Prices compared

Downtown Dubai: what is here and what it costs

Downtown Dubai holds more of this site than any other district by a wide margin, and it is also where the spread is widest. Inside a twenty-minute walk you can pay nothing at all to watch the fountain or AED 769 to stand on the Burj Khalifa’s top tier, and eat a main course at anything from the low tens to the mid hundreds. It is the one district where the metro genuinely works: almost everything here shares a single Red Line station.

The thing to know before you come

Downtown is compact enough to walk and dense enough that the mistake people make is budgeting for it as one place. It is not. The fountain show is free and runs on a published timetable; the tower above it is one of the most expensive tickets in Dubai and the price changes by which floor you buy. Both are the same hundred metres of pavement.

The other thing worth planning is parking, because The Dubai Mall publishes a free window and a tariff after it, and the difference between leaving inside that window and outside it is the largest avoidable cost of a Downtown day. The mall tariffs are compared here, and street parking is a separate system entirely.

What is in Downtown Dubai

31 venues on this site sit in Downtown Dubai: 16 restaurants · 7 attractions · 3 malls · 2 cafes · 2 venues · 1 museum. Every one carries the date its details were last checked against the operator’s own source.

Eat and drink (16)

Cafés (2)

Attractions (7)

Museums (1)

ARTE MUSEUM DubaiDigital art museum · Dubai Mall Level 2 · 50% summer offer running

Malls (3)

Other venues (2)

Getting there

The stations these venues name for themselves are Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa. A single journey is AED 3 to 7.50 on a Silver nol card, and this is what the metro reaches across the whole city.

What a main course costs here

14 venues in Downtown Dubai publish a priced menu on this site, ranging from a median main course of AED 40 at Din Tai Fung to AED 148 at RARE Brasserie & Bar. Every figure is the restaurant’s own, and the median is our arithmetic on its published main courses.

Downtown Dubai restaurants by median main course
Restaurant	Median main	Menu range	Items
Din Tai FungTaiwanese	AED 40	AED 6–98	145
PicklCheeseburgers and fried chicken	AED 62	AED 0–83	72
WagamamaJapanese-inspired Asian	AED 65	AED 4–175	136
EggspectationAll-day breakfast and brunch	AED 73	AED 10–169	130
SALTBurgers and sliders	AED 73	AED 5–390	50
MarketteFrench crêperie and comfort food	AED 80	AED 18–165	20
The Cheesecake FactoryAmerican	AED 80	AED 18–301	262
BosporusTurkish	AED 95	AED 7–199	79
La Maison AniFrench	AED 95	AED 22–420	74
SomewhereMediterranean	AED 95	AED 9–395	60
TOTÓ DubaiItalian	AED 117	AED 30–1,200	47
Jamavar DubaiIndian	AED 130	AED 85–1,050	26
AmayaMediterranean and international fusion	AED 136	AED 39–435	89
RARE Brasserie & BarModern French brasserie	AED 148	AED 18–315	37

Compared against the whole city on the full price ladder.

What a ticket costs here

Published adult admission in Downtown Dubai
Attraction	What it buys	Price
Boo Boo Laand	Adult entry	One adult ticket free with every child or toddler ticket; additional adults AED 70
Sky Views Observatory	Observatory + Glass Slide — adult (8+)	AED 89
ARTE MUSEUM Dubai	Admission only — Adult (18–60)	AED 149 full price; AED 74.50 under the 50% offer currently running on the homepage
The Green Planet	Day Pass, adult (11+)	AED 175
Burj Khalifa	Levels 124 & 125	AED 189 per adult — outdoor terrace, indoor deck, WiFi. Last entry 19:00.
Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo	Silver ticket	AED 199 — Aquarium Tunnel, Underwater Zoo, Penguin Cove, plus an AED 20 shop voucher

Free here: The Dubai Fountain. Every published Dubai ticket price, ranked.

More in Areas

See everything in Areas.

Common questions

What is there to do in Downtown Dubai?

It is the densest district on this site: the Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Mall, the fountain, the aquarium, Souk Al Bahar and around two dozen priced restaurants, almost all within a twenty-minute walk of one metro station.

Is the Dubai Fountain free?

Yes, and it runs to a published timetable. That is the sharpest contrast in the district — the fountain costs nothing and the tower above it is one of Dubai's most expensive tickets, on the same hundred metres of pavement.

How much is parking in Downtown Dubai?

The Dubai Mall publishes a free window and a tariff after it, and leaving inside or outside that window is the largest avoidable cost of a Downtown day. Street parking is a separate system: zone GP covers the area at AED 4.20 off-peak and AED 6.30 at peak.

Which metro station is Downtown Dubai?

Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall on the Red Line, which is the nearest station for almost everything in the district — 23 of the places we cover share it.

How much does a day in Downtown Dubai cost?

Anything from nothing to several hundred dirhams, which is why this page lists each figure separately rather than giving an average. The fountain is free; the Burj Khalifa's top tier is AED 769.

Every venue here carries its own verification date Figures on this page are computed from those venue pages, each sourced to the operator Reviewed by Dan-Ionuț Ciobanu Spotted something out of date? Tell us.