Guide · 9 minute read
The Dubai Water Canal walk runs about three kilometres from the Creek at Business Bay to the Gulf at Jumeirah, on a continuous pedestrian path. The whole walk takes about an hour. The set piece is the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge, where a curtain of water falls from the underside and parts for passing boats.
By Roshan Shriwastav · Published
A three-kilometre artificial waterway cut through Business Bay and Safa Park in 2016, joining Dubai Creek to the Gulf. It turned the lower Creek into a through-route for the first time and created an entirely new waterfront district along its banks.
It is a genuinely successful piece of city-making, which is not something you can say about every Dubai megaproject. The banks are walkable, the bridges are crossable, and people use it.
Start at Marasi Business Bay, which is the easiest place to join, has parking and cafés, and is where the canal cruises board. From there the path runs southwest along the canal towards the sea, under the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge, past Safa Park and out to the Jumeirah end.
The full length is about an hour at a walking pace, and it is flat and continuous. Between May and September do it after dark. There is little shade and the canal banks hold heat.
A curtain of water falls from the underside of the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge into the canal, lit at night. It runs on a schedule and pauses to let boats through, so a boat passes under it rather than through it.
From the footpath you see it side-on and lit, which is the better view for a photograph. From a boat you pass beneath it, which is the better experience. Neither replaces the other.
The walk is free, takes an hour, and lets you stop. The cruise costs from AED 149 per person for two hours with dinner, is fully sheltered so the water is flat in any weather, and gives you Business Bay and the Burj Khalifa from below rather than beside.
The Burj Khalifa is the deciding factor for most people. Downtown sits directly above the Business Bay stretch, and from the water the tower is overhead, which is the closest any boat trip in Dubai gets to it.
Dubai Creek historically ran inland and stopped. A dead end, terminating in the sabkha flats behind Business Bay. Cutting the last three kilometres through to the Gulf turned it into a continuous waterway and made the whole lower Creek circumnavigable for the first time.
The engineering was substantial for the distance: the channel is around six metres deep and eighty wide, it passes under Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah Beach Road, and Safa Park lost a section of its western end to it. Three new road bridges and several pedestrian crossings were built with it, and the whole thing opened in November 2016.
The commercial logic was waterfront. Three kilometres of new canal creates six kilometres of new bank, in districts that previously had none, which is why Business Bay's western edge is now lined with towers that face water instead of a car park.
The three kilometres are not uniform, and knowing which section you are joining changes what kind of walk you get.
The Business Bay end is the urban one: towers on both banks, Marasi's boardwalk and floating restaurants, and the most facilities. The middle section around Safa Park is the greenest and quietest, with the park on one side and the canal path running beside it. This is the stretch that feels least like the rest of Dubai. The Jumeirah end is the widest and most open, where the canal meets the sea between two low-rise residential districts, and it has the best sunset view of the three.
The waterfall bridge sits between the first and second, about fifteen minutes from Marasi, which is why most people who walk only a section walk that one.
The canal path has less shade than almost any comparable walk in the city, which is the single most important planning fact about it. There is no tower shadow for most of its length and the banks are open.
October to April it is comfortable from mid-morning, and late afternoon into sunset is the best of it. The light comes down the canal from the seaward end and the Burj Khalifa catches it from behind you on the Business Bay stretch. Between May and September, walk it after dark or not at all. The waterfall is lit at night and the bridges are too, so an evening walk loses nothing except the daylight.
Weekends fill the Marasi end in the evening. The Safa Park stretch stays quiet at almost any hour, which is one more argument for starting there if the walk rather than the scene is the point.
Business Bay is the metro station for the northern end, on the Red Line, about ten minutes' walk from Marasi. For the Safa Park stretch, Business Bay or Financial Centre and a short taxi. The Jumeirah end has no metro nearby at all and is best reached by car or taxi.
Parking is straightforward at Marasi and around Safa Park, and it is the Jumeirah end that is awkward: residential streets with limited spaces. From Dubai Marina allow thirty to forty minutes by road; from Downtown, ten.
Once you are here, the canal sits within walking distance of a good deal else. Downtown and the Dubai Mall are about twenty minutes on foot from the Business Bay end, which means the Dubai Fountain shows and the Burj Khalifa are a walk rather than a journey. Safa Park itself is worth an hour in winter. And the Jumeirah end puts you a few minutes from the beach at Jumeirah 1.
They are the same three kilometres from two angles and, as with the Marina, doing both in one evening works better than choosing.
The order that works: walk from Marasi to the waterfall bridge in the late afternoon, about fifteen minutes each way with time to stop, then board a canal cruise at Marasi around seven. From AED 149 per person for two hours with dinner, you cover the full length by water, pass beneath the bridge you just photographed from the side, and get Business Bay and Downtown lit on the way back.
The cruise is also the most sheltered boat trip in Dubai (a canal, six metres deep, with no swell at any point), which makes it the right choice for anyone nervous about motion, elderly guests, or a group with small children.
Yes. There is a continuous pedestrian path along its roughly three-kilometre length, from Business Bay to the Gulf at Jumeirah. Walking the whole thing takes about an hour and it is flat throughout.
On the Sheikh Zayed Road bridge, about fifteen minutes' walk from Marasi Business Bay. Water falls from the underside of the bridge into the canal and is lit at night. It pauses on a schedule to let boats pass beneath.
About three kilometres, opened in 2016, joining Dubai Creek at Business Bay to the Gulf at Jumeirah.
The walk is free, takes an hour and lets you stop. A cruise from AED 149 gives you Business Bay and the Burj Khalifa from directly below, which is the closest any Dubai boat trip gets to that tower.
Marasi Business Bay is the easiest access point, with parking and cafés, and it is where several canal cruises board. The Safa Park and Jumeirah ends have parking too but fewer facilities.
Dubai Creek historically ran inland and dead-ended behind Business Bay. Cutting three kilometres through to the Gulf made the lower Creek a continuous waterway, and created six kilometres of new waterfront in districts that had none. It opened in November 2016.
Late afternoon into sunset between October and April. The light comes down the canal from the seaward end. Between May and September walk it after dark; there is less shade here than on almost any comparable walk in the city.
It is the best option in the city. The canal is six metres deep, eighty wide and fully enclosed, with no swell at any point, which makes it the right choice for nervous passengers, elderly guests or small children.
Operates the water taxi and the marine transport routes on the canal, and publishes the current timetable and fares.
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.
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