Thanks to Neha Singh for writing this guest post on kid friendly things to do in Dubai. You can always trust locals to share great advice ! Neha Singh is a Dubai based travel blogger and writer and you can find her work at http://www.dubaiwikia.com!
Planning to bring your kids over to Dubai for a holiday? Wondering if this glamorous city has anything to keep the kids occupied and happy? Here’s the thing – we all know that Dubai has this reputation of being a major global business center and home to fabulous architecture. Unless you dig into it, you won’t know that a great deal of effort has gone into making this Emirate kid-friendly as well! From the Aquaventure Waterpark to KidZania to LEGOLAND, you’ll find no dearth of kid-friendly attractions in Dubai.
Splashing Around At Dubai’s Exciting Waterparks
Waterparks and kids – kids and waterparks. There’s a love affair somewhere there.
Aquaventure Waterpark: Spread over 17 hectares, Aquaventure Waterpark is home to the notorious Leap of Faith, a 27.5-metre plunge into a clear tube that floats amidst killer sharks and rays. This waterpark also has a junior waterpark for little ones, called the Splashers Children’s Play Area. There are plenty of kid-friendly tunnels, tubes, slides and climbing frames here.
Wild Wadi Waterpark: The rides here are based on the Legend of Juha, an Arabian folklore traveler. This waterpark has many thrilling slides and rides, including its most famous slide, the Jumeirah Sceirah, which has a nail-biting 120-meter drop through a trapdoor! The Burj Surj, is a twisting, steep water slide that dumps you into a cool pool. The Wadi Washed is a simulation of a flash flood, complete with thunder cracks, flashes of lightning and sudden deluges of water.
Splash around in Wadi Wadi Waterpark
Laguna Waterpark: Dubai’s brand new Laguna Waterpark located at La Mer, the coolest beachfront destination in Dubai, offers four unique zones. Named Surf, Relax, Slide and Splash, these zones offer exhilarating waterslides, lazy rivers and more. WaveOz 180 is a 180 degree surf club, one of the 3 of its kind in the world. Laguna Waterpark has plenty of shopping, dining and tons of art to admire too.
Laguna Waterpark
LEGOLAND Waterpark: At LEGOLAND, kids can enjoy building LEGO rafts and ride LEGO slides. Riptide Racers is a race down one of six slides to note the fastest time at Surfer’s Cove at LEGOLAND Waterpark. There’s a rough and not-so-lazy river, where kids can design a raft that can bear with the water’s velocity. Kids can build bridges, dams and cities of DUPLO bricks and then use them to test the water flow at LEGOLAND Waterpark as well. At Orange Run, kids can enjoy a giant orange raft as it spins four riders past the Water Park Tower within a giant orange half pipe.
Aqua Fun Dubai: Located about 20 meters off of Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) is the world’s largest inflatable waterpark. When viewed from the sky, the inflatable elements spell out the name ‘Dubai’. Here your kids can slip and slide their day away on the high and long water slides of Aqua Fun. It’s not an easy journey either – this water park offers 74 different obstacles for kids to climb, jump, slide around
Bumming On Dubai’s Beaches
Most of Dubai’s beaches are private, owned by various resorts, which can be enjoyed by paying a small fee. However, there are several beaches that are totally free to the public, with lifeguards, showers and changing rooms. All public beaches are frequented by food trucks, such as the famous food truck Salt which is permanently parked on Kite Beach.
Jumeirah Beach and Al Mamzar Park: These two beaches have been awarded the Blue Flag certification.
Jumeirah Beach, Dubai
Umm Suqeim Beach: Offers stunning views of the Burj Al Arab apart from all possible amenities.
Black Palace Beach: This pristine little gem that’s hidden between the Burj Al Arab Hotel and The Palm Jumeirah.
JBR Open Beach (Russian Beach): Another public beach with all possible facilities including lifeguards.
Kite Beach (Wollongong Beach): This beach is very popular with kite surfers, kayakers, and soccer and volleyball players.
Kite flying at Kite Beach!!!
Dubai’s Stunning Theme Parks
The term theme park and Dubai are almost synonymous, given the number of fabulous theme parks in the city.
LEGOLAND ! Always a favorite with kids!
Dubai Parks and Resorts:
- Bollywood Parks: A theme park that brings Bollywood action, music and excitement to life.
- LEGOLAND: Kid’s LEGO paradise, where kids can create their LEGO masterpieces and drive LEGO cars
- Motiongate: This theme park brings three Hollywood studios to life – Sony Pictures Studios, DreamWorks Animation and Lionsgate.
Bollywood Parks
IMG Worlds of Adventure: This theme park covers over 1.5 million square feet, and is considered the world’s largest indoor theme park. Featuring 4 epic themed zones, IMG Dubai brings Cartoon Network characters and Marvel superheroes to life.
Dubai’s Fantasy Worlds
Dubai has become really good at taking you places you won’t believe could exist in a desert.
Ski Dubai: Several football fields large, this huge indoor ski resort sports 4 excellent slopes plus a 400-meter diamond run. Add to that an ice cave, a penguin park, a snow park and a lovely café at the top. What you have is a fantasy snow paradise in the middle of the desert. Playing with the penguins at Ski Dubai is one of the coolest things to do in Dubai with kids.
Aventura Parks: This park offers the fantasy of superpowers. It’s a unique treetop obstacle park playground, where your kids can challenge each other to best nature. There’s zip-lining through treetops, rope climbing through tricky obstacles and 85 other exhilarating challenges. This park offers 5 levels of challenges for kids, surrounded by the beautiful outdoors.
KidZania: Another fantasy theme park, KidZania allows your young ones, under 12, to become whatever they want. KidZania is a built-to-scale kid-sized town where the kids are in charge, so you better watch out! You kids can play at being firemen, doctors, police officers, scientists, workers, beauticians and much more. They’ll put on actual uniforms and learn how to manage funds and develop cognitive and motor skills. It’s the best fun and educational fantasy park for kids.
Dubai’s Virtual Reality Parks
VR Park Dubai: Dubai’s first virtual reality and augmented reality attraction, VR Park Dubai literally takes you places you won’t believe exist. Blurring the line between perception and reality, this fantasy park offers horror, action, adventure and everything in between via virtual games.
Hub Zero: Located at City Walk Dubai, Hub Zero is an immersive, family-friendly entertainment hub, the first of its kind in Dubai. Hub Zero offers interactive gaming experiences via 18 rides and attractions. Your kids can enjoy basic games such as Pac-Man and pinball machine games, and watch 4D cinema with special effects such as leg tickles, seat vibrations and water spritzers. Hub Zero offers many thrilling rides and attractions that’ll keep your kids occupied from dawn to dusk.
Dubai’s Aquariums
Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo: Located in the Dubai Mall is one of the world’s largest suspended aquariums. More than 300 sharks are housed in a 10 million liter tank, along with a huge number of manta rays. This aquarium boasts the largest collection of tiger sharks in the world. Visitors can view the marine life through a glass-bottomed boat, or through a submersive simulator or watch the marine life from outside the tank.
The Lost World of Atlantis: This is the largest aquarium in the UAE, home to more than 65,000 marine animals, housed in the fictional ruins of Atlantis. Kids can dive amongst rays and sharks and explore the ancient ruins. They can enjoy watching black tip reef sharks, many hundreds of sting and manta rays and a huge collection of colorful reef fish.
Conclusion
So there you have it – many but not all, of the exclusive kid-friendly attractions that are available at Dubai. The best part about these attraction is that both kids and grownups can enjoy them. So go on, take your kids to experience these kid-friendly attractions in Dubai today!
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