Dubai

Why visit Dubai

Dubai is a city of superlatives: you can ride the elevator to the top of the world’s tallest building, dive 60 metres into Deep Dive Dubai — the world’s deepest swimming pool — and watch the world’s richest horse race, all inside one of the planet’s safest cities.

That firehose of only-here experiences is no accident. The city reinvented itself through the 2010s and 2020s, growing from a playground for a handful of ultra-rich Emiratis into an international tourism and business hub — and the bet paid off: Dubai welcomed a record 18.7 million visitors in 2024, well past its pre-2019 peak, and its remote-work visa has made it a magnet for digital nomads and entrepreneurs.

The most visited mall on the planet anchors it all. It would be a mistake to focus on the “mall” part of the Dubai Mall, however; like the city itself, it is an attempt to capture every human experience and repackage it for consumption — with an Olympic-sized ice rink, a giant indoor aquarium, 1,200 shops and a direct walkway to the Burj Khalifa. The nature-themed Cityland Mall and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library on the Creek have since joined the list.

The Burj Khalifa’s crown looks safe for a while yet: the Dubai Creek Tower, once designed by Santiago Calatrava to eclipse it, has been paused and redesigned more than once, so treat any “next tallest building” claims as aspirational for now.

The Museum of the Future, opened in 2022, has already settled in as a permanent landmark — National Geographic called the steel-and-glass torus one of the most beautiful museums in the world. The AURA Skypool, the world’s highest 360-degree infinity pool, remains one of the city’s hardest reservations to get, and the 795-room Atlantis The Royal, with restaurants from celebrity chefs like José Andrés, is now the Palm’s flagship ultra-luxury resort. One honest caveat: Ain Dubai, the giant observation wheel on Bluewaters Island, has been closed since 2022 for enhancements — check its status before promising anyone a ride.