Ninety seconds on Dubai Mall
Come for what costs nothing: the shark window on the ground floor, a four-storey waterfall of diving figures, and the fountain shows on the lake outside, all in one evening without a ticket.
From the metro bridge, head for the aquarium first. The main tank fills a whole wall of the ground floor, and sharks and rays glide past the window a few steps from the shop fronts. The walk-through tunnel and the underwater zoo are ticketed; the window is not.
The waterfall drops through all four floors near The Grove, its fibreglass divers plunging head first down the face. The Gold Souk is the other set piece: winding corridors and courtyards of jewellers, with bronze camels at the north entrance.
End your loop on the waterfront promenade, where the evening fountain shows run every half hour from six to eleven. The entrance to the Burj Khalifa observation deck is on the lower ground floor, signposted all along that floor.
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