Dubai Frame Tickets: Old and New Dubai from 150m

Dubai Frame tickets get you to a glass-floored bridge 150 metres above Zabeel Park, positioned so that one side looks over the old city and the other over Downtown. It is the most literal attraction in Dubai: a picture frame you stand inside. From AED 60, with Zabeel Park entry included and instant confirmation.

What your Dubai Frame ticket includes

One ticket covers three things: entry to Zabeel Park, the lift to the sky bridge at the top, and both galleries. The Past Dubai gallery on the ground floor walks you through the city as it was before the skyline existed, and the Future Dubai projection room sits at the end of the route on the way out. Nothing on the standard ticket is an upgrade or an add-on.

Not included: transport to the park, parking charges, food and drink, and the souvenir photographs taken at the top.

How the visit works

1. Enter Zabeel Park. Gate 4 is the closest to the structure itself.
2. Walk through the Past Dubai gallery on the ground floor.
3. Take the lift up one of the two vertical columns to the sky bridge.
4. Cross the bridge. The central glass panels turn opaque and clear in sequence, so there is a moment of standing on apparently nothing.
5. Descend the far column and finish in the Future Dubai room.

Allow 45 to 60 minutes in total. It is a short attraction and that is a point in its favour: it fits either side of something longer.

Best time to go

Opening hours change with the season and with Ramadan, so go by the time printed on your own voucher rather than a schedule you read elsewhere.

The useful advice is about light, not time of day in the abstract. The Downtown side faces the sunset, so late afternoon gives you the Burj Khalifa against colour rather than haze. The old-Dubai side works better in the morning, when Deira and Bur Dubai are lit from the front. You cannot have both at their best on one visit, so pick the view you came for.

Visibility is also seasonal. Dubai's winter air is noticeably clearer than the summer haze, and sandy days flatten the view in either direction.

Getting there and parking

Al Jafiliya on the Red Line is the nearest metro, about a 10 to 15 minute walk to the park gate. Taxis can drop at Gate 4, which saves the longest stretch of the walk across the grounds.

Driving, Zabeel Park has its own car parks with charges payable at the gate. The park is busiest at weekends and on public holidays, when the car parks fill from mid-afternoon.

Good to know

• The glass panels are solid. If someone in your group is uneasy, there is a non-glass strip along each side of the bridge.
• Pushchairs and wheelchairs can use the lifts, and the bridge itself is step-free.
• Bags go through a security check at the park gate.
• Photographs from above are cleanest with a phone pressed flat to the glass, which removes most of the reflection.
• The galleries are air-conditioned; the walk across the park is not.
• Free cancellation up to 24 hours before your visit.

Is it worth it?

Yes, for the price and the hour it takes. The Frame does something no other viewpoint in the city does, which is show you both Dubais at once and make the contrast the whole point.

Skip it if you have already booked the Burj Khalifa and you are short on time. The Frame is lower, the view is less dramatic, and at 150 metres you are looking across the city rather than down at it. Choose the Frame over the tower only if the old city interests you as much as the new one, which for a lot of visitors it genuinely does.

Combine it with

The Frame sits between Downtown and the creek, so it pairs with either. Burj Khalifa tickets for the opposite view, looking back towards Zabeel, or The Green Planet at City Walk, ten minutes away and entirely indoors when the heat makes the park unpleasant.

Planning your visit? Read our guide: Dubai Frame: best time to visit and which side has the better view.