Johannesburg vs Dubai, for crew.
The two guides side by side, the three that cost money or liberty first. Each line is the guide's own sourced answer and opens the section it came from.
The same eight questions
Carry a passport copy, declare your money online before you fly, and do not eat on the train.
Always carry a copy of your passport photo page and the page carrying your visitors permit. South African officials may ask for ID and proof of residence at any time. The FCDO's instruction is to keep the passport itself in a hotel safe or another secure location and not to carry it unless it is needed for official identification.
Johannesburg in full →Drinking in public, kissing in public and swearing are all criminal offences, including online.
It is illegal to drink alcohol or be under the influence of alcohol in any public place anywhere in the UAE. The drinking age is 21 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and alcohol is prohibited entirely in Sharjah.
Dubai in full →A dedicated airport train runs from the terminal to Sandton, and the trap is the last one.
The Airport Service is its own line, indicated by the gold line on the route map, running Sandton, Marlboro, Rhodesfield, OR Tambo. Airport passengers sit in the carriages with the aircraft sign on the doors, which are configured for luggage, and Gautrain states those doors do not open at Rhodesfield.
Johannesburg in full →Metered RTA taxis from the rank, or the Metro Red Line straight out of Terminals 1 and 3.
Taxis are metered and regulated by the Roads and Transport Authority. The rank is outside each terminal's arrivals hall.
Dubai in full →Book in the app, get in the car the app names, and expect to walk to the driver rather than the other way round.
Airports Company South Africa accredits metered taxi services covering all major towns and suburbs within the airport vicinity. The taxi and shuttle terminus is behind the hotels, following the taxi and shuttle icons, and the airport's information desk in the terminal is the published route to booking one.
Johannesburg in full →Careem and Uber both operate legally.
Both apps work and both dispatch licensed vehicles. Careem is the locally dominant one and is generally better supplied outside the tourist areas.
Dubai in full →A South African SIM does nothing until it is registered under RICA, and a passport is the document that does it.
RICA is a South African legal requirement that all SIM cards, prepaid, contract, physical and eSIM, are registered with verified personal details before they can be used. A foreign national registers on a valid passport.
Johannesburg in full →A visitor SIM is registered against your passport and capped at two per network, and an unregistered line is cut off rather than warned.
The rules are federal, not local, so they are the same as Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. The UAE telecoms regulator, TDRA, allows visitors to register a SIM on a passport, or on a GCC national ID for citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council states. Residents register on an Emirates ID.
Dubai in full →High and bright, with storms common in Gauteng and winter nights that can reach freezing.
Johannesburg lies at 1,694 m, and the national government's own framing is that this altitude keeps average summer temperatures below 30C. South African temperatures run lower than other countries at similar latitudes because of elevation.
Johannesburg in full →The number that matters is the overnight low: about 29.7C in summer, so the night never cools down.
Dubai's own government media office puts the summer average high at around 41.8C, with overnight lows around 29.7C. The low is the figure to plan against. A layover built around an early run or a walk before report does not get a cool window in July the way it would almost anywhere else on the network.
Dubai in full →Cards work nearly everywhere, the service charge only appears for a table of more than six, and everything else you leave is the tip.
A 10% service charge is automatically calculated into the bill only when the number of guests at a table exceeds six. Otherwise nothing is added, and 10 to 20% of the total is the published range for what you leave.
Johannesburg in full →Alcohol is legal in licensed venues and illegal everywhere else, and in Ramadan the daytime rules extend to your car.
You do not need a personal licence to drink in a licensed venue. Hotels, restaurants and bars that hold a licence can serve you, and most crew hotels do. What needs a licence is drinking at home, which is a resident question rather than a layover one.
Dubai in full →The 15% VAT is reclaimable at OR Tambo, but only if you show the goods to Customs before you fly.
VAT is charged at 15% and a qualifying purchaser, which includes a tourist and a non-resident, can reclaim it on goods, not services. The VAT-inclusive total of all movable goods bought during the visit and exported at the end of it has to exceed R250 per qualifying purchaser.
Johannesburg in full →VAT is 5% and refundable over AED 250, and the authority's own refund terms are better than the government portal still says.
VAT is 5%. The tourist refund scheme has a minimum eligible spend of AED 250 excluding VAT per transaction.
Dubai in full →Tipping is commonplace in South Africa and the tourism authority publishes the numbers, so there is little to guess at.
Restaurants: 10 to 20% of the total bill. The automatic 10% service charge applies only when the table exceeds six guests.
Johannesburg in full →No authority publishes a tipping norm for Dubai, and the percentages already on your bill are not tips.
No UAE or Dubai government source publishing an expected tipping rate was found. Every figure in circulation is a guide's opinion rather than a rule, so none is stated here. Tipping is discretionary and you are not breaking anything by not doing it.
Dubai in full →