Cross the Creek for Coins
Explore · Quick · 50 points · 30 min
Cross Dubai Creek on a wooden abra with the commuters.
The catch: No tourist cruise, no charter boat.
Bonus +25: Walk both the spice souk and the gold souk without buying.
Consegna immediata della eSIM · Copertura in oltre 200 destinazioni · Powered by LuxEmit
Free travel game
Turn Dubai into an adventure.
Tell us where you are. Pick your kind of adventure. We'll give you something unexpected to do. No account. No app. Just go.
Start a side questPlay anywhere · Complete quests · Earn points · Screenshot your wins · Challenge your friends
Step 1
Tell us what city you're exploring.
Step 2
Choose a category or let us surprise you.
Step 3
Finish the challenge, earn points and screenshot your achievement.
Dubai has an old city most visitors never reach. The pack crosses the Creek by abra, eats in Deira cafeterias and reads the wind towers that cooled the place long before air conditioning.
No location access needed — just tell us the city.
0 points
0 all-time
100 points to Explorer
Scores are saved in this browser on this device only. No account, no email, nothing sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data clears your score.
These challenges only work here. Play them in any order — the game will mix them with quests that work anywhere in United Arab Emirates.
Explore · Quick · 50 points · 30 min
Cross Dubai Creek on a wooden abra with the commuters.
The catch: No tourist cruise, no charter boat.
Bonus +25: Walk both the spice souk and the gold souk without buying.
Food & Drink · Easy · 100 points · 1 hr
Eat in an old-city cafeteria rather than a mall food court.
The catch: Nothing inside a mall today.
Bonus +25: Ask what the staff eat on their own break and order it.
Local Culture · Easy · 100 points · 1 hr
Walk the historic quarter and work out how it was cooled before air conditioning.
The catch: No indoor attractions until you have walked the lanes.
Bonus +25: Sit in a courtyard café and time how long the shade lasts.
Photo Quest · Adventure · 200 points · 1 hr
Photograph the modern skyline with something historic in the foreground.
The catch: No shots taken from an observation deck.
Bonus +50: Get the same composition after dark.
Share your Side Quest
Send Dubai side quests to whoever you're travelling with. The link opens this city ready to play.
https://buybeforeyoufly.com/it/side-quest/dubai
#BuyBeforeYouFly #SideQuestTravel #DubaiSideQuest
A side quest is a small, self-contained challenge you can complete wherever you happen to be standing. Side Quest is a free browser-based travel game from Buy Before You Fly: you tell it which city you are exploring, choose the kind of adventure you are in the mood for, and it hands you something unexpected to do. Every quest is built from an objective, a constraint that makes it interesting, and an optional bonus — so instead of another list of the same twenty attractions, you get a reason to walk down a different street, order something you cannot pronounce, or look at one painting for twenty minutes.
There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. It works on the phone in your pocket, in the gap between a late checkout and an evening flight, or on a full free day in a city you have never visited.
Markets, bakeries, street food and the dish locals order without looking at the menu.
One room, one object, one story — museum challenges that beat drifting past everything.
The landmark experiences, with a twist that stops them feeling like a checklist.
Neighbourhood walks, wrong turns on purpose and streets guidebooks skip.
Small photo missions that train you to notice details other travellers walk past.
Language, music, craft, ritual and everyday life where you happen to be standing.
Parks, water, viewpoints and green detours between the busy bits.
The small, quiet, odd and overlooked corners of a city.
Side Quest has no accounts, no friend lists and no leaderboards to join — which is exactly what makes it easy to play together. Everyone opens the page on their own phone, plays the same city, and compares screenshots at dinner. Agree on a target before you split up: first to 500 points, most quests completed before sunset, or one epic quest each. Points are kept in your own browser, so the only scoreboard is the one you keep between you.
Side Quest is free and always will be. When you want the rest of the trip sorted, the same site covers it:
Country-by-country guides, things to do and short itineraries.
Arrivals, transport, wi-fi, food and connections for major hubs.
Mobile data in 200+ destinations, installed before you land.
A downloadable plan built around your pace, interests and budget.