A new marine transport station has been opened on BlueWaters island – the BlueWaters Marine Transport Station.
This is now being incorporated into the routes for the Dubai Ferry that run from and to Dubai Marina and Al Ghubaiba. It takes just 5 minutes to get from the Marina to BlueWaters station. The whole trip between the Marin and Al Ghubaiba takes around 2 hours.
You can see the full timings of the ferry routes on the Ferry Timings page and also details on the routes page.
AIN Dubai under construction in 2017
BlueWaters island is home to the AIN Dubai – the large Ferris Wheel that has been built on the Island and was opened in October 2021. There have also been a number of other destinations opened on the island recently.
If you want to travel to BlueWaters Island by marine transport then you can either take the Ferry or take the abra that goes from the Marina at the following times:
The RTA has introduced a new ferry route between the emirates of Dubai and Sharjah.
This is the first route between 2 emirates as all other routes are within Dubai.
The ferry service will run 42 times each day and you can find full details of the service here.
The route and timings for the new Dubai Sharjah Ferry
The service is a welcome addition to the commuters from Sharjah who often have to battle through traffic jams to get to Dubai.
There are also free shuttle buses running to the Sharjah terminal with the possibility of these expanding in the future as the demand grows for the service.
2023 Update – this route no longer runs. Check the routes page for more info.
This is a spotlight post on Al Jadaf Ferry Terminal. This is the starting point for ferry trips that run up the Dubai Water Canal to the Marine Station there.
There is a comfortable waiting room at Al Jadaf with customer toilets.
Walk From the Metro
Al Jadaf Marine Station is only a short walk from the Creek Metro station. It takes only a couple of minutes to walk from the Metro station to the Marine Station. Upon arrival at the Marine Station there is an air conditioned waiting room with seats where you can await your ferry or abra trip.
From Al Jadaf Marine Station you can not only get a ferry trip up the canal, you can also get an abra trip over to Festival City, which only takes a few minutes and so is a good route over that way if you do not have a car.
The ferry leaves from Al Jadaf 3 times a day.
3 Trips
Ferries leave 3 times a day to go up the canal from Al Jadaf at 10am, 12pm and 5.30pm. The full trip takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes to Dubai Water Canal Station where you can link up with the ferries that go to Dubai marina and Al Ghubaiba.
You get a fabulous view on the 5.30pm ferry from Al Jadaf.
Sunset Trip
If you take the 5.30pm trip from Al Jadaf in the cooler months then you can see the sun set over the Burj Khalifa, so this is a lovely trip to take.
You could go as far as the Sheikh Zayed Road station (this is 4 stops and will cost 40 dirhams in silver class). Once you get there – it arrives at 6.55pm – you can wait for 5 minutes to see the spectacle of the colourful waterfall on the bridge over the canal.
The light show starts at 7pm on the Water Canal.
From here you can take a walk along the canal and go over any of the new bridges there, or you can walk to the nearest Metro station, Business Bay, which will take you about 15 minutes.
An evening trip on the ferry along the canal is a great trip to take if you have visitors staying with you in Dubai. It gives you a great view of some key sights in Dubai and is a nice relaxing journey. The 5.30pm trip also gives you time to get dinner at one of the nearby hotels. The W Hotel Dubai Al Habtoor City is just across the road from the Ferry Stop.
We recently reported the timings for the Dubai Ferry for the holiday of Eid al Fitr 017 (you can find the details here) where an additional ferry trip was announced by the RTA.
After further investigations it appears that this new route will be active after the end of Eid Al Fitr on an ongoing basis.
A ferry on Dubai Water Canal
Circular Route
The new route is a circular trip (ie it departs from and returns to the same station) from the Sheikh Zayed Road Marine Station which is on the Dubai Water Canal.
Duration
The trip will last an hour and there will be one ferry taking the trips between 6pm and midnight from that station.
Cost
The price for the trip is the same as the other circular trips – 50 dirhams for Silver Class tickets and 75 dirhams for Gold class tickets.
Children under 5 travel free and children over the age of 5 are charged at full adult price. Tickets can be bought from the Sheikh Zayed Road Marine Transport Station ahead of your particular trip.
The round trip will not stop at any other stations and will be a trip that gives you a 1 hour view of Dubai Water Canal.
Check out the Routes page for full details of all of the routes that Dubai Ferry runs.
With the commencement of services on the Dubai Ferry in the Dubai Water Canal, there have been a number of questions and comments on this site about those services and whether they are actually running.
The Dubai Water Canal is definitely a work in progress and there is still a lot of work to be done before the whole area along the canal is finished and it looks likely that this will take some time despite the work being ongoing right now.
However, the ferry services are running as advertised. Some of the stations may not be so easy to find as they seem to be in the middle of somewhat deserted areas, and the Dubai Water Canal Station is one of those, but it is there!
In terms of the Dubai Water Canal Station, you can approach it along the Beach Road from either side as it is pretty well signposted, but it is on the Deira side of the canal so that might be the approach of choice.
Once you take the slip road towards the sea, on the right side of the bridge that crosses the canal, you need to follow a bit of a winding path through somewhat deserted roads until you come to a small parking area just in front of the marine station.
The roads do look like they are still being built and the parking area is not too busy but you will see the Dubai Canal Marine Transport Station in front of you.
The current timings of the ferry from the Dubai Water Canal Station are as per below – please note that if they are changed in future, they will be updated on the Routes/Timings page so it is probably worth checking there for up to date information.
