi and the MOI UAE app elsewhere. Compare the timestamp against your rental dates, because a fine from before pickup is not yours. Ask for the receipt showing what the company actually paid, and query the admin fee separately from the fine. And a rental company cannot legally hold your passport as security.
What your insurance will not cover
Third-party liability is compulsory and always included. A collision damage waiver is also mandatory here and cannot be declined, which is why your credit card's rental cover will not trigger: card benefits require you to decline the company's waiver, and you cannot.
Your excess will sit between AED 1,500 and AED 5,000 depending on the car. A super waiver taking that to zero runs roughly AED 25 to 45 a day at the mainstream brands, and usually drops the credit card hold to around AED 1,000.
Even at zero excess, you are typically still liable for:
- Tyres, wheels, rims and glass, all sold as separate products
- The underside of the car, and the interior
- Lost or broken keys, and putting the wrong fuel in
- Anything that happens off tarmac, including sand, wadis and beaches
- Flood water damage, which is excluded by statute and not negotiable
- Any driver not named on the agreement
- Alcohol at any level, because the legal limit here is zero
- Driving into Oman without prior written permission
The Police Report Is Everything
No police report, no cover. Not reduced cover, none. Garages will not accept an accident-damaged car without one, and the rental company will bill you the full repair. The report is colour-coded: green means you were not at fault, red or pink means you were, white means fault could not be established. Get it, photograph it, hand it over the same day.
Your deposit should be a hold on a credit card rather than a charge, debit cards are generally not accepted for it, and under Dubai's consumer protection rules the company must return it within 30 days of you handing the car back.
Accidents, breakdowns and emergency numbers
Save these before you drive anywhere: 999 for police, 998 for ambulance, 997 for fire and civil defence, anywhere in the country.
Download the Dubai Police App Before You Collect the Car
Minor accidents are reported through it, and standing on a hard shoulder waiting for an app to download over patchy roaming data is nobody's idea of a holiday. Get it on your phone before you pick the car up. You do not need an Emirates ID to use it, because visitors can register and sign in with their passport details. Two things people only find out the hard way. The photos have to be taken inside the app, using its own camera, so anything already sitting in your gallery will not upload. And get the full contact details and ID numbers of everyone involved before anybody drives off.
Minor bump, nobody hurt. Photograph everything where it sits for your own records, then move the cars onto the shoulder and stand at least 15 metres from the road. File the report through that emirate's app, taking the official shots inside it: Dubai Police or DubaiNow in Dubai, Saaed in Abu Dhabi, Rafid in Sharjah. If anything stalls, call 901 in Dubai or let the rental company file it for you. Leaving the scene is an offence in itself.
Anything with an injury. Call 999, do not move the vehicles, wait.
Breakdown. Your rental company's 24-hour line first, because they choose the recovery firm. Abu Dhabi runs a free Road Service Patrol for tyres, jump starts, fuel and towing; Dubai has no free equivalent. In summer a stranded car with the engine off gets dangerous within minutes, so carry water and tell someone your route before you drive Liwa or the mountain roads.
Petrol
Three brands: ADNOC, ENOC and EPPCO, and Emarat. Stations are attendant-served, the service is free, and tipping is not expected. Stay in the car, say the grade and the amount, tap your card.
Special 95 is what almost every rental takes. Prices are set nationally and reset on the first of every month, so they are identical at every brand and every station in the country.
Rentals run full to full, so fill up near the drop-off point, because the refuelling charge is always worse than the pump. Fill up before you leave the coastal belt too, because stations thin out once you head for Liwa, Hatta or the east coast mountains.
Renting, delivery and the Careem option
International brands have the airport desks, the newest cars and the best dispute handling, at the highest price and with strict rules. Established UAE chains sit in the middle and treat delivery as a standard product. Small local operators are cheapest, and are where almost every damage-dispute story starts. Marketplaces and apps compare dozens of small operators at once, though your contract is with the supplier rather than the platform.
Hotel delivery is close to universal in Dubai and usually free within the emirate. Delivery to another emirate costs extra.
Car rental also sits inside the Careem app, run by a partner company rather than by Careem itself. Zero deposit on most of the fleet, a one-day minimum, signup entirely in the app. The catches: delivery costs money where local operators deliver free, it is not the cheapest option, there is no airport desk, and the damage waiver is only sold to drivers aged 25 and over. Zero deposit does not mean zero liability, because they can still invoice you afterwards.
Also watch the mileage cap. Most contracts allow 200 to 300 km a day, and an Abu Dhabi court upheld a AED 10 per kilometre overage charge in 2025 against a driver who covered 623 km in one day. A Liwa run alone can breach it.
Confirm in Writing, Then Film Everything
Get delivery *and* collection confirmed, because plenty of companies advertise the first and go quiet on the second. Also the deposit amount and whether it is blocked or charged, the mileage cap and excess rate, the toll admin model, the fine handling fee and the late-return policy. WhatsApp is fine.
At handover, film a slow walkaround with the agent visibly present: all four corners, wheels, windscreen, roof, interior, boot. Photograph the odometer and fuel gauge. Insist on a written condition report, mark every existing scratch, keep a photo of the signed copy. Film the return too, because most disputes start after collection. Pay by credit card so you keep the right to dispute.
A few last things
The left lane is for overtaking, and headlights flashing behind you means "move over" rather than "after you". Rude gestures are an actual offence. If your evening involves a drink, the car stays parked, because the legal limit is zero.
Oman needs its own warning. Both the Hatta crossing and the drive to Musandam mean leaving the country, which requires written permission from your rental company plus separate insurance. A policy bought at the border does not make the car legal to take across.
UAE car rental: quick answers
Do I need an International Driving Permit to rent a car in the UAE as a tourist?
It depends on your nationality. Some countries' licences are accepted on their own, and everyone else needs an International Driving Permit, which must be obtained in your home country before you travel because you cannot buy one in the UAE. The accepted list is short and specific and is published by the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, so check yours before booking. An IDP is never valid on its own, so always carry your original licence with it.
Is there really a 20 km/h speed buffer in Dubai?
Radars in Dubai and the northern emirates are generally set to trigger around 20 km/h above the posted limit, but this is a camera setting rather than a legal allowance, and driving 1 km/h over the sign is already an offence. Abu Dhabi removed its buffer in 2018 and fines drivers for exceeding the posted limit by even 1 km/h. Drive to the sign.
How do traffic fines work with a rental car in the UAE?
Fines are issued against the number plate, which belongs to the rental company, so they see them before you do. You settle up when you return the car, which is why the deposit is held rather than released immediately, and most companies add a handling fee of around AED 50 per fine. Fines can take a few weeks to appear on the system, so anything that surfaces late is deducted from the deposit or the card on file.
Do I need a car seat for my child in the UAE?
Yes. Children under four must travel in a child safety seat, and nobody under ten years old or shorter than 145 cm may sit in the front. Book the car seat at the same time as the car, because rental companies do not always have one available at short notice.
Do I need a car to get around Dubai as a tourist?
Not for the city itself. Downtown, Dubai Marina, JBR, the Palm, Deira and Bur Dubai are all well served by the Metro, the tram and taxis, and the Metro from the airport costs a fraction of a taxi. A car pays for itself on day trips to Hatta, Al Ain, Jebel Jais, the east coast or Abu Dhabi.
