Water
Dhow dinner cruise
- Direct guests
- Groups
- series
A dinner cruise aboard a traditional wooden dhow — the vessel type historically used in the Gulf for fishing, pearling and trade — now fitted out with two decks, a buffet and a stage.
Two hours is the standard product; the wider market runs roughly 1h45–2h30, with premium and special-event cruises up to 3 hours.
How it operates
A fixed-departure evening sailing from a jetty on the Creek, in Dubai Marina or on the Dubai Water Canal. Guests are seated on the enclosed lower deck or the open upper deck, the buffet opens once the boat is under way, the entertainment runs mid-cruise, and the vessel returns to the jetty it left from. Most operators sell hotel transfers separately.
Typically included
- Two-hour cruise
- International buffet with Arabic dishes and vegetarian options
- Tanoura dance performance (Creek versions often add a puppet show; some add live singing)
- Unlimited soft drinks
Commonly sold as an extra
- Upper (open) deck seating
- Hotel transfers
- Alcoholic beverages
For agents
Operating and selling mechanics
- Reliable series-group product: fixed departure times, predictable capacity, easy to bulk-allocate.
- Upper-deck seating and transfers are the two most common source-of-complaint omissions — specify both in the contract.
- Creek versus Marina is a positioning choice, not a quality choice. Match it to the itinerary: Creek after an Old Dubai day, Marina after a beach or Palm day.
For travellers
What to brief your guests on
- Seating on the open upper deck is normally a paid upgrade, and so are hotel transfers — worth checking what a booking covers before the night itself.
- The buffet is international with Arabic dishes and vegetarian options, and soft drinks are unlimited; alcohol, where a boat serves it, is charged separately.
Routes
- Dubai Creek — Sails through old Dubai past heritage buildings, souks and the historic waterfront. The heritage-and-culture option; also the entry-price option in the market.
- Dubai Marina — Sails the Marina's man-made canal past towers, superyachts and the modern skyline. The 'new Dubai' option; commonly priced above the Creek product.
- Dubai Water Canal — Runs through Business Bay past Burj Khalifa sightlines, the JW Marriott Marquis and the Sheikh Zayed Road waterfall bridge, with Ras Al Khor nearby. The newest of the three routes.
Checked 2026-07-28
This brief describes how the product works in the Dubai market, not a Forever Journeys policy or rate. Operating detail was read on these sources on the date above and can change — the ops team confirms specifics at booking.
Made to measure
Our Dubai team arranges the hotels, transfers and excursions on the ground across all seven Emirates — so the programme is assembled around the dates you send us, not around a fixed departure calendar.
The fleet is ours, and so is the team that dispatches it.