Your first 72 hours in Dubai

Dubai is the easiest hard move there is: everything works, everyone speaks English, and the bureaucracy mostly happens to you via your employer. Your first 72 hours are about logistics and calibration, not paperwork.

Hour 1: out of DXB

The metro red line runs from Terminals 1 and 3 straight down the spine of the city, cheap and genuinely useful if you're staying near a station. Otherwise it's a taxi (ranks are managed, metered, fine) or Careem/Uber, AED 50 to 100 to the Marina depending on traffic. Buy a Nol card at the airport metro station regardless (AED 25 with credit loaded); it works on metro, tram, buses, and even some taxis.

Day 1: SIM card

The airport kiosks (e&, du, Virgin Mobile) will sell you a working SIM in five minutes on your passport, convenient but tourist-priced. If you can wait a day, any mall shop does prepaid cheaper. You'll switch to postpaid later once your Emirates ID exists; for now prepaid data is the bridge. A UAE number matters immediately: every app, delivery, and bank OTP expects one.

Day 1: money calibration

Cards work absolutely everywhere, you can live cashless from hour one. Keep AED 100 in cash for the odd karak stall and tips (10% is the polite default for delivery and valet; round up taxis). The thing to calibrate is the rhythm of money here: rent is annual and paid in post-dated cheques, salaries arrive monthly, and the gap between those two facts is why your first months are cash-flow heavy. Don't commit to a flat in week one; serviced apartments and monthly rooms buy you time to learn the map.

Day 2: learn the weekend and the weather

The weekend is Saturday to Sunday (it changed in 2022; old blog posts say Friday). Brunch is a sport, Friday is a normal-ish workday morning for many, and everything stays open late. Weather strategy: October to April is glorious and outdoors; May to September the city moves indoors and air-conditioning is infrastructure, not luxury. If you arrived in summer, don't judge the city yet, schedule your walking for after 6pm and drink more water than feels reasonable.

If you landed in August, take the heat seriously for the first week. Daytime is 40 degrees and humid, so the 300 metres from the metro exit to your building is a real distance: plan door to door, keep water in your bag, and carry a light layer for interiors, which are cooled to the point of being cold. Every mall, metro station and underpass is part of the walking network, and residents use them as such. The upside of arriving now is that the city is at its emptiest and its cheapest: restaurants take walk-ins, gyms discount, and landlords are more flexible than they will be in October.

Day 2: supermarkets and the basics

Carrefour is the default big shop, Spinneys and Waitrose the premium tier, Lulu the everything-store with the best produce prices, Choithrams the corner option. Tap water is desalinated and safe; most residents still filter or buy bottled for taste. Pharmacies are everywhere, many 24h, and a lot is available without prescription. The numbers: 999 police, 998 ambulance.

Day 3: let the visa machine see you

If an employer brought you here, your day-3 job is responsiveness: the PRO will summon you for the medical test and Emirates ID biometrics: go the same day they ask, because every later step (bank, Ejari, postpaid SIM, insurance card) queues behind it. Self-sponsoring? Day 3 is when you book the medical and biometrics yourself through an Amer centre. Either way, carry passport copies and visa-photo-sized photos; Dubai asks for them like other cities ask for signatures.

Dress code and Ramadan, honestly

Day-to-day Dubai is relaxed: normal summer clothes everywhere, swimwear at pools and beaches, modesty only really expected in malls (shoulders/knees-ish), government buildings, and old Dubai. During Ramadan, eating and drinking in public daytime is restricted in most areas and the city's rhythm inverts, quieter days, magnificent nights. It's a great month to be here once you know the etiquette; restaurants still serve, just discreetly.

Apps to install tonight

• Careem: rides, food, everything (the local super-app)
• Dubai REST: tenancy, RERA rent calculator (you'll need it sooner than you think)
• DubaiNow: government services, DEWA bills, fines
• Talabat / Deliveroo: food delivery arrives absurdly fast
• The hospital app for your insurer's network: same-day GP bookings

What can wait

The bank account (needs Emirates ID), the flat (learn the areas first, the neighbourhoods comparison in this app puts them on a map), the driving licence, the gym contract. Work the checklist in order. For now: take the metro one stop at sunset, look at the skyline you just moved to, and order a karak for AED 1.50, the best price-to-wonder ratio in the city.