Places to visit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
53 places to visit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Dubai Creek, Atlantis, The Palm, Burj Al Arab and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Dubai volume.
1 Heritage site · 14 Famous places to visit · 38 Hidden gems
Heritage sites in Dubai (1)
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Dubai Creek
The saltwater inlet the city grew up around, running about 14 kilometres inland and long its port for trade. Wooden abras still ferry people across between Deira and Bur Dubai, past dhows loading cargo along the wharves.
Famous places to visit in Dubai (14)
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Atlantis, The Palm
The first resort built on the Palm Jumeirah, a great arched hotel at the very tip of the island. It opened in 2008 and mixes the myth of the lost city of Atlantis with Arabian design, with a water park and a vast aquarium in its grounds.
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Burj Al Arab
A hotel shaped like the sail of a dhow, standing on its own artificial island 280 metres off Jumeirah Beach and reached by a private curving bridge. A helipad juts out near the top, 210 metres above the ground.
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Burj Khalifa
The tallest building in the world since 2011, a spire of glass and steel reaching 828 metres at the roof above Downtown Dubai. It was designed by the Chicago firm SOM, and its observation decks look out over desert, sea and the rest of the city's towers.
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Deep Dive Dubai
The deepest swimming pool in the world, 60 metres down and filled with 14 million litres of fresh water. At the bottom lies a sunken city of streets and furnished rooms, built for divers to explore and also used as an underwater film studio.
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Dubai Frame
A picture frame 150 metres tall and 95 metres wide standing in Zabeel Park, the largest in the world. A glass-floored bridge across the top looks north to old Dubai and south to the new city.
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Dubai Gold Souk
A covered market in Deira with more than 380 shops, nearly all of them jewellers, their windows packed with gold necklaces and bangles. Platinum, silver, bullion and loose diamonds are traded here too, a few steps from the Spice Souk.
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Dubai Mall
The largest mall in Dubai, with more than 1,200 shops at the foot of the Burj Khalifa. Inside are an aquarium and an ice rink, and its lakeside terrace outside is the best seat in town for the fountain show.
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Dubai Marina
A district of high towers built around a man-made canal along a 3 km stretch of the Gulf shore. A promenade runs the length of the water, lined with cafés and moored yachts, and comes alive in the evenings.
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Dubai Miracle Garden
A flower garden in Dubailand spread over 72,000 square metres, opened in 2013 and said to be the largest in the world. Flowers are trained over frames into hearts, castles and even a full-size Emirates Airbus A380.
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Global Village
A seasonal fairground in Dubai where pavilions for countries from around the world show their crafts, food and traditions. Between the pavilions are rides, stages and restaurants, so a single evening can take you from one continent to the next.
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Jumeirah Beach
A long run of white sand on the Gulf, named after the Jumeirah district it borders. It stretches south from the old city towards the Palm, with the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab standing just offshore along the way.
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Museum of the Future
A ring-shaped steel building in Dubai's financial district, covered in Arabic calligraphy that doubles as its windows. The words are a poem about the future by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, and the seven floors inside are given to science, technology and what may come next.
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Palm Jumeirah
A palm tree drawn in reclaimed sand on the Gulf, with a trunk, fronds and an outer crescent that breaks the waves. More than 25,000 people now live on these artificial islands, and a monorail runs up the trunk to Atlantis at the far end.
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The Dubai Fountain
The largest choreographed fountain in the world, set in the lake at the foot of the Burj Khalifa. Its jets throw water up to 152 metres into the air, lit by 6,600 lights and set to music from classical to Arabic.
Hidden gems in Dubai (38)
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Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood
The old merchants' quarter of Bur Dubai, a maze of sand-coloured lanes and courtyard houses topped with wind towers. Its old name, Bastakiya, comes from traders from Bastak in Persia, and the houses now hold small museums, galleries and cafés.
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Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve
The first unfenced nature reserve in the UAE, covering about a tenth of the Emirate of Dubai in the desert of Saih Al Salam. It takes in the man-made Al Qudra Lakes, wetlands in the middle of the sand that draw birds and wildlife.
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Al Seef
A 1.8 km promenade along the bank of Dubai Creek beside the Al Fahidi quarter. Its lanes of rebuilt old-style houses, cafés and shops face the abra boats crossing the water.
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Al Shindagha Museum
A museum spread through restored courtyard houses in the Al Shindagha historic district, at the mouth of Dubai Creek. It tells the story of the creek and the people who lived along it, and includes a house given over to perfume and the region's love of oud and scent.
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Bluewaters Island
An artificial island 400 metres off the beach at JBR, near Dubai Marina, given over to shops, restaurants and homes. It is the base of Ain Dubai, one of the largest observation wheels in the world.
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Deira Clocktower
A clock tower on a roundabout in Deira, raised in the 1960s when Dubai was a far smaller city. It was first called the Dubai Clock Tower and remains one of the city's earliest modern landmarks.
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Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo
A vast aquarium inside the Dubai Mall, one of the largest in the world. Its main viewing panel, about 32 metres wide and 8 metres tall, faces straight onto the shopping concourse, so sharks and rays swim past shoppers who never paid to see them.
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Dubai Butterfly Garden
An indoor garden in Al Barsha South where thousands of butterflies fly free, said to be the largest of its kind in the world and the first in the region. At its 15 feeding stations they settle on syrups and slices of mango, pineapple and watermelon.
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Dubai Coffee Museum
A small museum of coffee in an old house in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood. It traces the history of the drink and the culture around it, and the lives of the people who work on the plantations.
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Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
A 225 square kilometre desert reserve set up by decree in 2002, covering about 5% of the Emirate of Dubai. Its red dunes are home to Arabian oryx and gazelles, and it is where many desert drives and safaris from the city head.
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Dubai Garden Glow
A night-time park in Zabeel Park, filled with illuminated sculptures of animals, flowers and fantasy scenes made from lights and recycled materials. It comes alive after dark, and a section of life-size moving dinosaurs keeps children busy.
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Dubai Opera
A 2,000-seat performing arts centre in Downtown Dubai, its glass and steel shaped like a dhow. It opened in 2016 with Plácido Domingo, and the hall can change from theatre to concert hall to a flat floor for banquets.
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Dubai Safari Park
A wildlife park at Al Warqa on the Hatta Road, run largely on solar energy. Animals from Africa and Asia live in open villages and safari zones, some of them seen from a guided drive.
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Dubai Spice Souk
A few narrow lanes in Deira, beside the Gold Souk, where open sacks of saffron, cardamom, dried lemons and frankincense spill out of the shopfronts. It sits by the Old Souk abra station, so a boat ride across the creek is part of getting there.
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Dubai Water Canal
A man-made waterway, opened in 2016, that carries Dubai Creek on from Business Bay through Safa Park and Jumeirah to the sea. Its 3.2 kilometres are lined with walkways and cycle paths, and a curtain of water pours off the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge, pausing when boats pass beneath.
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Etihad Museum
The museum of the UAE's founding, built around Union House, where the constitution was signed and the first national flag raised on 2 December 1971. Its building is designed to look like a document, and inside it holds everything from old passports to the personal belongings of the rulers.
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Grand Mosque, Bur Dubai
The mosque at the heart of old Bur Dubai, between the textile souk and the Dubai Museum. First built in 1900, it was rebuilt in 1960 and again in 1998, and now holds up to 1,200 worshippers.
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Guru Nanak Darbar
The first official gurdwara in the Gulf, opened in 2012 in the churches complex of Jebel Ali Village. It was founded by Surender Singh Kandhari, a Dubai resident since 1976, and serves the city's large Sikh community.
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IMG Worlds of Adventure
One of the largest indoor theme parks in the world, in the City of Arabia on the edge of Dubai. Inside are zones built around Marvel heroes, Cartoon Network characters and life-size dinosaurs.
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Ibn Battuta Mall
A long mall in southwest Dubai with more than 300 shops, named after the 14th-century traveller from Tangier. Its six courts are each built in the style of a land he visited: China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia.
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Iranian Mosque
A Shia hosainia near the old Textile Souk in Bur Dubai, built in 1979 and known for its façade and domes covered in blue Persian tilework. It is also called the Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mosque.
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Jumeirah Archaeological Site
The excavated remains of a 10th-century Abbasid settlement among the villas of Jumeirah. First dug in 1969, it has turned up a mosque, a caravanserai and houses, along with glazed pottery, bronze coins and glass.
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Jumeirah Beach Residence
A 1.7-kilometre strip of 40 residential towers on the Gulf shore at Dubai Marina. At street level its beachfront promenade of cafés and shops, The Walk, is where much of the city comes to stroll in the evenings.
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Jumeirah Mosque
A white stone mosque on Jumeirah Beach Road, begun in 1975 and opened in 1979, built in the manner of medieval Cairo's Fatimid and Mamluk mosques. Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum gave it as a gift to his son, Sheikh Mohammed, and it is one of the few mosques in Dubai that welcomes non-Muslim visitors on guided tours.
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Legoland Dubai
The first Legoland in the Middle East, opened at Dubai Parks and Resorts in 2016 after years of delay. Its rides and brick-built models are aimed at families with young children, and its miniature city recreates famous buildings of the region.
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Love Lake
A man-made lake in the desert shaped like a heart, part of the Al Qudra Lakes in Saih Al Salam. Mesquite trees grow around its edges, and people drive out from the city to walk the shore and watch the sun go down over the dunes.
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Madame Tussauds Dubai
A wax museum on Bluewaters Island, opened in 2021 as the first of its kind in the Middle East. It has more than 60 lifelike figures of musicians, actors, athletes and world leaders, close enough to stand beside.
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Madinat Jumeirah
A resort built over 40 hectares to look like an old Arabian town, with wind towers and waterways crossed by abras. It is the largest in Dubai, with three hotels, a court of summer houses and a souk, all looking out at the Burj Al Arab.
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Motiongate Dubai
A Hollywood-inspired theme park at Dubai Parks and Resorts, opened in December 2016. Its four themed zones are given over to rides and shows from popular film franchises, next door to Legoland.
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Mushrif Park
A large family park on the eastern side of Dubai, about 16 km from the old centre. Dubai Municipality created it in 1982 and expanded it in 1989, and its stretches of desert woodland hold a swimming pool, cycle tracks, football fields and barbecue spots.
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Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary
A wetland reserve at the old head of Dubai Creek, with the city's towers on the horizon. Migratory birds arrive in large numbers, flamingos among them, and hides along its edge let you watch them up close.
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Safa Park
A 64 hectare park between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Wasl Road, about 10 kilometres southwest of old Dubai. Its lawns, sports courts and shaded paths are where many residents come to walk once the evening cools.
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Saruq Al Hadid
An archaeological site deep in the Dubai desert, among the most important and least understood in the country. It was first spotted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum from his helicopter, and the finds dug from the sands are shown in a museum of the same name in the city.
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Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House
The old home of Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, standing on the creek at Al Shindagha. Its wind towers and coral-stone courtyards now hold a museum of old photographs of the city as it was before the oil.
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Ski Dubai
An indoor ski slope inside Mall of the Emirates, kept between minus 1 and 2 degrees all year. Its 22,500 square metres of real snow lie a few metres from the desert heat, and it has a resident colony of penguins.
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The Green Planet
An indoor tropical rainforest under a bio-dome in City Walk, with more than 3,000 plants and animals. Birds, reptiles and fish live in the open around you as you climb through the levels of the forest, though none of them may be touched.
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Wild Wadi Water Park
An outdoor water park in Jumeirah, set right beside the Burj Al Arab and the wave-shaped Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Its slides and pools are run by Jumeirah, the Dubai hotel group, and the sail of the Burj Al Arab rises over the whole park.
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Zabeel Park
A large city park in the Zabeel district, split into sectors that are joined by footbridges over the roads running through it. The Dubai Frame, a 150 metre picture frame of glass and gold-coloured steel, stands inside.
Collecting in Dubai
What are the best places to visit in Dubai?
LOQAH lists 53 places in Dubai. The best known include Dubai Creek, Atlantis, The Palm, Burj Al Arab, Burj Khalifa and Deep Dive Dubai. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Dubai?
53, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Dubai?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Dubai before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Dubai and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in the United Arab Emirates
Collect your first stamp.
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