Don ' t get a car for travelling around the cities traffic is bad , parking is bad , while taxis and public transport are effective and fairly cheap . Only get a car if you want to get out of town . You can drive to things like the Liwa oasis southwest from Abu Dhabi , including some amazing sand dunes nearby , Al Ain and Jabal Hafeet towards the Omani border , and there ' s the east coast . Driving isn ' t too bad in the UAE . The major companies operate there I used Hertz . I prefer companies like that for safety and reliability , although there are probably many cheaper rental companies in Dubai . I had no problems at all in regard to the rental itself . Driving is interesting . The centre of Dubai or Abu Dhabi is congested and driving standards are poor , but I ' ve seen worse . You absolutely want GPS of some kind , but note that the rapid road building means that it may be out of date . The highways are quite good , except for strange things like speed bumps and roundabouts on 120 kmh highways . Also , some people drive ridiculously fast , so stay out of the fast lane .