I'm heading over to Dubai for the weekend with a couple of mates, but we're getting different flights (I'm using air miles instead).

I get in to Terminal 1 about half an hour before they land at Terminal 2. Is there any kind of free transport between the two landside, or will I just have to meet them at the hotel? Looks like the Metro doesn't stop there for some reason.

T2 for the LCCs is the other side of the runways and there's no link unless you are in transit. I suggest you all meet at your hotel as depending which hotel, you may take very different routes. Check google maps, t1 and t3 are on the south side and T2 is on the north side.

Cheers for the advice - looks like I'm getting a round in ready at the hotel bar!

You may land at T1 first but odds are they'll clear customs/immigration at T2 first for it's a far smaller terminal.

Tell everyone to take taxi to hotel and meet there.

Enjoy Dubai I'm still in shock over DOH vs DXB.

It is such a massive difference, isn't it? The one plus that I can find (and it's a dubious one) is that if I lived in Dubai or AD I doubt I would have saved up any money yet as there's so much more to do over there...

Not enjoying it

Eh I suspect I'll come to terms with the place. Eventually. Maybe.

It's fascinating how these two cities can be so close to one another yet also be so different. The dynamics, the demographics and the physical realities are quite different. I've been thinking about that a lot lately.

When people in DXB ask me about DOH I say Qatar is the Middle East. It has much more in common with places like Amman or Tunis or Cairo or the other big cities of the Mideast than Dubai does. There's a (very) thin veneer of modernity in the Pearl and West Bay, an odd slice of low-rent California suburbia with fast food chains last popular in the US circa 1990 along the C-ring road, and the Middle East everywhere else.

I went through the same years ago but it is what it is . Qatar is a dull mildly repressive shit hole really . They throw a few scraps of tinsel for the expats but that's dwindling .

The strange thing is , a country which has had such a great opportunity and that could self finance has decided to basically make a total mess of itself . The bedouin mentality prevails .

Think of the money

It is always fascinating seeing the differences when I'm over there. The number of places with Christmas trees up, for a start. And that they were playing christmas musc in the airport too! That would never be allowed over here.

You can get a internal train to take you from terminal 1 to terminal 3 and vice versa for returns but terminal 2 is far and a different route but still doable between 1 and 3.

Are you sure it's not the other way around?

T1 and T3 are close by and T2 (the shitty one with no bar) is far....

yep that's right...T2 is the one where they usually deport folks from and the one through which labourers usually come through

Yes my mistake edited

T2's location at the back of the airport, with no transport links to the other terminals (save for getting a taxi with airport surcharge), keeps the gangs of great unwashed away from the showpiece gateways of T3 and (slightly more humble) T1. You would expect bus connections to the labour accommodation camps to be decent though. I can see merit in their methodology; I have never found an aftershave tester at T2 duty free that has ever had any in it.

T1-T3 interchange is easy. There's a regular free shuttle bus as well as the Metro and taxis, or by foot and travelator airside.