Best Ways To Make Friends And Network in UAE

Last verified: June 2026

About 90% of the UAE’s population is made up of expats, which means almost everyone you meet here has been through exactly what you’re going through now. They’ve landed somewhere new, lost a friend group when someone’s visa ran out or a job took them elsewhere, and had to start building a social circle again. That constant turnover is actually what makes this one of the easier places to make friends. People here aren’t closed off. Most of them are rebuilding too, just like you.

The methods below are ranked by what they cost and who they tend to work best for, so you can pick the ones that genuinely fit your situation rather than trying everything at once.

At a glance: which option fits your situation

Online communities and Facebook groups

Facebook is still where most of this happens, whatever you think of Facebook generally. Almost every nationality has its own group, and most run real meetups, not just a feed of memes. The trap is joining the giant generic ones. “Expats in Dubai” with 100,000 members tells you nothing and connects you to no one. Go narrower.

By nationality: British in Dubai, Americans in Dubai, Les Nouveaux Aventuriers Dubai for French speakers, Indians in Dubai, and similar groups for Canadians, Italians, the Dutch, Scandinavians, and Spanish residents.

For women specifically: Fusion Female, Dubai Moms, Dubai Working Women, and Dubai Fitness Ladies.

By interest, there is a group for almost anything. Dubai Foodies, Dubai Photography Group, Dubai Book Club, Dubai Language Exchange, Dubai Green Living, Dubai Art and Culture, Dubai Tech Enthusiasts.

Here is the part people skip past. Joining a group does nothing by itself. You have to comment, show up, be slightly annoying about introducing yourself for the first few weeks. Give it a real month, 2 in person events minimum, before deciding it isn’t working.

Community networks

These are a step up from a Facebook group, structured, often paid, and built around curated events rather than an open comment section. The trade-off is worth it if you want a more reliable calibre of person without relying purely on algorithm luck.

Women Who Thrive is the clearest example for women specifically, a paid professional network running regular events around career growth, fitness, and networking. InterNations works similarly but for a broader, mixed-gender expat audience, with a free basic membership and paid tiers unlocking more events. Toastmasters sits here too, free to attend as a guest, with chapters across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the kind of people who show up regularly tend to be sharp, ambitious, and genuinely good to know.

Social apps and platforms

Apps exist to remove the awkward part, walking up to a stranger. A few actually work here.

Bumble BFF is the dating app format minus the dating. Good for one person at a time, not group friendships. Meetup is the opposite, built around groups doing a specific thing together, hiking, photography, a language, a startup idea. Most listings are free.

Adventurati Outdoor, started by Fadi Hachicho and based out in Ras Al Khaimah, runs the kind of trip you remember for years, hiking, canyoning, multi-day camps in the mountains. Not free, but you are paying for the experience itself, not a membership card.

Volunteering

This is the fastest route from knowing nobody to having plans on Saturday. You’re working alongside strangers toward something that isn’t about you, which strips away most of the small talk pressure entirely.

One thing worth knowing before you commit time to this: register first on Volunteers.ae, and if you’re in Dubai specifically, also with the Community Development Authority through their app. Skip this and several organisations, Dubai Cares being one, simply won’t place you. Better to get it done before you’ve found the event you actually want to attend.

The Giving Family is probably the easiest entry point of everything on this list. No registration, no application, you just turn up in Al Quoz on a Sunday and start packing meals. A hundred or so people show up most weeks, and within an hour you’ve met a dozen of them.

Emirates Red Crescent and Dubai Cares run more structured programmes if that suits you better, and beach cleanups pop up constantly on Instagram with no real barrier to joining. The full list of volunteering organisations in the UAE covers Al Noor and Dubai Autism Centre too, both worth knowing about if causes around people of determination matter to you.

Fitness groups and sports clubs

Working out alone is fine. Working out with the same faces every week, week after week, is what actually builds something. The UAE has a real outdoor fitness scene, best between October and April when going outside doesn’t feel punishing.

Dubai Running Club, Dubai Creek Striders, Dubai Cycling Club, a yoga community, a CrossFit network, bootcamp groups that meet outdoors and cost nothing. Through the brutal summer months, the free indoor programmes at malls and DWTC fill the same role when nobody in their right mind is running outside at 2pm.

Pick one group. Just one. Show up every week for a month before judging it. By week 4 you’ll know names, not just faces, and you’ll have plans that have nothing to do with the group anymore. Hopping between 5 different groups gets you nowhere.

Free events and festivals

The UAE runs an enormous number of free public events year round, festivals, outdoor concerts, farmers markets, art shows, the Dubai Fitness Challenge every November with its 30 days of free classes, National Day celebrations that take over entire neighbourhoods.

Global Village, running for 6 months each year, is worth a mention on its own. Entry is cheap and the sheer mix of nationalities makes striking up a conversation almost effortless. Time Out Dubai, What’s On, and Dubai Calendar list the smaller weekly stuff, night markets, pop-ups, community fairs.

Be honest with yourself though, one festival visit rarely turns into a friendship. It works as a top-up to whatever else you’re doing, especially if you bring someone from an online group along and use the outing as the actual hangout.

Free or Paid workshops and classes

Learning something next to other people removes the need to manufacture conversation out of nothing. You already have something to talk about, the thing in front of you.

Cooking, baking, photography, social media, entrepreneurship, the usual mix, and they show up regularly at libraries, co-working spaces, and community centres. Eventbrite and Instagram are where most of these actually get posted.

Pick the hands-on ones over the lecture-style ones. A cooking class where you’re elbow to elbow with someone making the same dish badly will get you further than sitting in rows listening to a talk you’ll forget by Friday.

Cafes, restaurants, and casual spots

Become a regular somewhere small. Not a chain, somewhere the staff actually start to recognise you, and eventually so do the other regulars. It’s slow. Slower than everything else on this list, honestly.

But it suits a certain kind of person, the ones who don’t want a structured event, who would rather let familiarity build itself over a few months of showing up at the same time on the same day.

Gaming and board game clubs

There’s a real tabletop scene here now. The Flip Side and The Den both run game nights where sitting down at a table of strangers is the entire point, not an awkward accident.

For video games specifically, the gaming lounges and eSports spots around the city run tournaments and casual drop-in sessions. Team formats do a lot of the social heavy lifting for you, nobody’s expecting small talk when you’re trying to win.

Frequently asked questions