Best place to see Burj al Arab without spending a fortune

Let’s be honest, not all of us have the budget to stay in the famous 7* hotel in Dubai. But it has a very distinctive silhouette and we don’t want to leave Dubai without seeing it. Here we are going to tell you the best place, or places, to see the Burj Al Arab and even take photos of it, without having to spend a fortune.

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How much does it cost to stay at the Burj Al Arab?

You can’t deny it: it is an expensive hotel. Right… Expensive, very expensive. Prices range from 1,600 euros per night… to 8,877 euros FOR ONE NIGHT in the diplomatic suite.

Is it possible to visit it?

Yes, it’s possible. If you don’t have the budget to stay at this hotel, you can book a lunch or dinner at one of its restaurants.

By contracting service in one of these places, you will be able to have access to the lobby area, the stairs and depending on which floor the bar or restaurant you go to is located, there will be a nice view.

I have to be honest, when I was planning the trip I did think about this possibility, but later the budget was not enough for me. I preferred to give myself the luxury of doing the wildlife safari in the Dubai desert, so anyway 🙂 you have to choose.

Best place, or places, to see the Burj Al Arab for free?

But, despite wanting to get to know the Burj Al Arab from the inside, we did not deprive ourselves of admiring it and even taking photos with its sailboat silhouette. Here I tell you the places from where we could see it.

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Playa Umm Suqeim or Sunset Beach

This beach is public, so visiting it is completely free. The only things we paid for were the taxi and the bus to and from the Mall of Emirates.

Before arriving there, we had seen images of other travelers and the truth is that the view of the Burj Al Arab was excellent and on top of that if we arrived at sunset it would be even better. Well here we go, we arrived just for sunset. It would be our first visit to the 7 star hotel.

We arrived…

Oh! but what is that? that construction was not there in the photos that I had found. It turns out that they are making a building that is supposed to simulate the waves next to the sailboat. It will be called Marsa Al Arab, although it will surely be up and running very soon. The problem is that, as you can already see in the photo, it blocks the view of the 7-star sailboat.

On top of that, the sunset with cranes is not very pretty XD

And let’s face it, at night, it doesn’t get any better…

With the bright white lights of the construction, the hotel is lost, but let’s see, this place should not be ruled out completely since what we saw will not last. At least not the fact that it is under construction. We have to wait to see how the new building looks.

So now, knowing what’s there, if you want to come and visit it in anyway, since the beach is beautiful and well, yes, the hotel can be seen, here is where it is:

Walking to the entrance

In our case, since we were on the beach, we started the walk to be located right in front of the building (as far as the limits allowed us) and be able to take photos with those night lights. The truth is that I did not expect the distance from the beach to the entrance to be just over 1 kilometer.

The view is worth it, and yes, I think it’s better to do it at night since during the day with the sun’s rays it shouldn’t be very pleasant, especially knowing that we’re not going to enter the hotel.

Here you can see the walk we did:

Madinat Jumeirah

This souk is located right next to the Burj Al Arab and from there you can see it perfectly. This place is on the opposite side of the beach so the new building won’t get in the way.

Moreover, you can come here during the day without any problem since you can go out to take photos, then enter the souk that is refrigerated, with this you can be taking photos and admiring the silhouette, having the possibility of not suffering much from the heat.

In the Madinat Jumeirah there are clothing stores, souvenirs, handicrafts, restaurants with terraces (to tell the truth, being in full sunlight they do not seem so enjoyable XD). But keep in mind that this souk is relatively new and made for tourism. It has little to do with the souks that we can find in Deira, such as the gold souk.

And since we were there, we did take the opportunity to buy various Dubai souvenirs, such as key rings, magnets and postcards.

Umm Al Sheif Metro Station

This metro station is the one we get out from to go to Madinat Jumeirah, I know that if you have already been there you will not be contempted with the metro station, but just in case, I prefer to leave this other option.

I don’t know, you may be very, very short in time, it is better to know that arriving at a metro station at least you can see the Burj Al Arab with the comfort of air conditioning.

The station is Umm Al Sheif, which is the station just before the Mall of Emirates (if you are coming from Dubai mall).

Is it worth seeing the Burj Al Arab?

Even if it’s for a little while, of course, it’s worth seeing one of the icons of Dubai. It is also a very photogenic building 🙂 and so you can say that you were in front of a seven star hotel 😀

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