Dubai by water: what a boat actually costs
Crossing Dubai Creek on a traditional wooden abra costs AED 1, cash only — a nol card will not pay for it. The same creek, in a sightseeing abra, costs AED 60 to 75. That is not a different service so much as a different label on the same water, and RTA publishes both without ever putting them side by side.
Abra, by route
| Route | Fare | nol | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR1 — Bur Dubai to Deira Old Souq Traditional wooden abra | AED 1 | Cash only | 06:00–24:00 |
| CR2 — Dubai Old Souq to Al Sabkha Traditional wooden abra | AED 1 | Cash only | 24 hours |
| CR3 to CR6 — Creek and Al Seef Air-conditioned abra | AED 2 per stop | Accepted | Roughly 08:00–24:00 |
| CR11 — Al Jaddaf to Creek Harbour | AED 2 | Accepted | From 07:00 |
| DC2 — Dubai Water Canal | AED 2–8 | Accepted | Evenings only, from 17:35 |
| CR7 and DC3 | “Temporarily on hold until further notice” | ||
The distinction that matters at the jetty: the AED 1 boats are the old wooden ones and they take cash. The AED 2 routes are the newer air-conditioned abras and they take nol. RTA’s nol page says a nol card works on “Dubai Abra” without qualification; its own marine flyer prints “(cash only)” against CR1 and CR2 and adds a footnote that nol is not accepted on the Electrical Abra either. Carry a coin.
The same crossing, sixty times the price
| Trip | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| CR1 Creek crossing | AED 1 | Commuter route, cash |
| Marina round trip, TR8 | AED 25 | Per person, sightseeing |
| Electric abra tour, Creek | AED 60 | 30 minutes |
| Dubai Mall to Global Village, TR6 | AED 75 | Per person, 25 minutes |
| Charter an abra | AED 60–120 | Whole boat, 30 or 60 minutes |
One line in the flyer is worth knowing before you plan around the free concession: “People of Determination and children under 5 receive complimentary travel only for commuter trips.” The concession does not carry to the tourist routes.
Ferry
| Route | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|
| FR1 — Al Ghubaiba to Dubai Canal | AED 25 | AED 35 |
| FR2 — Marina, Bluewaters, Water Canal | AED 25 | AED 35 |
| FR5 — Al Ghubaiba to Sharjah | AED 15 | AED 25 |
| FR4 — Palm Jumeirah to Atlantis | AED 50 | AED 75 |
Children under five travel free; on the Palm route, children of two to ten are half price. A family package on FR1 and FR2 is AED 140 Silver or AED 210 Gold for two adults and two children, and the whole boat charters at AED 2,800 an hour.
Look at FR5 against FR4. The Sharjah run is a genuine commuter link at AED 15, and the Palm run is a tourist trip at AED 50 — the same two classes, the same operator, more than three times the fare. In Dubai Marina the water taxi is AED 7 per stop and takes nol.
The water bus is gone, and an old brochure still says otherwise
RTA’s water bus page publishes no routes, no fares and no timetable. What it says instead is that RTA is “replacing the fleet of Water Buses by new air-conditioned abras”. So the water bus has effectively become the AED 2 abra routes in the first table, and any water bus fare you find quoted elsewhere is describing a service that is being retired.
Worse, a legacy RTA ferry brochure is still published on rta.ae and prints route codes 1F and 2F at AED 50 Silver and AED 75 Gold — double the current AED 25 and 35 for the routes that replaced them. RTA’s own Dubai Ferry web page is stale in a different way: it still uses “Economy Class” and “Business Class” wording and carries a note about a timetable change “as of November 2018 to April 2019”.
This is the second time on this site that an out-of-date RTA PDF outranks the current one — the metro fare brochure still online is stamped September 2011. The figures on this page come from RTA’s marine flyer dated July 2026, which is the most recent official document we could find, and which itself warns: “Some routes may be temporarily non-operational.”
Chartering a boat, and the rest of the grid
Three figures that almost nobody quotes, all from the same July 2026 flyer. RTA publishes charter rates for its own vessels: an abra at AED 300 or AED 580 an hour, a water taxi at AED 400 an hour, and a 100-seat Dubai Ferry at AED 2,800 an hour — the ferry seating 14 Gold, 84 Silver and 2 wheelchair spaces.
| Service | Fare | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Water taxi BM1 / BM3Marina hops | AED 7 | BM1 full route AED 7–21 “Depending on the number of stops” |
| Ferry FR5Al Ghubaiba – Sharjah Aquarium | AED 15 Silver / 25 Gold | Under 5 free |
| Palm Jumeirah Ferry, family package | AED 140 Silver / 210 Gold | 2 adults and 2 children; departs 11:30 and 16:30 |
| Marina round-trip abra TR8 | AED 25 | Under 2 travel free |
| Burj Khalifa Lake abra | AED 75 | 25 minutes, per person |
| Global Village electric abra | AED 52.50 | “to book the entire Abra per trip for 12 to 15 min” |
RTA states nowhere whether any of these are VAT-inclusive. Neither does any commercial boat operator in Dubai — we checked the whole category and not one page mentions VAT at all.
The Palm Monorail is not RTA, but nol works on it
The monorail belongs to Nakheel, not RTA — RTA says so itself. But since October 2022 nol gold, silver and blue cards are valid on it, under an agreement between the two. RTA publishes no monorail fare, because it does not set it. Note also that the monorail is currently suspended.
Related: metro and nol fares in full, taxi starting charges, and what the metro reaches.
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Common questions
How much is an abra in Dubai?
A traditional wooden abra across Dubai Creek is AED 1, cash only. A nol card will not pay for it.
Why do some sites say an abra costs AED 60?
Because they are quoting the sightseeing abra, which runs AED 60 to 75 on the same water. RTA publishes both and never puts them side by side, so the two get conflated.
How much is the Dubai Ferry?
Current published fares are AED 25 and AED 35 by class. Note that a legacy RTA ferry brochure still online prints AED 50 and 75 — a document the operator has not retired.
Can I pay for an abra with a nol card?
No. The AED 1 traditional abra is cash only. The marine services that do accept nol are the ferry and water bus.
Do abras run at night?
The traditional creek crossings run long hours, but RTA does not publish a single authoritative timetable covering every station, so we do not state a closing time.