We get many comments asking which ticket a particular user should buy for their journeys. Unfortunately we are unable to respond to every request as it would involve knowing exactly what journeys you make, how frequently, which zones you travel through and whether you have access to a registered Nol card so that you can buy longer length season tickets.
Once we have this information, we still need to make calculations based on what you tell us and we simply don’t have the resources to do that.
What you need to do if you are wondering which Dubai Metro ticket you should buy (or indeed which ticket for all public transport in Dubai – Metro, Tram and Bus), is to work out how many journeys you do each day, or each week, or for the duration of your trip and how much they will cost.
You can check how many zones you will be travelling through on the map page (just count the zones and ignore the zone numbers). Then find the journey price on the tickets page.
Add up the cost of the tickets that you will be purchasing separately and see if that cost comes to more or less than the price of the season ticket you are looking at (whether that is daily, weekly or monthly etc). If you are going to pay more in single journey tickets then you should buy the appropriate season ticket. You can also find season ticket prices on the tickets page.
If you want anything longer than a weekly ticket then you either need a blue Nol card or a registered silver or gold Nol card to be able to purchase one.
Each traveller needs their own ticket, you cannot share tickets (Nol cards). Children under 5 years old and under 90cm can travel free. Otherwise they pay the normal fares.
Best Ticket for Visitors
Note that if you are a visitor and you are looking to buy a season ticket then you will only be able to buy the daily or the weekly season tickets and not ones that last any longer. You can buy the daily ticket for 20 dirhams on a red ticket. You can buy weekly tickets on a silver (or gold) Nol card.
If you are wondering whether to buy a red ticket or a silver ticket (without buying a season ticket) then you also need to work out how many journeys you will make and at what cost.
The red Nol costs 2 dirhams to buy and the silver costs 6 dirhams (plus the value of the tickets on the card) but journeys generally cost 1 dirham more using the red Nol card so if you make more than 4 journeys it might be worth getting the silver card rather than the red one. Also, the red ticket is only valid for 90 days and the silver ticket is valid for 5 years so if you are likely to visit Dubai again it may be worth buying the silver ticket to use it on another visit.
It can be quite confusing but we have tried to provide all of the information that you might need to work out your best option for you.
If I buy Silver 7 day pass (All Zones), do I have to pay extra for Bus, Tram or does pass covers for all modes of Transport ?
The day pass covers metro, tram and bus.