Every city has its own unique views of cityscape, for travelers it's worth to enjoy the cityscape of each city, one of the best ways to enjoy these views is to get to a point at high above the ground, from there you can see the whole city or at least a large portion of the city.
Observation decks are the floors on skyscrapers that open to public for viewing the scenery of the city. The higher the observation deck is, the more areas of the city will be seen, here in this page the top 12 highest observation decks in the world are listed and introduced.
1. At The Top on Burj Khalifa
Burj Khalifa is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Standing at 828 meters or 2717 ft, the building is best known for its title of World's Tallest Building.
Burj Khalifa has observation decks named At The Top at 124th, 125th, 148th floor, respectively at 452 meters, 456 meters and 555 meters. Due to the tower's tapering form, none of these observation decks is close to the peak of tower, as the floor plate of upper floors are too small. But still the observation deck on 148th floor is currently the tallest observation deck that opens to public.
More details of observation decks on Burj Khalifa
Height: 452 meters, 456 meters, 555 meters Type: Enclosed & Open-air Standard Ticket Price: 34 US dollars (access 124th and 125th floor), 95 US dollars (access all three floors)
2. Top of Shanghai on Shanghai Tower
Shanghai Tower is a 632-meter megatall skyscraper in Shanghai, China, it's currently the 2nd tallest building in the world. Although it's not as tall as Burj Khalifa, its floor plate of the upper floors are generally much larger than Burj Khalifa, hence more suitable for observation decks. The tower has a series of floors near the peak occupied by the observation deck named Top of Shanghai, the highest floor used for observation deck is at 561 meters high, which is the tallest existing observation deck in the world, however, currently it is still not opened yet, the highest observatory opened to public is 118th floor, which is at 546 meters, so it ranks 2nd in this list.
More details of observation deck on Shanghai Tower
Height: 546 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: 26 US dollars
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3. Free Sky on Ping An Finance Center
Ping An Finance Center is a supertall skyscraper in Shenzhen, China. Standing at 599 meters or 1965 ft, the building is the 2nd Tallest Building in China.
The building has an observation deck on its 116th floor at a height of 541 meters. From there, visitors can get stunning panoramic view of Shenzhen, and on clear days, Hong Kong Island can also be partially seen from the south side of the deck.
More details of observation deck on Ping An Finance Center
Height: 541 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: 29 US dollars
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4. Canton Tower observatory
Canton tower is an observation & broadcasting tower in Guangzhou, China, the tower rises 597 meters, and 454 meters if the antenna on the top is not counted.
There's an open-air observation deck at 488 meters high, it is set on the base portion of the antenna.
Canton Tower also has enclosed observation decks on the uppermost floors that right below the antenna. Aside from these, there's also a horizontal Ferris wheel around the edge of the roof, it's known as the highest Ferris wheel in the world.
Height: 488 meters, 449 meters Type: Enclosed & Open-air Standard Ticket Price: 23 US dollars to 60 US dollars (price varies depend on the height to access)
5. Seoul Sky on Lotte World Tower
Lotte World Tower is a 555-meter supertall skyscraper in Seoul, South Korea, the tower was built early in 2017.
The uppermost floors are used as observation decks. There's glass floors on which visitors can directly watch down at the streets of the city right below the feet, it's the highest observatory with such kind of glass floor.
More details of the observation deck on Lotte World Tower
Height: 500 meters Type: Enclosed & Open-air Standard Ticket Price: 24 US dollars
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6. Shanghai World Financial Center Skywalk
Shanghai World Financial Center is another skyscraper in Shanghai, China, it's located right beside the Shanghai Tower.
The building has a total of 101 floors with mechanical floors included, an observation deck known as sky walk is on 100th floor, which is actually the highest occupied floor of the building as 101st floor is for mechanical use. The observation deck is set inside the sky bridge above that large aperture near the peak. At a height of 474 meters, it was the tallest observation deck in the world when it was first opened in 2008, until being surpassed by the uppermost observation deck on Canton Tower in 2012.
There are two other floors occupied by observatories as well, the one is on 97th floor, which is right below the large aperture, the other one is on 94th floor, which is much more spacious compared with the above mentioned two decks, and it has gift shops and cafes.
Height: 474 meters, 439 meters, 423 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: Up to 28 US dollars (price depends on the height to access)
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7. Tokyo Skytree observatories
Tokyo Skytree is an observation & broadcasting tower in Tokyo, built in 2011, it has become the new landmark of Tokyo. As of 2019, it's still the 2nd tallest man-made structure in the world.
As can be seen in the picture, the Skytree tower has two circular structures of different sizes, each of them has an observation deck, respectively at 350 meters and 450 meters high. There's a spiral structure around the upper observation deck, a skywalk is inside it.
Height: 450 meters, 350 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: 10 to 35 US dollars
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8. SkyPod on CN Tower
CN Tower is a broadcasting & observation tower in Toronto, it's the tallest structure in Canada, it had been the tallest self-standing man-made structure in the world before the completion of Burj Khalifa.
The large circular structure above the supportive concrete pillar is known as Main Pod, it has several floors being used as observation decks and restaurants, the lowest observation deck has an area of glass floor, standing on it visitors can directly look down at the ground at 342 meters below.
Visitors can also access to the roof of the Main Pod to experience an adventure called Edge Walk, in which visitors can walk around the edge of the roof and lean forward over the edge at a height of 356 meters high with a safety harness tied.
Apart from the Main Pod there's a much higher observation deck set at a higher circular structure which known as Sky Pod, this observation deck is 447 meters above the ground, it is much smaller and was once the highest observation deck before the opening of the observatory on Shanghai World Financial Center.
Height: 447 meters, 356 meters, 342 meters Standard Ticket Price: 36 US dollars (225 US dollars for Edge Walk)
9. Skydeck on Willis Tower
Willis Tower is the tallest building in Chicago, it's also the tallest building in America by roof height.
The tower has an observation deck on 103rd floor at a height of 412 meters, this observation deck is still highest in America, even the observatory on One World Trade Center in New York is lower than it. There are three glass sky-boxes extended from the west façade of observation floor, visitors can get into the box and looking down at the street through the glass bottom.
Height: 412 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: 30 US dollars
10. Sky 100 on International Commerce Center
International Commerce Center is the tallest building in Hong Kong.
The building is situated in Kowloon district, it can be found just across the Victoria Harbor from the cluster of highrise buildings in Hong Kong Island.
The building has 118 floors, mainly occupied by offices and hotels, respectively are on 8th to 97th floors and upper 18 floors, the observation deck is between them at 100th floor, hence named Sky 100, the observation deck offers 360 degree views of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, as well as the impressive views of Victoria Bay.
Height: 393 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: 20 US dollars
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11. Taipei 101 Observatory
Taipei 101 was the world's tallest building from 2004 to 2009. The main portion of the building is comprised of 8 wedged structures and a bigger wedged structure below them. Above the main portion is a smaller tower and a spire.
The observatories of building are set at level 88, level 89 and level 91. These levels are located at the uppermost floors of the building's main portion, which is right below the smaller tower.
The level 91 is an outdoor observation deck while other two levels are enclosed with floor-to-ceiling windows.
More details of Taipei 101 Observatory
Height: 392 meters Type: Enclosed & Open-air Standard Ticket Price: 20 US dollars
Book Discount Tickets for Taipei 101 Observatory
12. One World Observatory on One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center is the tallest building in New York City by architectural height, and is also the tallest in the whole west hemisphere. The 104-story building contains an observatory named One World Observatory on its 100th to 102nd floors, the deck on the 102nd floor is the highest observation deck in the city and the 2nd highest in America, after the Sky Deck on the Willis Tower in Chicago. Unlike the original South Tower of WTC Twin Towers, the new tower doesn't have an open-air viewing platform on the rooftop, as the roof is occupied by a large base structure of the antenna.
Height: 386 meters Type: Enclosed Standard Ticket Price: 44 US dollars