Filming locations in Dubai

Visiting Dubai: a set-jetting guide. A skyline of record-breaking towers rising straight from the Gulf desert, Dubai was built for blockbuster spectacle, and it delivered the most vertiginous stunt the Mission: Impossible franchise has ever staged. The world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, is where Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt scales the sheer glass face with nothing but a pair of suction gloves and a great deal of nerve.

You do not, mercifully, have to climb anything to enjoy the location. The reward here is going up the inside instead: the tower's At the Top observation decks fling open a view across the whole city and the desert beyond, and standing against that same dizzying glass, the film's stunt suddenly makes total, terrifying sense. The scale of the thing has to be seen to be believed.

Everything clusters neatly at the foot of the skyscraper. The Burj Khalifa rises directly above the vast Dubai Mall, one of the largest in the world, and the Dubai Fountain puts on its choreographed water-and-light show on the lake below each evening. You can fold the observation deck, the mall and the fountains into a single easy outing without ever moving the car.

Book the At the Top tickets ahead, and aim for a sunset slot if you can, when the towers glow and the desert light softens. Dubai is hot, modern and remarkably easy to get around, with a clean metro and plenty of taxis, so it makes a comfortable base whether you are here for a day or a longer Gulf stop. Dress for fierce sun outdoors and strong air-conditioning in.