This page contains information on
arrival in the UAE, housing options,
local transport and your
contact details once you are here. Note
that further information is available in our
Guide for Students.
The first
thing to say about arrival is that you should give us your flight details as
soon as you have them. That way we can provide you with timely advice and
suggestions regarding your arrival.
We regret
to say that we are unable to organise airport pick-ups as the airports are a
significant distance from the institute. However travel from the airports
to the city of Al-Ain is easy.
There are
two main airports in the UAE, one in Dubai and the other in Abu Dhabi.
There is a smaller airport at Sharjah and also an airport in Muscat, the capital
of Oman. There is also an airport in Al-Ain but flights there are
few. Please note that while you are likely to be staying and studying in
Buraimi which is in Oman, you should plan to fly to Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Al-Ain
airports as these are significantly closer to Buraimi than Muscat which is the
capital of Oman.
Note that
if your flight arrives at certain times of the day we will not be able to help
you until the following day, as detailed below under
Late Arrivals. IMPORTANT ARRIVAL NOTE – The
weekend in the UAE is Friday and Saturday. The work week is Sunday through
Thursday. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to help you with
housing issues on Friday or Saturday.
A quick
piece of advice before we go into detail about arrival, please
visit our download page
and consider downloading the maps. Students have
arrived here without maps and then wondered why they have got lost, spending an
hour or more trying to find the institute. Download the maps, it will help
you to find us and make your first days here less
difficult.
So what
should you do if you arrive in Dubai,
Abu Dhabi or
another airport? And what
happens when you arrive in Al-Ain?
Dubai airport is a large,
very modern airport and a
major transit hub for travel between Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is in the
heart of Dubai and close to several hotels. It is about 1.5 hours from the
Dubai airport to Al Ain.
You can get to Al Ain via taxi
(from the airport) or bus
(from the bus station). The taxis are safe, modern
and well maintained but expensive.
They are also the quickest option as you will be in
Al-Ain about one and a half
hours after leaving the airport. The driver will
speak English and will either have a radio or a mobile phone (cell phone). The
taxi will have a meter so there will be no doubt as to the fee. The fee is
about AED270 (approx. US$73) depending on where you are dropped off in Al Ain.
Airport taxis and some other taxis accept credit cards. It is good to ask about
this before leaving, otherwise you will need to pay in local currency. There
is a money exchange place in the airport plus an ATM machine.
If you wish to take a
bus you will need to take a taxi to the bus station.
The bus to Al Ain costs
around AED30-40 (approx. US$8-11).
This is also a safe option. Most of the other passengers will be
workers from Asia. This option is considerably
cheaper than the taxi but will also take a lot longer, probably around 3-4 hours
from the time you leave the airport to your arrival in Al-Ain.
Abu Dhabi airport is smaller and not as
nice as Dubai, but it is still modern and very adequate.
It is about 1.5 hours from the Abu Dhabi airport to Al
Ain. You can take a
taxi directly from the airport which is about AED270 (approx. US$73) depending
on where you are dropped off in Al Ain. Airport taxis and some other taxis
accept credit cards. It is good to ask about this before leaving,
otherwise
you will need to pay in local currency.
It is also possible to take a bus from
Abu Dhabi to Al-Ain. However, the airport lies 30
minutes outside of Abu Dhabi so
you will need to take a taxi for about 30 minutes into Abu
Dhabi and then come about two hours back to Al Ain.
The vast majority of people who arrive
here, arrive at Dubai airport so our details of Abu Dhabi airport and travel to
Al-Ain are scant.
Should you arrive at another airport
other than Dubai or Abu Dhabi you will need to make your own enquiries about how
to get to Al-Ain.
Many flights into the UAE arrive at a
late hour. If your flight arrives in Dubai or Abu Dhabi after 4:00p.m. then we
cannot guarantee that we can help you with housing until the next morning. In
this case you have two options:
Option 1 – Find a hotel in either Dubai
or Abu Dhabi for the night and travel to Al Ain the next morning. There are
many hotels in both cities which can be found on the internet.
Option 2 – Travel to Al Ain that day and
find your own way to a hotel in Al Ain for the night. There are three five-star
hotels in Al Ain: Intercontinental, Hilton, and Rotana,
these can all be found on the internet. There is one
three-star hotel, Al Massa Rest House. We can make a reservation at the three
star hotel for you. Taxis will usually know how to find the hotels (especially
the five-star hotels), but it is best to have the hotel number with you in case
the driver needs to ask for directions.
Whichever method you choose to
get to Buraimi or Al-Ain, please let us know your travel plans at least two weeks in advance.
If you give us less than two week's warning then we cannot guarantee that
someone will be available to help you on arrival.
Once we have your expected arrival date
and time we can arrange to meet you when you arrive and
help you find cheaper short term housing and/or long term
housing.
There
are three main options for housing: private rental; furnished hotel flats and
standard hotels. Private rental would be the best option for those
staying for longer than a few months and is described below under Living
in Buraimi and Living in Al-Ain.
For those only studying for up to three months, the best
option would be furnished hotel flats in Buraimi with prices starting from AED80 (approximately
US$22) a day or AED2400 (approx. US$655) for one month. This only includes
a room and bathroom and is two-star in quality. For AED150 (approx. US$41)
a day or AED4500 (approx. US$1230) for one month you get two bedrooms, a sitting
room, a bathroom, and a kitchen.
There are also a number of hotels in the area offering all
the comforts one would expect. The Hilton,
Intercontinental and Rotana (five-stars) are all in Al Ain and can be found on
the internet. The Al Massa Rest House is a nice three-star hotel in Al Ain and
is
near the Al-Ain branch. Their rate is AED155 (approx. US$42) per day for long-term
stays and AED200-250 (approx. US$54-68) per day depending
on the day and season. The Salam Hotel (three-star) in Buraimi offers rooms for
as low as AED150 (approx. US$41) a day or AED2000 (approx.
US$546) for one month. Rooms at all of these rates do not include
kitchens. It is also possible to rent
chalets.
If you are staying for any length of
time in the area then it is wise to rent privately. Flats and villas can
be rented in both Al-Ain and Buraimi.
It is significantly cheaper to rent property in Buraimi
than in Al-Ain. Property can be rented furnished or unfurnished, though
furnished does not mean fully furnished and students
usually still need to buy some furniture and all household items.
The rental for an unfurnished, privately let, 2 bedroom flat
in Buraimi is approximately AED800/month and an unfurnished 3 bedroom villa
would cost approximately AED1300/month. Unfurnished means
just that, a bare flat with no curtains, carpets, or air conditioners.
It is very likely
that students would have Gulf Arabs (Omani) living nearby whether they lived in
a flat or a villa. For economic
and language learning reasons, we suggest you
live in Buraimi.
We can give you some guidelines
and suggest locations
that will be more amenable to language acquisition.
At the time of writing, rents in Al-Ain are rising at a significant
rate. Flats and villas are higher quality than in Buraimi but rents are at
least three times, those villas in Al-Ain are usually centrally cooled so there is no need to buy air
conditioners. It is highly
unlikely that a student renting a flat in Al Ain would have Gulf Arabs
living nearby, so we recommend renting a villa.
In addition a residence visa is needed in order to rent a
villa or flat in Al Ain, but not in Buraimi.
Please note that the prices given on this web site are for
guidance only. We cannot guarantee availability of accommodation nor the
prices which are subject to change and, in the case of hotels, seasonal
variation. The students are responsible for their own accommodation,
however we will provide assistance in the form of contact details etc.
Taxis are widely
used. A trip across town in Buraimi costs around AED2 and a
trip across town in Al-Ain costs around AED5. If you live in Buraimi and study at the institute you
can probably get a taxi there and back for no more
than AED10 ($2.25) per day.
It is not possible to
own a car without a resident's visa, though you can drive a
rental car with an
International Driving Permit.
This is an important point to note, if
you think that you might rent a car at any time during your stay in the U.A.E.
then you MUST get an International
Driving Permit before leaving your home
country. If you do not obtain this permit then
it is very unlikely that you will be able to rent
or drive a car.
For more
information on the UAE and Oman, please see our UAE
Facts and Hyperlinks pages.
If you need a P.O. Box number in the UAE
before you arrive, we can provide you with details. Please do not
use the institute address as your address in the UAE,
Emirates Post can refuse post that is not for the nominated P.O. Box holder.
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