Originally Posted by
steelthefisherman
Hello! My last stop in UAE will be Abu Dhabi but only Dubaihas flights to my next destination. So I can either buy an Emirates ticket from Abu Dhabi to my destination (in which case the journey will consist of an Emirates-provided bus ride from Abu Dhabi to Dubai followed by the flight from Dubai to my destination) or simply buy an Emirates ticket from Dubai to my destination and arrange my own transport from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.
It seems that the price difference between the two types of Emirates tickets (i.e. the price of the Emirates bus from Abu Dhabi to Dubai) is basically the same as the ticket price for the public bus from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. But the bus time offered by Emirates is quite weird (the bus departs at 04:30 and arrives at Dubai at 06:45 which is too early for my 10:40 flight!). So I am thinking of taking the public bus instead. But just one worry - what time does the public bus start operating in the morning? What time is the first bus?
Thank you for your help!
You may get more feedback from the Middle East / UAE forum.
I'm not aware of any public buses that are run AUH-DXB or vice versa, except for the Etihad & Emirates shuttles, for which you need to be arriving / departing on one of them .
The public buses between the two cities stop in Dubai at Al Ghubaiba / Ibn Battuta (E101, E100) and depart from Abu Dhabi Central Bus station, and run all day except between 2am and 4 am -- if you're absolutely dead set on public transport, I would recommend the following:
1. AUH --> Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station on A1 or A2 bus (~30 mins + waiting time)
2. E100/E101 to Ibn Battuta OR Max Metro (~75 mins + waiting time)
3. Ibn Battuta or Max metro --> DXB T3 (Al Ghubaiba to a metro stati on is NOT an easy transfer, would not recommend) -- from Ibn Battuta it's about 60 mins and from Max Metro it's about 20 minutes.
This will cost you ~40 AED minimum.
You can replace Step 2 above with a shared taxi from ADCBS, which is ~50 AED but is much faster than the public bus, and leaves whenever the bus fills (which will be quick on a weekday and if near rush hour times). The bonus here is that they'll drop you at any red line metro station, just let them know in advance which metro you want to be dropped at. T3 is on the red line, but I'm not sure they'll go that far, though.
Lastly (and this is purely my recommendation, especially if you have anything more than a backpack ...), just take a taxi if the timings of the EK shuttle don't work-- it's ~250 AED ($70), but will save you the immense pain of the above, not to mention the time for the above including transfers I would allot minimum 3 hours due to the low frequency of public transportation here. You haven't mentioned when you're flying but if it's anytime before November you will be sweating outside waiting for the buses & metros, and combining it with the AC on full blast in the buses/trains it's very easy to fall sick.