United Arab Emirates Golf Holidays: World-Class Desert and Beachfront Courses 2026/2027

A UAE golf holiday gives you something genuinely rare: courses built where desert terrain runs straight into the coastline, designed by names that read like a list of major champions and architects. The ELS Club at Dubai Sports City is Ernie Els’s first design in the Middle East, a links-style par 72 stretching over 7,500 yards. Trump International Golf Club at DAMAC Hills is a Gil Hanse layout. Saadiyat Beach Golf Club in Abu Dhabi sits directly on Saadiyat Island’s coastline and was designed by Gary Player. The Faldo Course at Emirates Golf Club, in the center of Dubai, carries Nick Faldo’s name and sits about 30 minutes from Dubai International Airport.

This concentration of signature designs in two cities is part of what makes golf in UAE different from anywhere else covered in the GolfLux portfolio. Most of these courses also hosted, or still host, major professional events. Emirates Golf Club has been home to the Dubai Desert Classic, a European Tour event, and Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Earth Course hosts the DP World Tour Championship. Playing these courses is playing tournament venues, not resort approximations of them.

The desert setting also shapes how the courses play. Fairways are framed by sand rather than trees, water features stand out sharply against the surrounding landscape, and the visual contrast between manicured turf and open desert is part of what golfers come here for. Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, built on the western shores of Yas Island, is often described as the only true links course in the region, with coastal wind affecting play in a way that the inland desert courses do not experience.

How to Choose Between Dubai and Abu Dhabi for Your UAE Golf Package

Dubai has ten courses and Abu Dhabi has five, and the choice between them usually comes down to what kind of trip you are building around the golf.

Dubai is the more international and densely packed of the two, with courses like the ELS Club, Dubai Hills Golf Club, Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, and both courses at Emirates Golf Club within a short drive of the main hotel districts. If your priority is course variety within a compact area, plus the broader Dubai experience of shopping, dining, and nightlife, Dubai Golf Packages is the practical starting point. The Dubai Golf Package 7 Days and Dubai Golf Package 4 Days both structure multiple rounds across the city’s top courses with private transfers included.

Abu Dhabi has a quieter, more spread-out character, with Yas Links and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club both built around island settings that give a stronger sense of separation from the city. Al Ghazal Golf Club, close to Abu Dhabi International Airport, makes an easy arrival or departure-day round. Abu Dhabi Golf Packages suits golfers who want a more relaxed pace, and the Abu Dhabi Golf Package 8 Days and Abu Dhabi Stay and Play Package 3 Days cover both ends of that range, from a long resort-based stay to a short stay and play break.

For golfers who want both, the road between Dubai and Abu Dhabi takes around 90 minutes, which makes combining the two cities in a single UAE golf holiday straightforward without a domestic flight. Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman add further options for golfers who have already covered the main Dubai and Abu Dhabi courses and want something less familiar, with Tower Links Golf Club in Ras Al Khaimah offering floodlit back nine holes for evening rounds.

Who a UAE Golf Holiday Is Best For

UAE golf holidays suit golfers who want a short-haul, high-quality golf trip with five-star infrastructure built around it from the start. The courses, hotels, and transfers here are designed for international visitors at a level that few other destinations attempt, and the logistics tend to be the smoothest of any destination in the GolfLux portfolio.

Timing matters more here than almost anywhere else covered in this portfolio. From June to September, daytime temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius, which makes traditional daytime golf impractical for most visitors. Many UAE courses address this directly with floodlit holes for night golf, which keeps the destination playable year-round rather than restricted to a narrow season. October to April is the more comfortable window for daytime golf, with conditions that suit golfers who prefer a standard morning or afternoon round over an evening one.

It also suits golfers extending a longer Asia itinerary with a stopover. Dubai and Abu Dhabi sit on many of the flight routes between Europe and Southeast Asia, which makes a three to five day UAE golf package a practical addition before or after a Vietnam, Thailand, or Indonesia trip rather than a separate long-haul journey on its own.

Corporate and incentive groups find the UAE particularly workable given the scale of the hotel and course infrastructure, and several of the courses here, including Jumeirah Golf Estates and Emirates Golf Club, are accustomed to handling tournament-level logistics, which extends to large group bookings without the friction that smaller destinations sometimes have.