Burj Khalifa

What it is

Burj Khalifa is the 828-metre tower that Emaar opened in Downtown Dubai on 4 January 2010, and what a visitor actually buys a ticket to is a small part of it. The tower was designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Adrian Smith as consulting design partner, on a triple-lobed footprint the operator traces to the desert flower Hymenocallis: three wings arranged around a hexagonal core, each wing bracing the others, the wings stepping back as the building rises until the core emerges alone and finishes in a spire of more than four thousand tonnes of steel. Inside it is a mixed-use vertical city rather than a monument. The Armani Hotel occupies the concourse to Level 8 and Levels 38 and 39, Armani Residences sit on Levels 9 to 16, private apartments run from Level 45 to Level 108, and corporate suites fill Levels 112 to 154. At.mosphere, the restaurant, is on Level 122. The public observatory, branded At the Top, begins on Level 124. Almost everything else in the tower is closed to ticket holders, and the visit is a lift ride, a deck, a terrace and a lift ride back down.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What's inside

The operator sells three tiers and they buy different floors. Silver is the standard deck: Levels 124 and 125, an indoor gallery finished in mashrabiya screens, an outdoor terrace on 124, free WiFi, and virtual-reality pods that simulate a climb to the top and are charged as an add-on rather than included. The operator's Silver page puts that deck at 452 metres above the ground; its own observation-decks page says 456 metres for the same levels, and both figures are the operator's, so the honest answer is that it is somewhere around 452 to 456 metres. Gold adds Level 148 at 555 metres, with priority access, fast-track queues, a multilingual guided tour, and Arabic coffee and sweets in the SKY lounge; it includes Levels 124 and 125 as well but no canapes or alcohol. Platinum adds The Lounge on Levels 152, 153 and 154 at 585 metres, with unlimited canapes catered by the Armani Hotel, unlimited soft drinks and a welcome glass of bubbly or a house beverage, plus fast-track access to every other level. Cafes sell refreshments at ground level and on Level 124, and green-screen photo kiosks operate on the deck.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

How long to spend

The operator's own answer is that At the Top takes about one hour and thirty minutes on average, and that guests are welcome to stay on Levels 124 and 125 as long as they like. That is the figure recorded here. Level 148 is handled differently: the operator says guests may explore it for up to thirty minutes and then continue down to 124 and 125 for as long as they wish, so a Gold ticket is realistically a two-hour commitment rather than a longer one. The same page warns that the average visit time may extend during peak seasons and peak hours, and asks guests to arrive well in advance because waiting times vary. Ninety minutes is therefore time on the decks, not time from the mall door and back. Budget around two hours for Silver and two and a half for Gold or Platinum, and add whatever the walk through Dubai Mall to the lower-ground entrance costs on the day. A group with small children, or one that queues for the photo kiosk and the VR pods, will spend longer than the average and should not schedule tightly afterwards.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Season and crowds

The attraction is open every day from 10:00 to 20:00, with no closing day and no midday break, but the last entry differs by ticket: 19:00 for Silver, 18:00 for Gold and for Platinum. A ticket is for a specific date and time slot, so the choice of hour is made at purchase rather than on arrival. There is no separate sunset ticket. The operator's own recommendation is to book a Level 124 entry for roughly 120 minutes before sunset, which gives daylight, the change and the lit city from one slot. That is also the busiest slot, so the queue is longest exactly then. Two conditions are worth checking before committing. The outdoor terrace can be closed for safety during bad weather, and the operator gives no refunds or rain checks for inclement weather or for haze that spoils the view. And as of 26 August 2026 the operator's site states that Dubai Fountain is temporarily closed for renovation, so an evening slot chosen for the fountain show below cannot be counted on. The operator publishes no best-month guidance and none is invented here.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Tickets

Adult prices on the operator's ticket page on 26 August 2026 were AED 189 for Silver, AED 399 for Gold and AED 769 for Platinum, each charged per person for a dated, timed slot. Children under three enter free. Child tickets cannot be bought on their own and must be added to an adult ticket, and anyone up to sixteen must be accompanied throughout; the child fare itself is set inside the booking calendar and is not published on the static pages, so it is not recorded here. UAE residents were offered promotional codes on the same page, SAVE100 for 50% off Silver and SAVE20 for 20% off Gold and Platinum. The virtual-reality experience costs extra, is limited to ages ten and over, and is barred to pregnant guests and to anyone with a heart condition, vertigo or dizziness. Pre-booking is not required and walk-up purchase is possible, but the operator recommends buying ahead to secure a chosen time. Cancellations are accepted only up to twenty-four hours before the slot; inside that window nothing is refunded. Combined tickets with Sky Views Observatory and other Emaar attractions are sold at separate prices.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Getting there

No car is needed. The operator directs visitors to the Dubai Metro Red Line and the Burj Khalifa station, and the entrance to At the Top is on the lower ground floor of Dubai Mall, signposted from inside and reached from the Dubai Fountain side of the building. Anyone driving from within Dubai is told to take the first interchange on Sheikh Zayed Road and continue along Financial Centre Road, formerly Doha Street, with the approach road to Dubai Mall on the right; arriving from Abu Dhabi, the exit to Financial Centre Road is taken from the same first interchange. Parking is in the Dubai Mall Fashion Avenue car park. The practical warning is about the distance inside rather than outside. The station is not at the mall door and the ticket desk is not at the mall entrance, so the leg from platform to counter is a long indoor walk and should be counted as part of the journey, not as arrival. In July and August that walk is the coolest part of the trip, which is an argument for the metro rather than against it.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What to watch out for

The prohibited-items list catches people out more than anything else here. Electronics such as laptops, tablets and electronic cigarettes may not be carried in and must be left at the dedicated counter, along with sharp items and multi-tools; glass bottles, aerosols, markers and skate shoes are also barred. Personal handbags and purses are fine, but backpacks, sports bags, shopping bags, strollers and buggies go to the luggage room by the entrance and are collected on the way out. Outside food and drink is not allowed, and the only refreshments are the cafe at ground level, the cafe on Level 124, and whatever the Gold or Platinum ticket includes. The whole At the Top experience is wheelchair accessible, but working service animals are not permitted on the tour. Tickets are valid only for the date and time printed on them, and no refund follows a missed slot or bad weather. Two things sold alongside are not part of this attraction at all: the Edge Walk and Sky Views Observatory sit on the Address Sky View hotel nearby, with their own hours, prices and age, height and weight limits.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Photography

Professional photography is not allowed at the attraction, and since laptops, tablets and similar equipment must be surrendered at the counter downstairs, the realistic kit is a phone or a small camera carried in a handbag. The operator runs green-screen photo kiosks on the deck instead, printing composited shots of the facade or the skyline onto prints and merchandise, which is a souvenir rather than a photograph of the view. The view itself is glazed on Level 125 and open on the Level 124 terrace, so anything that has to be free of reflections belongs on the terrace, and the terrace is the part that closes first in bad weather. Reflections are the main technical problem indoors: a dark sleeve or a hand cupped against the glass removes most of them, and standing square to the pane rather than at an angle removes the rest. Light is the other. Midday sun flattens the city and dust haze commonly softens the horizon, while a slot ending after sunset gives the grid lit and the sky still holding colour for a short window. Free WiFi covers the decks, so images can be sent from the top.

Checked 2026-08-26

Where it is

• 30 min

  4 min walk

  The Dubai Fountain

  • Must see
  • Historic monument
• 1 hour

  5 min walk

  Burj Park

  • High
  • Nature site
• 45 min

  5 min walk

  Souk Al Bahar

  • High
  • Market

External links

• Official site
• View on Wikidata