Dubai International Airport
Dubai Airport is seriously BIG! There are plenty of moving walkways, but even so it can be a long trek from one gate to another, or even between the gate and the main concourses.
Given the size of the place, it comes as no surprise to find that there are electric carts available to convey you around it. There are wheelchairs and porters/assistants too.
Dedicated wheelchair accessible desks are located between Rows A and B in the Departures Hall. There are lounges on the concourse close to Gates 9 and 22 for use by passengers with special needs. And most facilities have been designed to ensure they’re accessible to those with restricted mobility.
Perhaps slightly surprisingly, the Government of Dubai’s Dubai Tourism website has more information about Dubai International’s facilities for the disabled than the airport’s own official site has.
Hotels near Dubai International Airport
CanDoCanGo (CAN!) is affiliated with Booking.com, one of the best known names in the online hotel reservations business. Cut down on your searching time by going straight to our page of hotels near Dubai International Airport with facilities for disabled guests.
There are many hotels available which have specially adapted facilities and rooms for disabled guests. (The information is included in the “Hotel Facilities” section of each individual hotel.) Using Booking.com’s user-friendly search box also enables you to specify a host of other options, such as your preferred chain, hotels of a particular character or style, and even what distance from the airport you require.
30 August 2010 at 08:06
Sadly, the services stated as being available are let down by the quality, which is very hit-and-miss.
On a recent transit at Dubai in the small hours of the morning with a three-hour gap to fill, we were met at the door of the aircraft by a guy with a wheelchair. So far so good, we thought.
However, we had great difficulty in getting our particular “helper” to understand that we didn’t want to go straight to the gate of our onward flight – I wanted a toilet break, a fag, and a chance to look round Dubai’s legendary duty-free shops. Actually, our preference would have been to simply borrow the wheelchair and move under our own steam. But the guy insisted that that wasn’t possible.
Not only that, though, but even after we’d persuaded him to take me to the toilets he refused to let me take the wheelchair into the toilet room – even though the sign clearly showed it was intended for disabled access. So I had to hirple with a cane across the vast room and back.
He then tried yet again to take me off to the gate. I insisted that I wanted the chance for a fag and a bit of shopping. It was only after I threatened to get out of the chair and make my own way on foot that he relented and allowed my husband to push me. Even then he stuck to us like glue. The only way we were able to shake him off even temporarily was by diving into the Irish bar for a couple of (hugely overpriced) pints of Guinness.
During the course of all this he was constantly sidling up to my husband and whispering, “Something trip?” Our best guess is that he was angling for a handout. Since he was replaced after two o’clock in the morning by a far more helpful and intelligent colleague, he didn’t get one – but that might explain his anxiety to get us to the gate more than an hour before we needed to be there, ie before he knocked off.