What the Dubai Metro actually reaches
Of the 54 places on this site whose nearest station we have checked, 13 have no metro station within walking distance at all — including Palm Jumeirah, J1 Beach and Dubai Creek Harbour. Of those that do, 23 share a single station: Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall on the Red Line. The metro is excellent at reaching one part of Dubai and irrelevant to several others.
Where the metro will not take you
This is the more useful half of the page, because it is the half that changes a plan. Each line is what we found on the operator’s own directions, or the absence of it:
| Place | What serves it instead |
|---|---|
| African Queen | There is no metro station within walking distance of J1 Beach; the nearest Red Line stations are several kilometres away in Business Bay or along Sheikh Zayed Road, so a… |
| Aretha | There is no metro station on the Palm Jumeirah itself; the Palm Monorail connects to the Dubai Tram, which links to the Red Line, but a taxi is the more direct option. |
| Bâoli Dubai | There is no metro station within walking distance of J1 Beach; the nearest Red Line stations are several kilometres away, so a taxi or a car is the practical option. |
| Cutfish Dubai | There is no metro station within walking distance of Marsa Al Arab in Umm Suqeim; a taxi or car is the practical option. |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | No Metro station currently serves Dubai Creek Harbour; Emaar puts the planned Blue Line station at 2029. Until then the district is reached by road. |
| FZN by Björn Frantzén | There is no metro station on the Palm Jumeirah; the Palm Monorail and Dubai Tram connect to the Red Line, but a taxi is the more direct route to Atlantis, The Palm. |
| Gigi Rigolatto | There is no metro station within walking distance of J1 Beach; the nearest Red Line stations are several kilometres away, so a taxi or car is the practical option. |
| Gitano Dubai | There is no metro station within walking distance of J1 Beach; the nearest Red Line stations are several kilometres away, so a taxi or a car is the practical option. |
| Operation:Falafel | The Beach JBR is not on the Metro. Jumeirah Beach Residence 1 and Jumeirah Beach Residence 2 are the nearest Dubai Tram stops, on The Walk behind the development. |
| Palm Jumeirah | No metro station sits directly on Palm Jumeirah; connect via Dubai Tram at the Palm Jumeirah Tram station, reached from the Sobha Realty or DAMAC Metro stations on the… |
| Sirene Beach by GAIA | There is no metro station within walking distance of J1 Beach; the nearest Red Line stations are several kilometres away, so a taxi or a car is the practical option. |
| SuperPark Dubai | City Centre Mirdif is not on the Dubai Metro network; a taxi or RTA feeder bus from the nearest metro station is needed. |
| THREE CUTS Dubai | Palm Jumeirah is not on the Dubai Metro network. The Palm Monorail's Nakheel Mall station is the nearest rail option; from there Palm Jumeirah Mall is a short ride or… |
Three patterns run through that table. Palm Jumeirah has no metro station at all — the Dubai Tram connects it to the Red Line, and the Palm Monorail, currently suspended for maintenance, is a separate ticket, and its own current ticket page says nothing about nol. J1 Beach in Jumeirah 1 is several kilometres from the nearest Red Line station, which is why its beach clubs are taxi destinations. And Dubai Creek Harbour is waiting for the Blue Line: Emaar puts a station in its own future plans and there is nothing there today.
One station does most of the work
23 of the places on this site name Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall as their nearest station. That is not a coincidence of our coverage — it is what Downtown is: a mall, a tower, an aquarium, a fountain and several dozen restaurants inside one air-conditioned walk from one platform.
| Place | What it is |
|---|---|
| ARTE MUSEUM Dubai | museum |
| Amaya | Mediterranean and international fusion |
| Armani/Caffè Dubai Mall | Italian café |
| Boo Boo Laand | attraction |
| Bosporus | Turkish |
| Burj Khalifa | attraction |
| City Walk, Dubai | mall |
| Din Tai Fung | Taiwanese |
| Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo | attraction |
| Eggspectation | All-day breakfast and brunch |
| Jamavar Dubai | Indian |
| La Maison Ani | French |
| Markette | French crêperie and comfort food |
| Novikov Cafe Dubai | Mediterranean |
| Pickl | Cheeseburgers and fried chicken |
| SALT | Burgers and sliders |
| Sky Views Observatory | attraction |
| TATEL Dubai | Spanish |
| TOTÓ Dubai | Italian |
| The Cheesecake Factory | American |
| The Dubai Fountain | attraction |
| The Dubai Mall | mall |
| Wagamama | Japanese-inspired Asian |
Worth knowing before you rely on it: the walkway from the station into The Dubai Mall is long. The mall’s own site describes a dedicated metro link, and several venues inside quote a ten-to-fifteen minute walk from the platform to their door on top of it.
What operators do not publish
Two of the places on this site publish no directions by public transport at all. Neither Emaar nor Dubai Marina Mall’s own website names the nearest metro station or a walking route, and The Beach at JBR lists metro and tram as the route without saying which stations. Where an operator says nothing, this site says so rather than picking a station off a map and presenting it as theirs.
RTA does not publish a journey time between any two stations, only a route planner, so no minutes figure appears anywhere on this site. What the journey costs is published in full, and what a taxi starts at is the alternative for everything in the first table.
More in Getting around
See everything in Getting around.
Common questions
Which Dubai attractions are on the metro?
Of the 54 places on this site whose nearest station we have checked, most of the reachable ones cluster on the Red Line — 23 of them share a single station, Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall.
Can you get to Palm Jumeirah by metro?
Not on foot from a station. Palm Jumeirah is one of 13 places with no metro station within walking distance, along with J1 Beach and Dubai Creek Harbour.
Is the Dubai metro enough to get around as a tourist?
For one corridor, yes. The metro is excellent at reaching Downtown, Dubai Marina and the airport and irrelevant to Jumeirah, the Palm and most of the beach venues.
What is the nearest metro to Burj Khalifa?
Burj Khalifa / Dubai Mall on the Red Line, which is also the nearest station for the aquarium, the fountain, Souk Al Bahar and every restaurant inside the mall.
How much does a metro journey cost to reach an attraction?
AED 3 to 7.50 on a Silver nol card depending on how many zones you cross. The full grid is here.