Palm Jumeirah Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

Palm Jumeirah is a palm tree made of sand. Ninety-four million cubic metres of it went in, with seven million tonnes of rock for the breakwater. There is no steel or concrete in the structure.

How it is laid out

Dredging began in 2001 and the first owners moved in around 2006. The shape is strict, and everything follows it.

• The trunk. Some five kilometres of causeway carrying the road, the monorail and the tall buildings.
• Sixteen fronds. Villa streets, each a dead end, with no public access to the sand behind the gates.
• The crescent. An eleven-kilometre breakwater wrapping the whole island, with Atlantis at its apex.
• Palm West Beach. The public shore, along the western side of the trunk.

Together they added more than fifty kilometres of coastline to Dubai.

What there is to do

The shape is invisible from ground level, which is the island's practical joke. The View at The Palm answers it: a deck 240 metres up, on the 52nd floor of The Palm Tower. Tickets are timed.

Beyond the deck the island is beach clubs, hotel day passes and restaurants. The dining strip at the tip shut in 2023. It is being rebuilt as villas, so older restaurant lists are wrong.

Practical

• Distances. The trunk alone is five kilometres. Walking the island is not realistic in summer and rarely sensible otherwise.
• The monorail. Four stations along the trunk, every fifteen minutes, a few dirhams a ride. It closes for long maintenance spells, so check before planning around it.
• Everything else. Taxis. There is no metro on the island, and the tram stops at the mainland end of the trunk.
• Beach clubs. Day passes cost a great deal at weekends and much less midweek.
• Season. November to March for the air. The sea stays swimmable all year; the air from June to September does not.
• The deck. Sunset slots sell first. Booked with hotel transfers the outing runs about four hours rather than two.