Every restaurant inside the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah is closed for the hotel's restoration. You look at the sail now from the water, from open sand, or from a terrace across a short channel of sea. Two operators run a midday lunch slot with it in frame, at AED 260 and AED 275 an adult.
Lunch sailings from Dubai Harbour
Xclusive Yachts (Dubai Harbour, Gate 19, beside Bar Du Port) is the most established of the Burj-coastline operators, with six departures a day. The midday slot cooks a live BBQ aboard and comes closest to a real lunch cruise with the sail in frame. Shared tickets start at AED 260 for an adult and AED 160 for a child, VAT included.
The fleet on the Dubai Harbour pontoons is white flybridge motor yachts and an 86ft catamaran, a red carpet laid at the gangway and the Dubai Marina towers stacked behind. The lower deck is air-conditioned. Private charters take up to 40 guests. You cannot bring alcohol aboard the shared tours.
Sky Walker Yachts (Dubai International Marine Club pontoons, opposite Gate 7) sails a wide-beam white catamaran with a shaded upper deck and a live BBQ grill smoking at the stern. Two hours costs AED 275 an adult and AED 135 a child. Children 4 to 12 pay half price and infants travel free. Shared sailings take up to 40 people.
The route is published stop by stop: Dubai Harbour, the Marina, Ain Dubai, JBR, then the Burj Al Arab, so you can check what you sail past before you pay. Two lunch slots go out every day.
Boats that carry no lunch
The Yellow Boats run a 99-minute tour on a bright yellow rigid inflatable with black tubing and a radar arch. Passengers ride in life jackets, gripping the handrails with spray flying and the Burj Al Arab close off the bow. It gets nearer the sail than any sit-down boat, and it is what to take if you want the photograph above everything else. Tickets are AED 249 an adult and AED 99 a child, with no food aboard. Minimum age is 5 and minimum weight 15kg. Private charters on 11, 14 or 18-seat boats start at AED 2,499.
Dubai Ferry (RTA Marine Transport, marine station at Dubai Marina Mall) is the cheap way onto the same water, a low-slung air-conditioned catamaran in red-and-white livery alongside a glass-and-steel pontoon. The 13:00 and 18:00 run from Dubai Marina to Al Ghubaiba tracks the Jumeirah coast. The 11:30 and 16:30 circular sightseeing trips cover the Palm. Economy is AED 50 a trip and gold AED 75. No food is served, so pair the crossing with lunch ashore.
Nemo WaterSports (Umm Suqeim Fishing Harbour, next to Jumeirah Beach Hotel) puts you on the water yourself. A 30-minute ride costs AED 300, an hour AED 499 to AED 599, and the centre opens 07:00 to 19:00 daily. The jet skis line up on a concrete slipway at the old fishing harbour among wooden fishing dhows and stacked lobster pots, and the Burj is a short ride up the coast. You need no licence. An instructor leads from the front, and under-16s ride pillion only.
Lunch ashore with the sail in view
Shimmers (Mina A'Salam beach) is the best sit-down lunch with a true Burj Al Arab sightline now that the hotel's own restaurants are shut. The terrace is low timber standing directly on the sand at the water's edge, dressed as a Greek tavern in white and blue with rope and rattan, the sail offshore to the right of the view. Mains run AED 90 to AED 220 a head. Doors open daily from 12:30. Dinner is 12-and-over, so take the midday sitting if you have children with you.
Summersalt Beach Club (Jumeirah Al Naseem) sells a day pass from AED 250 on weekdays and AED 300 to AED 577 at weekends, part of it redeemable on food and drink. The deck is tiered, with cream parasols and rattan daybeds on raked sand and a long infinity pool, and the Burj stands clear on the skyline up the coast. Hours are 09:00 to 18:00. It reopened after its summer break on 28 September 2026.
Bar Du Port (Dubai Harbour, beside the boarding gates) is where the Burj-coastline yachts leave from, a terrace of cream canvas, rope detail and pale timber with moored superyachts rising at the handrail. It opens at 16:00 Sunday to Friday and 13:00 Saturday. Drinks are AED 60 to AED 100 and the Saturday brunch starts at AED 350. Take it as the stop after a sailing.
Free views at Umm Suqeim and Kite Beach
Umm Suqeim Beach (Sunset Beach) has the best unpaid view of the hotel, the sail rising straight out of the water just offshore beyond low rock groynes. It is free and open 24 hours, with showers, changing rooms and a lit night-swimming zone until midnight. Surfers wait on a shoulder-high swell, and a tarmac promenade with changing huts runs behind the sand. Nothing is booked and nothing is capped, so a coach party can land here without warning anybody.
Kite Beach runs a blue rubberised running and cycling track behind a long pale-sand strip, lit after dark, with skate ramps, trampolines and a food-truck cluster where a plate costs AED 25 to AED 60. Kitesurfer canopies work overhead and the Burj Al Arab sits small and sharp on the horizon. The sand is open 24 hours. The facility blocks run 10:00 to midnight, and to 01:00 Thursday to Saturday. It is free, and it is the practical place to spend an hour before or after a boat.
Between Madinat Jumeirah and the sail
Souk Madinat Jumeirah is free to enter for anyone, not only hotel guests. The alleys are dark timber and ochre plaster under lanterns, opening onto saltwater canals where wooden abras slide past and the sail shows between the rooftops. A 20-minute abra trip through 4km of resort canals costs AED 100 an adult, sold at the ride counter with no booking. Private abra hire starts at AED 250 an hour for up to eight people. This is the gentlest boat ride with a Burj view, and the substitute when the sea trip falls through.
Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project (Turtle Lagoon, through Jumeirah Al Naseem) is a free 20-minute stop on the walk between Madinat Jumeirah and the Burj. The lagoon is shallow open-air seawater walled in rough coral stone beside a hotel boardwalk, green and hawksbill turtles circling just under the surface while visitors lean on the timber rail. More than 560 rescued turtles have gone back to the sea from here since 2004. The Wednesday 11:00 feeding draws a crowd, so arrive early for that one. It opens every day and takes no booking.
Wild Wadi Waterpark sits at the foot of the hotel, and the ride queues give the best elevated close-up view of it. A non-resident day pass is AED 199 and a UAE resident pass AED 149. Opening is 10:00 to 18:00 daily, and cabanas start at AED 3,000. The flumes tangle over wooden Arabian-fort theming, the Jumeirah Sceirah drops near-vertical from its towers, and the sail rises directly behind the ride platforms.
Jumeirah Beach Hotel is the land base opposite the sail, a long blue-green wave-shaped building whose glass crest mirrors the Burj Al Arab across a short channel of water. Rooms start at AED 1,200 a night and the restaurants run AED 150 to AED 400 a head. It was open through October 2026. Its old Inside Burj Al Arab ticket desk and buggy transfer are not running during the restoration. Wild Wadi access comes with a room.
Booking and what you pay at the gate
The lunch boats sail seven days a week and are booking up steadily, so reserve the midday slot before you travel. You can walk up for ferry tickets or buy them in the RTA Dubai app, and at peak times get to the marine station kiosk early. Book Summersalt day passes ahead; a large party can split the redeemable food-and-drink credit across a group lunch. The abra counter, the turtle lagoon and both public beaches take no booking at all.
Best time to go
Sky Walker's slots are 11:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 16:00. Take the earlier one to keep the afternoon ashore. Nemo's 60-minute Burj Al Arab run goes out 08:00 to 10:00, when the light is sharpest and the water flattest. Umm Suqeim Beach is empty early in the morning and shoulder-to-shoulder in the hour before sunset. Wild Wadi closes annually for maintenance from early January to mid-February.
Who the lunch cruise suits
Take the cruise if you want two hours on the water with the food cooked aboard and can live with a fixed route and a fixed departure. If you have 99 minutes and one photograph in mind, take the rigid inflatable. If you want the view for nothing, the sand at Umm Suqeim gives it.
Before you book
Everything here runs daily, apart from Wild Wadi's annual maintenance shutdown and Bar Du Port's late opening on six days of the week. Book the midday sailing and a beach club pass ahead, and leave the beaches, the abra counter and the turtle lagoon to the day itself.
See the Dubai guide and the Dubai hotel search.
Questions
Is there a lunch cruise that sails right past the Burj Al Arab?
Yes. Sky Walker Yachts lists its route as Dubai Harbour, the Marina, Ain Dubai, JBR and the Burj Al Arab, with lunch slots from 11:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 16:00. Xclusive Yachts runs six departures a day out of Dubai Harbour, Gate 19, and cooks a live BBQ aboard on the midday slot. The Yellow Boats' 99-minute rigid inflatable gets nearer the sail than any sit-down boat, though it carries no food.
What does a Burj Al Arab lunch cruise cost?
Xclusive Yachts starts at AED 260 an adult and AED 160 a child, VAT included. Sky Walker Yachts is AED 275 an adult and AED 135 a child for two hours, with children 4 to 12 at half price and infants free. Xclusive quotes private charters for up to 40 guests, and The Yellow Boats charters 11, 14 or 18-seat boats from AED 2,499.
Can you eat inside the hotel or see la piscina de Burj Al Arab Jumeirah?
No. Every restaurant inside the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah is shut during the restoration, and the old Inside Burj Al Arab ticket desk and buggy transfer at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel have stopped. Wild Wadi Waterpark, at the foot of the hotel, is AED 199 for a non-resident day pass and AED 149 for a UAE resident; Summersalt Beach Club at Jumeirah Al Naseem has a long infinity pool from AED 250 on weekdays. Both keep the sail in view.
Do I need to book ahead, or can I turn up at the pontoon?
Book the lunch sailings ahead. They run seven days a week, they are filling steadily, and the shared slots leave at fixed times. Dubai Ferry works differently: walk up to the marine station kiosk or buy in the RTA Dubai app, and arrive early at peak. The abra counter at Souk Madinat Jumeirah, the Turtle Lagoon and both public beaches need no booking.
Can children come on the boats?
Children 4 to 12 pay half price on Sky Walker Yachts, and infants travel free. The Yellow Boats set a minimum age of 5 and a minimum weight of 15kg, so toddlers cannot ride. Under-16s at Nemo WaterSports ride pillion only, with an instructor leading. Shimmers serves families at lunch from 12:30; dinner there is 12-and-over.
First published on dubaicitybreaks.com, the Dubai guide.
