Downtown Dubai — Everything a Tourist Needs to Know

It is a new fashionable district of Dubai, which managed to make the Emirates famous anew with its unprecedented construction projects.
Dubai Downtown, which, by the way, began to be built in 2004, for all these structures today is ahead of any metropolis.
For example, the 828-meter skyscraper Burj Khalifa. It is the tallest building in the world and its observation deck is the first place where most tourists begin their acquaintance with Dubai Downtown.
Plan your trip?
Avoid hidden fees in the exchange rate while withdrawing from millions of ATMs abroad, paying in restaurants and shops, and buying your accommodation and flights using the Wise Card. You can hold up to 40+ currencies at once to spend in in over 150 countries, and convert them in real time with the free Wise app.
Need help planning your trip from start to finish? Check out these helpful links:
- Cheap flights
- Savings on accommodation from hostels to luxury hotels
- Affordable car rental options
- Affordable sightseeing tours and day trips
- Travel Adapter – All in one so you don’t have to carry a bunch around
This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Dubai Mall
The largest shopping mall in the world – Dubai Mall – is located here. A trip to this mall is a great excuse to rent a Luxury car in Dubai and immerse yourself in a world of luxury. It is a paradise for shopping addicts because here there are more than 1200 boutiques with clothes from the most famous brands of both budget and luxury.
But once here, you are unlikely to limit your closet to a few updates. Hundreds of electronic and computer technology stores, boutiques with cosmetics, shoes, accessories, and sporting goods will help to noticeably empty your wallet. To go around it is like to overcome the area equal to the area of 50 (!) soccer fields.
Many people go to the Emirates for inexpensive gold jewelry. So, in the Dubai Mall there is a real Gold Market with more than 220 jewelry boutiques. It is possible to rest and eat after hours of shopping marathons, directly in the shopping center.
The Dubai Mall has about 160 cafes and restaurants serving local, Mediterranean, Asian, international, and Latin cuisine.
To switch your attention from the endless boutiques to something more interesting you can take a tour of the underwater zoo located right in the mall. Love of Arabs for everything exclusive and unique you can feel here.
Because they even managed to make the aquarium with fish the largest in the world. Just imagine: more than 50 meters in height and 20 meters in length, that’s what it is – Dubai Aquarium! But that’s not all.
Continuing the aquarium is a tunnel – a kind of underwater zoo, passing through which you can get acquainted with more than 33 000 marine animals face to face.
For the youngest tourists, Dubai Mall has created an interactive city Kidzania with real streets, businesses, stores.
Here children can play not only as a doctor or teacher but 70 other professions, becoming, for example, an airplane pilot, a fireman or a pop singer. Kidzania has children’s airplanes, fire hoses, and non-toy recording studios for these activities.
For movie buffs, the Dubai Mall has a 22-screen movie theater, so you can be among the first to see the long-awaited premiere, even when you are far from home.

Dubai Fountain
Closer to the evening all the tourists amicably meet at the fountain. Really, really! Skip such a spectacle well just can not. Dubai Fountain Complex “comes to life” at exactly 17.45 local time, paralyzing all the action in the area.
The fountain “dances” to the classics, Arabic melodies, and world-famous hits, forming in the air over 1000 different figures.
The jets of the Dubai Fountain are lit by thousands of searchlights and lights, rising to a height comparable to a 50-storey (!) building.
To admire this beauty not among the crowds of thousands, but at a closer distance, you need to take care of tickets for the boat tour. It costs 65 AED. Tickets are sold in the center of Downtown and at the Burj Khalifa box office.
Dubai Fountain “dances” from 17.45 to 23.30 local time, and the last boat tour leaves 30 minutes before the end of his work.
Other attractions in Downtown Dubai
Downtown Dubai has managed to preserve the past along with its super modern skyscrapers. Proof of this is Souk Al Bahar, a shopping complex built in the spirit of traditional Oriental architectural motifs.
It has more than 100 stores, 22 restaurants, and cafes overlooking the Burj Khalifa Tower and the Dubai Fountain.
The central street of Downtown, Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard, is also worth a visit. On the boulevard length of 3.5 km tourists are waiting for a new portion of boutiques, trendy restaurants, and cafes.
By the way, you can see everything interesting about this Dubai neighborhood on a sightseeing bus tour of Downtown. There are 11 stops during the bus tour. If you want you can stay in your favorite places and resume the tour on the next bus.