Handpicked experience · Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, UAE
A skyline about one lifetime old, seen from the seventy-fourth floor of the towers a film car jumped between, above eight kilometres of reclaimed waterfront.
Explore the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers and its observation deck, known for world-class shopping, dining and stunning views. A five-tower complex, this ultra-modern architecture is home to luxury rooms, dining and leisure. Go to the observation deck, the highest of its kind in the city, located on the 74th floor and enjoy panoramic views of Abu Dhabi from its vantage point.
A full turn of horizon from one of the city's highest public floors
A lift that puts you at the top in moments
Terraces on both sides of the glass, with telescopes to pick out detail
A short visit that slots easily beside anything else in the day
A timed ticket to the observation deck near the top of Etihad Towers, on the seventy-fourth floor of the tower that also holds the Jumeirah hotel. Indoor and outdoor terraces face west over the Gulf, and most people are up there between half an hour and an hour.
A lift takes you straight up, and after that the visit is entirely yours to shape. There are fixed telescopes, panels naming what you are looking at, and both a glazed lounge and open air. It is a viewpoint rather than an attraction with a route: you arrive, you look, you work out what everything is, you come down.
Photographs of this shoreline from the late 1950s show a fishing and pearling settlement of palm-frond houses and a fort. Oil was found offshore in 1958 and everything you can see from the glass was built afterwards. The city below is roughly one human lifetime old, which is worth holding in mind while you pick out the towers — nowhere in the view is older than a great-grandparent.
In 2015, Furious 7 sent a sports car through the upper floors of one tower, across open air, and into the next. Those are these towers — five of them, of deliberately different heights, finished in 2011. The stunt was not real, but the choice of building was: they were the tallest cluster on the corniche and the only ones close enough together to make the shot plausible.
The waterfront curving below is about eight kilometres long and almost entirely reclaimed — that whole strip of park, road and beach was seawater within living memory. Inland, the white domes of the Grand Mosque sit on the skyline, and on a clear day the islands to the east are visible. Directly beneath is the palace-scale hotel with its own marina, which is a useful landmark for orienting everything else.
Late afternoon into sunset is the busiest stretch and also the best light, so the two arrive together. Photography through the glazed side fights reflections; the outdoor terrace solves that. Summer afternoons outside are genuinely hot, and the indoor half is where most people end up. The ticket cannot be cancelled once booked, so dates are worth fixing first.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Half an hour to an hour is normal. There is no route to follow — you go up, take in the view, identify what you can and come down when you are ready.
Almost all of it postdates 1958, when oil was found offshore. Photographs from a few years earlier show palm-frond houses and a fort where the towers now stand.
Yes. The 2015 film sent a car through the upper floors of one tower and across into the next. The stunt was staged, but the buildings are these five, completed in 2011.
The curve of the corniche below, the white domes of the Grand Mosque inland, the islands to the east on a clear day, and the palace-scale hotel with its marina directly beneath.
No — it was built outwards into the sea. Park, carriageway and beach all sit on fill, which is why the shoreline runs in such an even curve instead of the ragged line a natural coast makes.
Both are open to you. The outdoor terrace is better for photographs because the glazing reflects, but in a summer afternoon most visitors retreat inside.
Late afternoon through sunset, which is also when the light is best. Earlier in the day is quieter and clearer for distance.