Dubai sells height. There are five places in the city where you can pay to look down on it, and they are not variations on the same ticket. One of them puts the Burj Khalifa under your feet, which means it is not in your photographs. That is the trade nobody mentions. Heights are one section of our guide to things to do in Dubai.

The five, compared

Burj Khalifa, At The Top, levels 124 and 125

The highest accessible deck most visitors use, with an outdoor terrace on 124. Ninety minutes including the lift and the exhibition. The view is of everything, in every direction, from above all of it.

What you give up: the Burj Khalifa itself. You cannot photograph the building you are standing in.

Burj Khalifa At The Top tickets from AED 185.

Burj Khalifa SKY, level 148

Higher, with a lounge, refreshments and a noticeably smaller crowd, plus 124 and 125 afterwards. At 124 you are already above everything, so the extra height changes the experience less than the extra calm does.

Burj Khalifa SKY on level 148 from AED 350.

The View at The Palm

Level 52 of The Palm Tower, looking straight down the trunk and fronds of Palm Jumeirah. This is the only place the island reads as an island rather than a map, and it is a view you cannot get from Downtown at any price.

About an hour. Quieter than the Burj at almost every hour.

The View at The Palm tickets from AED 95, roughly half the Burj.

Sky Views Observatory

On Sheikh Zayed Road, with a glass walkway you stand on and a glass slide between two floors for those who want it. It faces the Burj Khalifa rather than standing on it, so Downtown including the tower is in frame.

Sky Views Observatory tickets from AED 120.

Dubai Frame

Not a tower but a picture frame, 150 metres high, in Zabeel Park. Old Dubai on one side and the modern skyline on the other, with a glass floor section on the skywalk. The lowest of the five and the most interesting conceptually.

Ninety minutes including the ground floor exhibition. Dubai Frame tickets from AED 55, the least expensive of the five by some distance.

Which one, by what you want

  • The classic, once in a lifetime: Burj Khalifa At The Top, prime slot at sunset.
  • The Burj Khalifa in your photographs: Sky Views, or the Dubai Frame.
  • The Palm from above: The View at The Palm. Nothing else offers it.
  • Travelling on a budget: Dubai Frame at AED 55, then The View at AED 95.
  • You dislike crowds: SKY 148, or The View on a weekday morning.
  • With small children: The Frame. Shorter, lower, and the glass floor is the bit they remember.

The one most people get wrong

Booking two decks. The second one is the same city from a different height, and the novelty does not survive it. If you want a second experience of Dubai from above, change the medium rather than the floor: a twelve minute helicopter flight from AED 749 shows you the Palm, the coast and the Burj from outside, which is a genuinely different thing.

Timing, which matters more than the ticket

Sunset is the best light and the biggest crowd, and carries a price premium at the Burj. Arrive forty five minutes before and you get day, dusk and night in one visit.

Late morning has the clearest air, especially in winter. Summer afternoons are hazy and the view suffers.

After dark costs least and, at the Frame and Sky Views, arguably shows most: the city is lit and the buildings have shape.

Practical notes

  • All five issue timed tickets. Arriving late can mean losing the slot.
  • Tripods are not permitted at any of them.
  • Press your lens against the glass to kill reflections indoors.
  • The Burj and the aquarium share the Dubai Mall, which makes them an easy half day. The Burj Khalifa and aquarium combo is AED 315 for both.
  • Prices above are per adult and include taxes and fees.