One of the big questions being asked about any holiday destination let alone Dubai. When is the cheapest time to go to Dubai?
September is the cheapest month to go to Dubai with average flight costs at £320 from the UK and average hotel prices at £156 per night.
Average September flight prices to Dubai are just £2 more than the cheapest month of November. However, when taking all costs into account, September wins.
If you’re unable to travel in September and want to know what other months are cheap to visit Dubai, rest easy because we have researched and presented you with a full breakdown of the average travel costs, month on month to show you the cheapest month(s) to travel to Dubai.
Below we have also written short explanations as to how you can travel cheap in that particular month and the reasons why it is cheap.
If your eyes are too tired to read about the best time to visit Dubai then check out this short video instead.
The Cheapest Time of Year to go to Dubai is..
The cheapest time of year to go to Dubai from the UK is September. However, there’s much more to know, as September has 30 days and it’s not cheap to travel ALL month.
Booking at the right time and travelling at the right time are as important as each other. You can’t expect to book on the 1st September and travel on the 15th and assume it’s going to be cheap.. there’s more science behind this so read on.
When is the Best Time to Book Flights to Dubai?
The first question we need to ask is when to book flights? We can take a lot of information from one of our previous posts on The Cheapest Time to Book Flights, which has a full month by month breakdown of average flight costs around the globe.
To save you the hassle of reading that article, November was the cheapest time to book flights to the Asian continent as a whole and forms the basis of our research into cheap flights to Dubai.
Remember, November at the moment is the time to BOOK, not travel.
What is the Cheapest Month to Fly to Dubai?
For the purpose of this post we are going to concentrate on direct flights only. Below is a table of the average flight cost to Dubai, from London, per month.
As you can see from the table below November is also the cheapest time to FLY to Dubai by a cats whisker! Average direct flight costs = £318. September is a close second at £320 per flight.
When to Book Hotels in Dubai?
The next aspect we need to consider is hotels. First of all, when to book hotels in Dubai. This one is actually easier than it sounds as Kayak.com have done their own independent study based on millions of bookings.
Whatever time of year you choose to travel, the data tells us that the most expensive day to book a hotel is a Tuesday and the cheapest days to book are Friday and Saturday.
If we go really deep into the stats you will find that the cheapest check in day is a Sunday and the most expensive is a Friday (OF COURSE!). But that doesn’t help much when your travelling for a week or more…
So when is the best time to book a hotel in Dubai? Well you can get room rates really, really cheap if you leave it until very last minute. The problem you will have is availability and choice. So this method is for the risk takers who don’t mind so much if their favourite hotel is off the market and sold out!
For everyone else, make sure you stay outside of the 40 day mark. Booking hotels between 40 and 21 days prior to check-in is statistically the worst time to book.
Hotels have a good idea of their allocations in this time frame and will hike prices should they feel that the rooms are selling well. It’s a risk.
Booking too far in advance can also see travellers pay high prices, and truth is there isn’t any solid evidence to show when the cheapest month to book is. My only advice would be to start looking early, monitor prices, and try to book at least 40 days prior to check-in.
Tip: If you want to make sure you get the lowest rate, the hotel booking site Tingo (SmarterTravel’s sister company) will automatically monitor your hotel and rebook you at the new lower rate if prices drop.
When is the Cheapest Month to Stay in Dubai Hotels?
This question is a lot easier to answer as we can compare past hotel prices in the city by month.
Peak room rate periods for hotel stays in Dubai are during the last three weeks of January, the second and fourth weeks of February, the last two weeks of March, the second and third weeks of October, and the last week of December.
Month by month average room rates can be seen on the table below. The information below is pulled from Statista and is in US Dollars but still gives us a good insight of the average monthly cost of hotels in Dubai.
As you can see above, August is the cheapest month to stay in a hotel in Dubai. However, August is not a cheap month to fly, and it is extremely hot, with temperatures well into their 40’s every day.
July runs a close second place but not too far out is September. September is still a significantly cheaper time to book stays in Dubai than most other months, especially when combining flights too.
The Conclusion
When combining flight costs with hotel costs, September comes out on top.
September in Dubai is still fairly hot, too hot for some in fact with an average daily high of 39C! However, September is out of the school holidays for both the UK and Dubai, its not Ramadan or Eid too. This all contributes to September being the cheapest time to visit Dubai as restaurant prices and excursions stay at a reasonable rate.
Tip: Dubai as a city has a tendency to increase prices during holidays or Eid. This includes everything from taxi rides to excursions. Whenever you plan a trip to Dubai always check their holiday periods which can be done easily enough on Google.
Average flight costs to Dubai in September are £320. Just £2 more than the cheapest month of November! Average hotel costs in September are £156 per night. This is £59 per night under the yearly average. Split these figures across a 7 night stay and going in September could save you £413 on the hotel alone!!
Tip: Be careful not to impulse buy your flights to Dubai when you see a cheap deal. In comparison, hotel costs in November (which is statistically the cheapest time to fly) are a whopping £90 per night over the cost of staying in September!
We hope you have enjoyed reading the article and that this has given you some good information on the Cheapest Time to go to Dubai.
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