Dubai is impossible to ignore. As its leaders and property developers proudly trumpet, the city-state along the Persian Gulf has the world’s highest building (the Burj Khalifa), the world’s tallest hotel (JW Marriott Marquis Dubai), the world’s largest artificial island (the Palm Jumeirah) and the world’s biggest mall (Dubai Mall).

Lost in the bravado is the more impressive truth that this formerly sleepy backwater of the United Arab Emirates has emerged as an ethnically diverse metropolis where the world’s populations mingle along a recently opened coastal corniche, on well-kept public beaches, in modern subway and tram systems — the latter inaugurated last year — and within hundreds of Arab-Persian-Indian-Pakistani-Filipino-French-Japanese-Chinese-British-American restaurants, both humble and high-end. And now Dubai is finally developing an alternative, arty side, with a fast-rising gallery district, ambitious indie fashion designers, a crop of cool organic cafes and world-class night-life spots.

Friday

1. Straight to the Top | 5 p.m.

Visiting the Burj Khalifa — more than 160 stories soaring 2,716.5 feet in the air — is like catching an airplane. You book your ticket online (125 to 200 dirhams, or $35 to $55 at 3.60 dirhams to the dollar), print it at an electronic kiosk in Dubai Mall, wait in line, undergo a security check and enter a tightly packed metal enclosure. Then, suddenly, liftoff, and the high-speed elevator deposits you on the 124th-floor observation deck. Best viewed at night, the twinkling cityscape — pulsing highways, soaring skyscrapers, desert sprawl — is a powerful introduction to Dubai’s vertical ambitions and outward push.

2. A Colossus Called Rhodes | 8 p.m.

The evolution of British cuisine from global joke to global juggernaut owes much to Gary Rhodes — sometime cooking-show personality, cookbook author and Michelin-starred chef — who opened the much-anticipated Rhodes W1 last year. Within the white, soft-glowing, minimalist-cool interiors, a friendly young staff (sometimes more eager than experienced) delivers modern takes on British country classics, from Welsh rarebit to braised oxtail to offal meatballs in gravy. Especially recommended are the mushy peas — which form the earthy bed for crispy oyster tempura — and slow-roasted pork belly with winter vegetables, apple chunks in honey and green salad with pungent blue cheese. A three-course dinner for two, without wine, costs about 600 dirhams.