The View at The Palm is one of those places that opened relatively recently but has already become very popular among tourists. I suspect that it is not as popular as Burj Khalifa, which I didn’t even dare to visit because of its popularity, but I still underestimated the amount of time it would take me to visit The View.
I got to Palm Jumeirah from Dubai Marina. There is a tram from the Marina to the Palm. The tram accepts the card that you probably bought earlier for the metro, and deducts a minimum amount, such as 3 dirhams, for the trip to the Palm. Then you get off the tram and go to the monorail. And that’s where the time delays start.
If you always have to wait for the Dubai metro, then you’ll be amazed at how long you have to wait for the monorail in Palm Jumeirah! You’ll stand on the platform for about twenty minutes. Before that, you’ll stand in line at the ticket office, where you’ll pay 20 dirhams per passenger, then slowly make your way to the platform through a ticket inspection that is, for some reason, almost manual, and… wait. By the way, there are no seats there.
The overpricing of the monorail on Palm Jumeirah is a separate story that I don’t want to get into. Perhaps if you’re riding it to the very top of the palm, the 20 dirhams make sense, but the road to The View at The Palm is not that impressive. The monorail just eats up your money and time without giving you anything in return. That’s it. And you don’t really have any alternatives.
Fortunately, tickets to the observation deck can be purchased on the day of arrival, on site. We bought ours from a girl at the advertising stand at the exit of the monorail. She had the same prices as on the official website.
Then you turn into the shopping centre and wander around for a while looking for the escalator to the observation deck, which also takes time… then you find the deck, but that’s not all! Surprise, you’re not alone here, so wait in a couple more queues before the entrance.
Queue
All in all, to my horror, visiting The View took me almost a whole day. I didn’t expect that at all from an observation deck! But the view is good, of course.Below and in front of you is the sea, houses, yachts… very beautiful! The platform is circular and offers a 360-degree view, so you can see not only the Palm but also Dubai from the water, which is cool.There is a café on the platform where you can have a refreshing drink when the excessive amount of sun reflected from the white walls finally destroys your eyes and you want to rest. Surprisingly, the prices there are not inflated but quite reasonable for the city.And, of course, there is a souvenir shop. It’s hard for me to say whether all the time spent on just one observation deck was worth it for these views. Probably yes. Where else can you see such views and take such photos? But I will never, ever, ever go back there again.
