The best time to visit Dubai, month by month

November to March is the best time to visit Dubai. Daytime highs sit between about 24°C and 31°C and the evenings are cool enough to eat outside. It is also when the city is busiest and its hotels cost the most. From April the heat builds month by month until July and August, when afternoons pass 40°C and most of the city’s life moves indoors.

Dubai is five hours from Nairobi. For many of the people we book, it is a long weekend, a school-holiday week or a stop on the way to Asia rather than a once-in-a-lifetime trip. So the question is often less “which month is best” than “what will Dubai be like in the month we can go”.

When is the best time to visit Dubai?

For weather, November, December, February and March. January is the coolest month and the one most likely to bring a wet day, though even then that means a few short showers. December and January also bring the Dubai Shopping Festival, Christmas and New Year, so hotel rates are at their highest. Mid-November and the first half of March are when we find the weather and the prices work best together.

October and April are the shoulder months. The days are hot, in the mid-30s, but the evenings are pleasant and the sea is at its best for swimming. If your dates fall then, plan the beach for the morning and the sightseeing for late afternoon.

Our when-to-go table marks Dubai as best from November to March, next to every other destination we sell, so you can compare it with the other short trips from Nairobi.

Dubai weather month by month

The figures are averages for Dubai International Airport from 1991 to 2020. Sea temperatures are monthly means for the water off the city.

Nearly all of Dubai’s rain falls between November and March, and even then it averages only 10 to 20 mm a month, usually in a handful of short storms. Heavy rain is rare, but it does happen. In April 2024 a storm brought record rainfall to the UAE, flooding roads and disrupting the airport for several days. The coast is also humid in late summer, which makes 40°C by the sea feel hotter than the drier heat inland.

Is Dubai too hot to visit in summer?

For the beach and for walking the old town in the middle of the day, yes, from June to September. Afternoons pass 40°C, the sea warms to 32–33°C, and a walk from your hotel to the souk at noon is hard work. The city is built for it, though. The malls, the metro and most of the sights are air-conditioned, and many of the families we book go in July and August because that is when their school holidays fall.

A summer day works best in three parts. Until about ten in the morning the beach, the hotel pool or a waterpark is fine. The middle of the day is for indoor Dubai: the observation decks at the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Frame, the museums of Al Fahidi and Shindagha, and the malls, one of which has an indoor ski slope. After sunset the city comes back outside, and a dhow dinner cruise or a late walk along the creek is comfortable enough.

The advantage is price. Summer is Dubai’s low season, and hotels cut their rates from June to September, the beach resorts included. For a family whose holidays fall in August, a week at a beach hotel with a good pool can cost far less than the same week in December. Airfares from Nairobi do not fall the same way, because they follow the school holidays, so we price both before you decide.

Should you visit Dubai during Ramadan?

Yes, with a few adjustments. Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year. In 2027 it is expected to run from around 8 February to 8 March, which puts it inside the cool season for the next few years. The exact dates depend on the sighting of the new moon and are confirmed only the evening before.

For visitors, less changes than many people expect. Restaurants and cafés stay open through the day, and Dubai no longer requires them to screen their diners from view. Eating, drinking or smoking openly in the street while people around you are fasting is still inconsiderate, so keep to your hotel, a restaurant or a beach club. The evenings are the best part. The city breaks the fast together at sunset, iftar tents and buffets fill up, and the souks stay open late. Working hours are shorter, and some attractions change their opening times, so check before you plan a day around one.

Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan is a public holiday of several days. Dubai fills with visitors from around the Gulf, and hotel rates rise with them. Eid al-Adha, expected in mid-May in 2027, has the same effect.

When is the Dubai Shopping Festival?

The Dubai Shopping Festival runs for five to six weeks from December into January. The 2025–26 edition ran from 6 December to 12 January. The organisers had not announced the 2026–27 dates when we last checked, on 23 September 2026. Expect sales across the malls, fireworks, concerts and raffles, and the highest hotel rates of the year over Christmas and New Year.

Three other dates shape a trip. Global Village, an open-air park of country pavilions, food stalls and rides, is open from October to May, and its 2026–27 season opens on 14 October. Dubai Summer Surprises is the summer sales season; in 2026 it ran from 2 July to 30 August. And the New Year’s Eve fireworks at the Burj Khalifa fill every hotel in Downtown, so book early for that night.

Desert trips by season

The dunes are under an hour from the city. An evening in the desert usually means a pickup in the afternoon, a drive over the dunes as the light turns orange, camels, and dinner at a camp on the sand. From November to March it is at its best. The dunes are warm in the late afternoon, and after dark you will want a jacket.

The desert trips run all year. In summer the operators pick you up later so you reach the dunes as the sun goes down, but the sand still holds the day’s heat and the evening stays in the mid-30s. We would not book a desert activity in the middle of the day between May and September.

Can you swim in the sea in Dubai all year?

Yes, though the water feels very different by season. In January and February it is around 21°C, which is bracing if you are used to the Kenyan coast. At the height of summer it reaches 32–33°C, warmer than most swimmers want. April, May, October and November are the best months for the sea itself. The public beaches at JBR and Kite Beach are calm and shallow, and our beach and waterpark day puts the two together for families.

Dubai as a stopover from Nairobi

Emirates, Kenya Airways and flydubai fly direct from Nairobi to Dubai in about five hours, and Emirates flies several times a day. That makes Dubai the easiest place to break a long journey to Asia, Europe or the Americas. Two or three nights there on the way to Thailand or the Maldives turn a long connection into part of the holiday, and the cool-season months line up with the dry season in both.

Check your visa before you book. Many passports, including British, American and most European ones, get a visa on arrival. Kenyan passport holders need a UAE visa issued before they travel, unless they hold a residence permit from one of the countries on the UAE’s list, which since June 2026 qualifies them for a visa on arrival. Our Dubai page lists the hotels we book and what our packages include.

The best time to visit Dubai for what you want

• For the beach and the pool, go in March, April, October or November, when the sea is warm and the air is not yet too hot.
• For the old town and the souks on foot, December to February. Our creek and souks walk is at its best then.
• For shopping, the Shopping Festival in December and January, or the summer sales in July and August.
• For the lowest hotel rates, June to September.
• For the desert, November to March.
• For families, whichever school holiday you have. Our school holiday calendar sets the Kenyan, British and American breaks side by side.

Tell us when you can travel, and we will price a Dubai week or a stopover for those dates, with the flights from Nairobi.