The sail-shaped hotel on its own artificial island, which you cannot enter without spending money, and can photograph for nothing.
Opened in 1999 on a reclaimed island 280 metres offshore, connected by a private causeway, the Burj Al Arab is 321 metres tall and shaped like the sail of a dhow. Tom Wright designed it with the explicit brief of producing a silhouette that would stand for Dubai the way the Opera House stands for Sydney, and on that narrow measure it worked completely.
It is often called the world’s only seven-star hotel. There is no such rating. A journalist used the phrase in the 1990s, the hotel never corrected anyone, and it stuck.
Getting in
You cannot simply walk up. The causeway has a barrier and access requires either a room booking or a confirmed reservation at one of the restaurants or the spa, with a minimum spend attached.
Inside Burj Al Arab is a ninety-minute guided tour of the atrium, a suite and the terrace, run several times daily and bookable online. It is the cheapest legitimate way inside and is honest about being a tour rather than a hotel experience.
Afternoon tea at the Skyview Bar on the 27th floor, or dinner at Al Mahara with its aquarium, are the usual alternatives. Both cost what you would expect and both require booking well ahead.
The interior is worth seeing once and is not to everyone’s taste: 8,000 square metres of gold leaf, a 180-metre atrium, and a colour scheme that has been described politely as confident.
Photographing it
From outside, and for nothing:
Umm Suqeim Beach, immediately north, is a free public beach with the building rising directly out of the water at the end of it. This is where the postcard is taken.
Kite Beach is a little further north with the same view, plus showers, cafés and a running track.
The Madinat Jumeirah resort’s waterways, just south, frame it between wind towers and are open to the public through the Souk Madinat.
The helipad
The tennis court on the helipad, played on by Federer and Agassi in 2005, and the various stunts filmed there since, are not accessible to visitors under any ticket.
Practicalities
Book any inside experience well in advance. Dress code is enforced — smart, covered shoulders and knees, no beachwear — and applies to the tour as much as to dinner.
More Landmarks
Burj Khalifa
The tallest building in the world by a margin nothing has yet threatened, with three observation levels at three quite different prices.
Palm Jumeirah
Ninety-four million cubic metres of dredged sand in the shape of a palm tree, now a suburb with a monorail.
Dubai Frame
A 150-metre gilded picture frame with a glass floor, positioned so old Dubai is on one side and new Dubai on the other.