What to wear in dubai

I visited Dubai about one month ago during the peak of the summer season which means it was scorching hot and I wanted to wear comfortable and breezy pieces! You can read more about it on my previous post where you can find a complete travel guide. Dubai´s weather is pretty hot year round except during the Winter months when nights get chilly.
 
While researching for the trip I often felt lost in the wardrobe department! I wasn´t sure what was appropriate to wear and be respectful of UAE´s dress code. I couldn´t find a straight answer on what was ok for tourist to wear and since it was going to be pretty hot I was trying to figure out if I could wear my normal summer clothes. There were not many articles about it so I went with my gut and the few guidelines I could find from other fellow travelers. These are the man reason why I decided to post about what I found was appropriate to wear.


Dubai is much more “liberal” than other middle eastern cities and there´s tons of expats and tourists, so you ´ll find a mix of everything. I wanted to be respectful of their culture and also feel comfortable so I opted out to wear some more conservative summer clothes and I always carried a long pashmina with me for when I needed to cover my shoulders and to keep warm when the AC was on full blast. 


I found out the since most of the places we were visiting are tourist spots then it was ok to show a bit more skin but without being too exposed. I didn´t have any dress code issues during the trip and found out that people are pretty relaxed about it except at the Mosque where you have to adhere to the strict dress code: covered arms, legs (nothing above the ankle), no tight-fitting clothes, ensure that the fabric is opaque and wear a headscarf. My advice is to refrain from wearing the following:

• Miniskirts
• Tiny shorts
• Strapples anything
• Baring your midriff
• Super low cut tops
• See through tops or bottoms

 
Here are some options of what I wore:
 

• Midi Dress
• Loose fitting pants
• Short sleeve shirts
• Maxi Dress
• Sandals

I paired all of my outfits with sandals and comfy espadrilles for walking around the city although it wasn´t the brightest idea to bring espadrilles to the desert safari since the sand was really hot and it would get everywhere I think the best option would have been close toe espadrilles. 

Please let me know if you have any specific questions and I´ll be more than happy to reply back!

Happy Travels!