Guide · 5 minute read
The Burj Al Arab stands on its own artificial island about 280 metres offshore, and a boat gets closer to it than any road does. RIB tours and jet skis stop with engines idling almost directly beneath it — roughly fifteen minutes from Dubai Marina — which is as near as anyone gets without a reservation inside.
Published
From the beach at Umm Suqeim the Burj Al Arab is a familiar silhouette at a distance. From a boat off its seaward side, it is a 321-metre curved wall rising straight out of the water with nothing behind it, and the sail shape resolves in a way it does not from land.
The island helps. Because the hotel sits alone on reclaimed ground with no development around it, from the water there is nothing to give it scale except the sea, which makes it look considerably larger than the postcard.
Close enough that it fills the frame without a zoom. RIB tours run to a stop with engines idling in the water off the seaward face, and guided jet ski routes do the same. Charter yachts pass at slightly greater distance because they cannot manoeuvre as tightly, but still close.
Nobody lands. The island is private, reached by a causeway with a controlled gate, and access is for hotel guests and diners with a booking. From the water it is a stop, not an arrival.
Late afternoon. The hotel faces roughly northwest across the water, so from mid-afternoon the sun is behind a boat sitting off its seaward face and lights the whole curve. In the morning you are shooting into it.
The other consideration is haze. From December to February the air is clear enough that the building is sharp from a kilometre out; from May to September it softens considerably, and on a bad August day it is a pale outline.
At night it is floodlit and changes colour, which photographs well but flattens the shape.
Immediately inshore is Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the long wave-shaped building that most people mistake for part of the same complex, and behind it Wild Wadi and the Madinat Jumeirah waterways.
Kite Beach and Umm Suqeim public beaches run along this coast too, which is why boats keep a respectful distance inshore — there are swimmers, and the beach flags are enforced.
FAQ
Check a date
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.