Palm Jumeirah · Dubai

Palm Jumeirah

Sixteen fronds, a trunk and an eleven-kilometre breakwater, built out into the Gulf in the 2000s and now home to Atlantis, a monorail, a boardwalk and some of the best public beach in the city. You do not need to be staying on it to enjoy it.

Why go

Eleven kilometres of free public boardwalk on the outer crescent
Palm West Beach — public, free, with beach clubs you can walk into
Monorail along the trunk to Atlantis
Observation deck at The Palm Tower for the shape from above

Seeing it without paying for it

The Palm's best free asset is the boardwalk on the outer edge of the fronds — eleven kilometres of paved path with the open sea on one side and the Marina skyline across the water. Early morning and after dark are the usable hours for most of the year; between May and September the middle of the day is genuinely unpleasant.

The monorail runs the length of the trunk from Gateway station to Atlantis and is worth the short fare purely as a moving viewpoint. The Palm West Beach strip at the base of the trunk is public, free, and has the restaurants and loungers that most visitors assume are hotel-only.

The view from above

The observation deck at the top of The Palm Tower is the only place the island's shape resolves into the postcard. From ground level you are simply on a wide road; from 240 metres up you can see why it took a decade to build.

Palm Jumeirah, answered

Can you visit Palm Jumeirah for free?

Yes. The island is public road, the boardwalk is free to walk and Palm West Beach is a free public beach. Only the waterparks, the observation deck and the monorail charge.

Are the beaches on the Palm public?

Palm West Beach on the trunk is public and has showers, loungers for hire and restaurants behind it. The frond beaches belong to the villas and hotels and are not open to walk-ins.