Why this page exists
Abu Dhabi did something no other emirate has: its Department of Culture and Tourism published a set of official, named, self-drive desert routes. The official page is the source and worth opening — and it has three limits you should know before trusting it blind:
- It is frozen in time. The six routes launched in January 2021, driven and checked in late 2020, and the list has not changed since. Five years of shifting sand, new fences and new fuel stations later, the page reads exactly as it did at launch.
- No GPX. The route buttons open Google My Maps views; there is nothing to download into a navigation app, and the old disclaimer PDF now 404s.
- Two buttons are broken — re-checked September 2026. The coordinate links for Umm Al Oush and Al Khazna both open the Hameem Loop’s map. It looks like a copy-paste slip. If you drive those two, verify what the button opened.
- Their own map contradicts the page — on the beginner route. The page calls Al Remah beginner, 67 km. DCT’s map for that same route says “not for beginners” and “approx 100km”; we measured 96.4 km from their own track. We grade it advanced.
We drive these areas most weekends. Below: every route with DCT’s own data (attributed as theirs), and our deeper guide wherever we have one.
The six routes
| Route | Official length | DCT’s rating | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Remah | 67 km (their map: ~100 km) | Beginner (their map: not for beginners) | We grade it advanced — rolling ground east of Sweihan, but six of its eleven stops are black |
| Al Ain – White Sands | 157 km | — | Guide coming — the pale-sand side near Al Khazna |
| Hameem Loop | 80 km | Intermediate | Our full guide — our pins are the DCT waypoints |
| Al Khazna | 45 km | Advanced | Our full guide — and why three places share the name |
| Umm Al Oush | 70–80 km | Advanced | No guide yet |
| Liwa Crossing | 109 km, 1.5–2 days | Advanced | Our Liwa guide covers the crossing, the fuel maths and what clubs require |
Two reading rules for that table. The lengths and ratings are DCT’s, verbatim — we report them, we did not measure them. And a rating from 2020 is indicative squared: the grade was true of the sand they drove then, and the desert has had five years of wind since.
What the official page gets right
Credit where due: each route card carries coordinates, the safety section is real (convoy sizes, vehicle prep, emergency numbers), and the whole thing exists — which is more than any other emirate offers self-drivers. When someone asks whether off-roading is “allowed” in Abu Dhabi, these six routes are the strongest possible answer: the government drew you maps.
How to actually run one
- Trace the route before you leave signal. Open the official map, follow it against your offline map, and mark the start, exits and the nearest fuel. The Hameem guide shows how the checkpoints work on the ground.
- Convoy, always. DCT’s own guidance assumes multiple vehicles; so do the clubs that run these routes; so do we. Two cars minimum, never alone.
- Match the route to your hours. Al Remah first. Hameem when your convoy is drilled. The Crossing when 109 km of Rub’ al Khali sand sounds like logistics, not bravado — the Liwa page is honest about what that takes.
- Standard rules apply squared: aired down, recovery gear, water, the when-not-to-go list, and a dated check of conditions — because the one thing an official page from 2021 cannot tell you is what the sand did last week.
The honest footer
The six routes, their lengths and their ratings belong to DCT Abu Dhabi — we report them with attribution and they may change without either of us noticing, which is why this page carries its date. Nothing here asserts that any route is safe: an official rating is still indicative, a government map is still a map, and the desert still charges for mistakes at the same rate on named routes as off them.