Travel to Dubai with a toddler - car seats

[northessexmama]

Has anyone travelled to Dubai with a toddler? What did you do about getting around. Are the family taxis ( with car seats ) readily available or is it a pain? Did you take your own ? And if so, what did you do with it when out and about? Or did you just rent a car? Thanks!

Where are you staying and will you need to travel around a lot anyway?.

If you need to travel about I would use a taxi and specify you need a car seat. Alternatively if you are near a metro station I would use this, their stations all have lifts up to the platform.

I would not readily bother with renting a car there as driving standards are not great, speeding is commonplace and there is a high rate of traffic accidents. It is also illegal there to leave the scene of an accident before the police have arrived.

We used taxis and specified we needed a car seat for dd 3. Had no problems with finding a taxi suitable for us.
We did hire a car for a couple of days and use our own seat (borrowed from family living there) but driving there was tricky and as above comment lots of speeding. Really depends on how often or far you'll need to travel whilst there.
Hope you have a great time!

I wouldn't bother hiring a car there, as others have said, the driving is, erm, assertive! 😂Taxis are plentiful, Uber is brilliant and I barely waited more than 2 minutes the last time I was there. There is also Careem but I never used them. Depending on how old / big your toddler is, have a look at the Trunki Booster pack. We had one for our daughter and I can honestly say it was the best thing I've ever had for travelling. She could wear it and carry her toys etc round in it, it was brilliant on the plane for lifting her up a bit so she could see the seat-back TV better and it saves having to order and wait for a specific taxi. But they may not be the right size for it yet, so do check!

Thanks everyone, I've lived there so know how hazardous the driving can be. However, I wasn't sure how readily available taxis with car seats were? We plan on getting out and about quite a bit on this trip so are they easy to pick up from malls and hotels etc?

Are you on Facebook? There is a car seat group called Car Seats For The Littles UK/EU, and I've found it the best one for Middle East info because the admin are CPSTs which means they know about American regulations and European ones. In the ME both are allowed to be used and I think there is actually no specific regulation stipulated. So it might be risky if you're taking taxis and they rock up with a legal solution which is not tested to any safety standard.

If you did want to take your own I would look at TinySeats, Nachfolger, and Graco Extend R129 and possibly the Maxi Cosi Nomad, though I'm not convinced about the safety of this one (even though it's Maxi Cosi). Joie Elevate R129 might also be worth a try. There is also RyRy Scallop, or US certified WayB Pico and the Ride Safer Travel Vest (though I know absolutely nothing about these last two).

I would say a toddler is likely to be too little to get a good fit in a Trunki Boostapak. It is better than nothing of course, but it doesn't offer any protection to the child. All it does it change the position of the lap belt so it's not going to be on their tummy. This is important but it's not likely to make enough difference for a 2 or 3 year old. They are miles better in a 5 point harness. Even a cheap Nania type seat, as long as it's fitted correctly (double, triple check as the instructions are pants) will offer more protection than a backless booster seat to a child of this age, and will be better than the seatbelt alone.