Parking in Dubai

Parking anxiety, be gone! Unlike some European cities where finding a parking spot feels like winning the lottery, Dubai is a parking paradise. Picture this: my local mall boasts over 5000 FREE parking spaces.

Parking Spaces

And let’s talk space – Dubai-sized space. Parking spots here could fit a truck, which is handy because some folks roll in vehicles that could double as small apartments. Plus, many places offer valet parking. Let me rephrase that, many places offer FREE valet parking.

Valet Parking

Dubai gets it – make life easy, not complicated. Try finding parking in Amsterdam or London without turning it into a quest for the Holy Grail. Good luck with that.

Back to the topic of valet parking. In most places it is completely free, think of bars, resorts, restaurants, even the dentist!. Drive up, hop out, and voilà! Someone takes care of your car while handing you a ticket stub. Make sure to get that stub stamped after settling your bill to avoid any unexpected fees. Tipping isn’t expected, but slipping a 5 AED note their way won’t hurt.

Navigating Paid Parking

Although parking in most areas is free, some areas require a small payment. When this is the case there will be a clear sign that payment is required (e.g. near the very busy spice and gold souk in Deira). Parking in public areas is provided by Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA). The RTA looks after the roads, traffic fines, and…. Public parking.

These areas are easy to recognise as they show a sign similar to the following, with a number specific to the area.

Underneath the sign you can find details about how to pay. When we first visited Dubai as tourists we were a bit flummoxed as most payment types require either a local bank card or a local phone number. There is a lot of conflicting information online filled with half truths ending with the same stumbling block of needing a local phone number or bank card.

How to pay for parking

The easiest way to pay for parking is as follows

Download the RTA app from your App Store (search for RTA Dubai)
Open the menu, select Vehicles / Parking vehicles and register your car. Do this at your hotel / at home so you don’t have to stress about it.
Navigate back to the main menu and select Parking, then Pay Public Parking Fees.
You will be presented with a map, in 50% of the cases the correct parking zone number will be visible. For reasons that are not clear to me, sometimes it doesn’t display the parking zone number, and typing it in the search button will do nothing. Instead click the button in the screenshot below and enter the zone’s code.

With the correct zone selected, specify how long to park (it tends to be 4 DHS per hour, $1, very reasonable) and continue to the Pay option. You will now be presented with multiple payment types, including Apple Pay, which I find the easiest option. Keep in mind that parking is free on Sundays as well as public holidays, something the RTA app will not tell you, it will happily take your money on a Sunday.