Burj Khalifa Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

The Burj Khalifa has held the record for the world's tallest building since January 2010. It rises 828 metres, with 163 floors above ground and a spire taking the top 244 metres. Second place is still about 150 metres short.

How it stands up

The plan is a three-winged Y borrowed from a desert flower, which is how the structure breaks the wind. Construction ran six years with a peak workforce near twelve thousand. The lifts move at ten metres a second.

The name changed on opening day. The tower was Burj Dubai throughout construction. It was renamed for the ruler of Abu Dhabi, whose emirate had helped Dubai through the crash a year earlier.

Which deck to buy

Three levels are ticketed, and they are not interchangeable.

• 124 and 125. The standard ticket, 456 metres up, with an open-air terrace.
• 148. At the Top SKY, 555 metres, with a lounge and a far shorter queue.
• 152 to 154. The Lounge, 585 metres, the highest of the three and served rather than walked.

Slots are timed, and prime-time ones around sunset cost roughly double the middle of the day. Most of what sells here is a combination. A deck slot comes paired with the underwater zoo, a full-day city drive, or a jet ski run below.

Practical

• Haze. Summer visibility is often poor. The clearest air comes on winter mornings after rain.
• Sunset slots. They sell out days ahead. The hour before sunset is the compromise: the city in daylight, then lit.
• Security. Airport-style screening at the entrance, so no large bags.
• Dress. No code of its own beyond the modesty rules of the mall you walk through.
• Arriving. The Red Line stops at Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall, and the walkway in is long, covered and cooled.