Experience the best of United Arab Emirates
Tours, tickets and the things worth doing, chosen rather than listed.
Curated experiences
The Burj Khalifa has been the tallest building in the world since it opened in 2010, and nothing has come close since. The standard ticket goes to levels 124 and 125; the dearer one adds 148, which is higher, much quieter and comes with a lounge. The lift takes about a minute. Sunset slots cost the most and sell first — if the view matters more than the hour, take a late morning one and look out at the desert rather than through the afternoon haze. The entrance is inside Dubai Mall on the lower ground floor, and the walk from the car park is a fair part of the trip.
A silver torus standing on Sheikh Zayed Road, opened in 2022, with Arabic calligraphy cut clean through its skin — the calligraphy is the windows. Inside is less a museum than a set of staged near-futures: a space station, a rebuilt ecosystem, a floor given over to the senses. It is heavily designed and deliberately light on objects, so come for the staging rather than the collection. Tickets are timed and the building is small, which is why slots go early. Two hours is enough, and look up on the way in.
The evening run is the standard shape: a 4x4 over the dunes in the late afternoon, a camp with camels and henna and a buffet, back in the city by about nine. Morning trips skip the dinner and the crowds both. The dune driving is genuinely rough — it is the one part worth skipping if anyone gets motion sick, and most operators will drive you straight to camp instead. Trips inside the conservation reserve cost more and cap their numbers, which is exactly what the money buys. Take something warm: the temperature falls fast once the sun goes.
The tank sits on the ground floor of Dubai Mall and holds ten million litres, which makes the viewing panel one of the largest anywhere. You can see that panel for nothing from the mall walkway — what the ticket buys is the tunnel underneath it and the Underwater Zoo on the floor above, where the otters, the penguins and the reptiles are. Sand tiger sharks and rays pass overhead in the tunnel. It is indoors and air-conditioned, which in July is most of the point.
Opened on Saadiyat Island in 2017 under a Jean Nouvel dome 180 metres across, perforated so the sun falls through it in what the architect called a rain of light. The galleries are hung chronologically rather than by civilisation, so a Chinese bronze stands near a Greek one of the same century and the point makes itself. The collection is part its own, part on loan from France. It is around ninety minutes from Dubai, so most people pair it with Qasr Al Watan and make a day of the drive.
Eighty-two domes, a courtyard paved in floral marble inlay, and the largest hand-knotted carpet in the world in the main prayer hall. Entry is free, and the dress code is enforced rather than suggested: ankles and shoulders covered for everyone, hair covered for women, and abayas are lent at the entrance to anyone who arrives without. Go towards dusk — the lighting scheme shifts with the phase of the moon, and the building is at its best as it comes on.
