Dubai is one of those cities that feels
like it is truly ahead of its time with mega skyscrapers and futuristic style
architecture, you will be blown away with how amazing this city is.
You were probably watching this video because some part of you is curious about
how much does it cost to live in this metropolis.
So, guys, before we jump in,
my name is Mac Candee, also known as World Nomac,
and I'm currently traveling all around the world making videos on things to do
in places, ultimate itineraries, cost of living and so much more.
So welcome to the channel if you're new here.
And if not, welcome back. So in today's video,
I'm going to cover what it costs to live in Dubai for one entire month.
But one thing I want to mention to you is that I did a few things that made my cost
maybe a little bit higher than your average person.
And those two things are as number one,
as I ate out for every single meal. I never cooked,
I did have a kitchen, but I like to experience the cuisine.
And there were so many good spots in Dubai I just couldn't resist.
And I was really busy the whole time, so I just didn't have time to cook.
But anyways, guys, number two reason is I did a lot of excursions also this month.
So these were two costs that definitely
brought my overall cost of living in Dubai up quite a bit.
So keep that in mind when you're watching
this video and make sure you stick around until the end of this video,
because I'm going to show you the entire month's cost.
So let's go ahead and hop right in.
When I first arrived to Dubai I have to get an apartment.
All right, guys. So I am starting on my first day here
in the amazing city of Dubai after quite an adventure to get here.
And the first thing on the list was
to find where I'm going to live for the month.
I honestly was originally planning to only
come here for two weeks, but after seven days of travel to get
here, I decided I'm going to stay here for a full month.
So let's do a little tour of this place.
I got a private room in a four bedroom apartment where I got it for about four
thousand Dirhams, which is roughly one thousand eighty-eight U.S. dollars.
So it comes out to about thirty-eight
dollars per day, which isn't bad given if you saw my Cozumel video,
I was paying about twenty-two dollars per day in a shared place over there.
So I have a beautiful view of the city,
the Marina, which is one of the most famous areas in Dubai.
There is a nice, large common space in here to hang out and do some work, chill.
And then over here in the apartment is where my room is.
It's a private room with two twin beds so I can push it together and make it
into a king-sized bed along with a private balcony.
So we have the balcony with the city views right over here, which is sweet.
And yeah, guys, that is my place.
Got a little working desk here to edit
this video. That got me one entire month inside a basically like a five-star hotel,
like a hotel apartelle or apartelle hotel.
It was really nice because it had all the amenities I needed from a pool up front.
It had a gym,
it had an onsite coffee shop and a little small-like minimart store.
I found this the day of that
I moved in because I had some complications getting to Dubai before
this, I wasn't able to book a place in advance.
So I'm telling you this because if you're
planning to go to Dubai and you have the luxury to plan in advance,
you're going to be able to find probably much better prices on housing than I did.
One other thing I want to mention in that one thousand eighty-eight dollars
I spent, as I said before, the gym was included.
So that cut off that cost that I would normally pay.
There are a lot of gym options in Dubai,
but luckily the gym I had was good enough for me to be able to work out there.
Number two is I had an in-unit laundry
machine, so I did not have to go get my laundry done anywhere else.
So those are two costs that you might have
seen in my other cost of living videos that are going to be included in here
because they were able to be worked in with the apartment cost.
So the next category,
which happened to be my most expensive category was restaurants.
Yes, I ate out or I ordered food for every
single meal for the entire month I was there.
No doubt the restaurants in Dubai are
quite expensive, even coming from the United States.
They're definitely in line with the same price range.
If not, some places are even a little bit more expensive.
Now, the one thing that still didn't make
my costs absolutely skyrocket in the restaurant scene is because most
restaurants are, I can't say most, a lot of the restaurants don't serve alcohol.
And so that kept me from getting that one
or two extra beers that I would normally have with my meal.
And so I would say on average, I spent about forty-two US dollars per day
to eat between two to three meals, depending on how large my meal portions were.
So that's what I did for the entire month,
and that cost me about one thousand two hundred and sixty-three US dollars.
So number three on the list is going to be groceries.
As I mentioned, I ate out for every single meal.
So this category is very low in terms of what I spent.
I spent about one hundred eleven dollars
and that was pretty much picking up snacks, water and just a few other
essentials like coffee and things like that.
So it was a very small category.
The next category on the list is drinks.
So alcoholic drinks.
I did not go out very often,
just maybe two or three times in the entire month I was there.
But drinks, alcoholic beverages are quite
expensive in Dubai since they're slightly harder to come by.
Not completely. A lot of places do have them still,
but not every single restaurant like you might be used to in other countries.
So for a nice cocktail at a lounge,
you'll pay at least twenty US dollars for a drink.
And so if you're buying a couple of rounds
for you and a couple friends, that can easily add up quickly.
Those two to three times that I went out
during the month, I spent roughly two hundred and eighty-five dollars.
And next on the list is how much should I spend on excursions. As I slightly
mentioned earlier in this video, I spent a lot on excursions because I
wanted to get a full understanding of what Dubai had to offer, obviously making these
types of videos, my things to do videos and my Dubai travel guide.
So I really need to do a lot in order to truly know the city quite in-depth,
to be able to give you guys this information.
And if you guys do want to learn more
about things to do and my Dubai travel guide,
I'll drop a link in the description below to those videos.
They'll be super helpful for planning out
what you guys want to do when you're in this amazing city.
So jumping right in, I did quite a few expensive excursions
during this month between riding in a helicopter roughly one hundred
and eighty dollars, ziplining, which was about one hundred and fifty U.S.
dollars, to doing a pretty nice, luxurious safari out in the desert
in Dubai for about one hundred and fifty US dollars.
So those three activities,
along with quite a few other activities sprinkled in throughout the month,
round me about six hundred and twenty five US dollars.
Next on the list is transportation costs.
So I used two means of transportation. Number one
I rode the Metro.
I found the Metro to be very, very efficient.
It was easy to get from place to place
between the monorail to the tram car to the city bus.
They all worked together quite well and it was very efficient to get around. I spent
roughly 80 dollars for the entire month to use the metro.
And I was taking it almost every day.
And then when it came to taxis, Ubers and Careems,
it's basically the same thing as Uber, but it's more common in the Middle East.
I spent about two hundred and eighty dollars.
All right,
next on the list was getting a haircut in Dubai.
So I usually get my haircut every other week.
So as you can imagine, that is two times in a month.
And I paid roughly thirty-two US dollars
for a very nice haircut at a nice place downtown.
And so you can probably find them a bit cheaper if you wanted to save a few bucks.
But I wanted to get a high-quality haircut
in a place that was known really well with great reviews and things.
So that's what I paid and I was happy to pay that.
Not too different from what you'll pay at a nice barber in the United States.
And so, guys, that pretty much wraps up
all of the costs that I spent while I was in Dubai.
In total, that cost about three thousand eight hundred dollars for an entire month.
And once again, that's eating out.
That's doing a lot of excursions.
That's living in a five star apartelle hotel.
So I was living a very nice
and comfortable lifestyle while I was in Dubai.
Could I go back and probably do it for half of that?
I think I probably could with the right planning,
but that would be basically eating in for almost every meal.
That would be only using the Metro and that would not be doing as many
excursions and also finding a less expensive place to live.
In a maybe not so trending area like Dubai Media City where I was staying.
That's what you can do if you want to cut your costs.
So don't let this number of three thousand eight hundred dollars scare you away.
I will also say if you want to live super luxurious and you want to have your own
apartment and you know, you want to experience even more of Dubai than I
did, you could easily spend a lot more than that in a month.
So obviously you can go either way on the spectrum.
But I hope this gives you some level of understanding of what you can expect
to pay when you are living in Dubai for one month.
All right, guys, I really hope you like this video.
And like I said earlier in this video,
I have multiple other videos coming out in Dubai, things to do, travel guides,
things that are basically going to help you on every step of the way to figure out
what you need to do, where you need to go, how to just live in Dubai.
And I cover all of that in a very in-depth set of videos.
And you can find those guides in the link, in the description below.
So, guys, if you like this video, make sure you hit that like button.
And if you want to see more videos like
this, smash that subscribe button so you can see more.
And we will see you guys in the next video.