Explore the 5 best things to do in Dubai with kids. Dubai is a dream holiday destination for most families and this was true for my family as well.  From theme parks to incredible family-friendly malls to breath-taking garden centers, Dubai has something special for everyone and read on to find out the 5 best things to do in Dubai with Kids. 

From the hotel stay at an all-inclusive luxury resort – Atlantis the Palm,  to exploring Aquaventure Waterpark (the water park) which came as complimentary when you stay at the hotel, creating treasured and mad memories in the 12 days we had allowed the children to be thoroughly engaged by exploring new cultures.

  5 Best things to do in Dubai with Kids.

5 Best Things to do in Dubai with kids – #1 Visit Aquaventure Waterpark

The first thing out of the 5 best things to do in Dubai with kids is to visit Aquaventure Waterpark. If you are staying at Atlantis The Palm, you will get a complimentary visit but if you decide to stay elsewhere, get a ticket online and experience all Aquaventure Waterpark has to offer.

It is great with kids of all ages and adventurous family man will particularly like this place. The rides are unique in their ways. There is Poseidon’s Revenge – My husband’s favourite where you step into a capsule that is equipped with terrifying trapdoors, then you wait for the floor to fall from beneath your feet and plummets you at speeds of about 40 mph before you’re turned upside down.

There is Zoomerango – A less intense family ride that sits 6 people in a raft. It also has various mega drops and vertical zooms. It’s the gentle highlight of the park.

The Tower of Neptune has more adrenaline-pumping rides including the Leap of Faith’s ride which hurls you vertically down a clear water slide surrounded by Sharks at crazy rapid speeds.

There’s also Shark Attack, a calm ride through dark tunnels and then suddenly, you make it into a huge tank filled with Sharks.

There is The Stringer, The Falls, The Plunge, and The Surge. All these ring rides are set at varying levels with excruciating joy, gasps, and heart-pounding moments at each ride.

In order to have maximum satisfaction, we spent three days at Atlantis, the Palm and Aquaventure Waterpark, and yet, we didn’t have enough time to enjoy the fine white sand man-made beach which is exclusively for the use of the residents at the hotel.

The Atlantis Aquaventure is everything – the trills, the screams, the gasps, the fun. It is completely magical and that is why it is the first thing on our list of the 5 best things to do: Dubai with kids.

5 Best Things to do in Dubai with kids – #2 Experience the luxury of the Mall of Emirates

The next thing from the 5 best things to do in Dubai with kids is to experience the luxury, the culture, the restaurants at The Mall of Emirate. The Mall of Emirates is located along the popular Sheikh Zayed Rd, Al Barsha. It has a Metro /monorail stop – the Dubai Metro is new, sophisticated, and well run. It connects most of the major sights and comes with a specially designed carriage for families and women. Children under five travel free on public transport. Alternatively, you can get to the Mall of Emirates by Taxi. Taxis are comfortable, efficient, and affordable. There is a huge amount of supply and respect amongst the drivers at the Taxi ranks. Hence, it was easy to move around.

The Mall of Emirates is also home to five hotels which confused us when we arrived there because each entrance we saw was through one of the hotels so we thought we were at the wrong place.

We first visited the Magic Planet – which is a massive arcade with mind-blowing racing simulators, trampolines, video games, rides, bowling, amazing attractions, in fact, everything to keep children aged 4 to 16 and adults alike entertained for hours. We got a card on site which we loaded with 525 AED and we got 950 AED on it. It was a bargain for all the activities we were able to do. The card is then swiped at the entrance of each attraction. This made it easier for us to choose what we wanted to do in the midst of a lot of choices. We spent the entire morning at the Magic Planet then we headed to Ski Dubai after lunch.

The basic ticket entry for Ski Dubai comes with a full snowsuit, socks, and snow boots which is all the snow clothing you’ll need except for gloves. It has a huge slope, chair lift, bobsledding, zorbing, snow tubing amongst many other activities, we felt like we were in the middle of The French Alps. We were beginners so we found an area where we could take some gentle turns and tumbles harmlessly. We also saw budding ski-champs like the ones that perform during the Winter games ski the 400 m and perform some amazing stunts.

The play area for children was super fun as well and my girls enjoyed the bumper cars the most.

The facilities at the Mall of Emirates are world-class. The mother’s room was special. It was such a big space with comfy sofas, drinking water, baby changing facilities, baby food warming facilities, and a diaper machine if you wanted to buy one.

5 Best Things to do in Dubai with kids – #3 Get Adventurous at Dubai Parks and Resorts

The third thing from the 5 best things to do in Dubai with kids is to get adventurous at the Dubai Parks and Resorts. The Dubai Parks and Resort are located on the famous Sheikh Zayed Road again and is also the largest theme park in the Middle East.

It consists of three theme parks and a water park:

Motiongate

Bollywood Parks Dubai

Legoland Dubai

Legoland Water Parks

and Riverland Dubai, which connects the four parks.

It is easily accessible by taxi, bus, or the Metro. We took a taxi down with a prepaid ticket which gave us entrance to three of the four parks. We opted not to visit Legoland water parks because we had the complimentary unlimited entry into Aquaventure Waterpark anyway.

The three parks we visited are

1. Bollywood Parks Dubai

2. Motiongate

3. Legoland Dubai.

Bollywood Parks Dubai

If you grew up just like me watching movies from Bollywood then Bollywood Parks Dubai will resonate really well with you. It bought back childhood memories where we would watch Bollywood movies without English translation and still enjoy the amazing storytelling.

Bollywood Parks is enchanting and it draws you closer to understand the colorfulness and vibrancy of its culture. It brings to life the magic of India’s temples and palaces.

There are stunt-shows and 4D rides which we enjoyed but the dozens of live performances with music glaring was definitely the highlight here.

There was ‘Stars on Steps’ which is a live song-and-dance show to a backdrop image from elaborate LED screens.

There was ‘Show Me Your Jalwa‘ which offers a chance for the whole family to work on their Bollywood dance steps.

There was the ‘Kids Korner‘ which concentrated on choreography for children and it was led beautifully.

Bollywood Parks Dubai also offers beautiful replicas of the Taj Mahal ( a building in India that I’m still in awe of).

Motiongate

Motiongate Dubai
Image Credit:@13weekstravel

Even though I was familiar with movies from the Hollywood studios of DreamWorks Animation, Columbia Pictures, and Lionsgate, I wasn’t aware that there was actually a theme park that so beautifully transformed your mind to feel as part of all the movies.

As you enter Motiongate, you will find Studio Central. Studio central has various restaurants and souvenir shops.

Tip: Buy a refill bottle here and as you walk around, you’ll be able to refill drinks for free throughout the theme park.

Motiongate is split into different theme lands –

There is Liongate studio – The home of Hunger Games. If you’re a fan of Hunger Games, you’ll feel right at home here.

My husband had several repeat rides on the Capitol Bullet train ride (as there were no queues) and enjoyed the Panem Aerial Tour with the girls (aged 9 and 7).

Next was the Columbia pictures studio – Home to Cloudy with a chance of meatball, Hotel Transylvania, Green Hornet, Zombieland underworld and Ghostbusters.

The Cloudy with a chance of meatball had Flint and Sam’s water adventure – expect to get wet here!

The Green Hornet is a rollercoaster ride that is made up of sudden up and down stops. It was a bit scary for my 7 years old but great fun.

The Ghostbusters is a calm ride through a dark alley where you’re given a laser gun to attack ghosts and creepy crawlers for points.

It was super thrilling and my girls can still recount their experiences on these rides word for word.

We stopped for dinner at the Baby Brent’s – A Chance of Meatball restaurant.

We briefly stop at Smurf’s village – surprisingly, it had the longest wait time to go on the ride. The wait was about 35 minutes and my girls weren’t so pleased.

Finally, we visited DreamWorks Animation studio which had different favorites like Madagascar, Shrek, How to train your dragon and Kung fu Panda. It was like we saved the best for the last!

Next was one of my favorite movies of all time Shrek. A puppeteer told the very emotional story of Shrek and Fiona which shows the Fairy tale story with all the characters of the story like Donkey, Donkey’s Dragon wife, their babies, Puss in Boots, and other characters.

Then, there was Kung Fu Panda dancing and teaching my girls his moves, there was a full theatrical performance with the cast of Madagascar, it was mind-blowing!

Legoland Dubai

Legoland Dubai has no competitors, I believe! It is absolutely fantastic! It has Lego City, Imagination, Kingdoms, Adventures, and Miniland.

Lego City

We started at Lego city and I would say it is excellent for younger children (below 8 years) the attractions here included a driving school where the children learned how to drive and obtained a Legoland driving license, a firefighter station, a boat ride, and gentle plane ride.

Imagination, Kingdom and Adventure land

These areas had amazing rides and roller coasters. We particularly enjoyed Imagination because it offered Lego Robotics which my girls enjoy at school.

Miniland

I was fascinated by Miniland as an Architect and believe me I could spend the entire day at Miniland. It was a display of Architecture, design, and creativity at its best. It had Lego models of a number of amazing skies scarpers and iconic buildings around the world. The information on the buildings was all detailed and it could easily pass as a sort of museum. There was a workspace where children could build anything they wanted to build with Lego.

Lego Robotics was on show here as well. All the iconic buildings had a robotic aspect to it. If you have a budding architect, IT engineer, robotic specialist developing in your family then you must visit Miniland at Legoland Dubai.

5 Best Things to do in Dubai with kids – #4 See Miracles at the Dubai Miracle Garden

The fourth thing from the 5 best things to do in Dubai with kids is to see Miracles at Dubai Miracle Garden.

The Dubai Miracle Garden is actually a miracle as the name indicates, you won’t expect such a breathtaking natural flower garden in the midst of a desert. Would you?

The Dubai Miracle garden is large, I mean very large. It covers an area of about 72,000 square meters of land. It is the largest natural flower garden decked with an awe-inspiring assortment of flowers – most of which are rare and thriving for the first time in the Middle East.

The garden was launched on Valentine’s Day in 2013. I don’t quite see the link because you’re not allowed to display any form of physical contact here. I was told off for resting on my husband’s shoulder as he tried to take a selfie of us.

The landscaping is exceptional and words can’t describe the beauty of the garden. The garden has been well thought out as there was something for everyone.

The Disney Theme character will keep your children entertained, an award-winning airplane made of flowers complete with its engine. Japanese gardens, water fountains, and wonderful scenery for the adults.

You will easily spend a couple of hours wandering around the garden and exploring the various structures which have been creatively crafted.

If you love flowers and plants as much as I do, you need to visit @dubaimiraclegarden, it’s truly magical.

5 Best things to do in Dubai with kids – #5 Meet a camel at Dubai Desert.

The fifth and last thing from our list of the 5 best things to do: Dubai with kids is to meet a camel at the Dubai Desert. One of the most authentic ways to experience the culture of the Emiratis ( the people of Emirates) is to escape to the desert.

The classic Dubai desert safari will include several activities in a day or half-day safari desert tour. The Desert tours vary and the package they offer varies in the experience you will get. Some activities include camel riding – best experienced in the sunset for stunning pictures, henna painting and dressing up, the golden dune bashing either in a 4 wheel drive car or on a motorbike (for families, it is best to use the 4WD vehicles), quad biking for the adventurous, soaring over the desert in a hot air balloon, holding clever Falcons, camping under the stars with entertainment from Belly Dancers and Fire Trickers. The kids will be fascinated at seeing a real camel, dining in the desert, and sand bashing across the vast desert. It is truly an experience not to be missed.

5 Best things to do in Dubai with kids – Final thoughts

This post on the 5 best things to do in Dubai with kids is a comprehensive guide to the best family holiday to Dubai. Dubai is best visited in the winter months which is between October and March. To truly enjoy all that Dubai has to offer, it is best to stay in Dubai for a minimum of seven days.

Let me know in the comments, what you will enjoy the most on a family holiday to Dubai and how you will experience Dubai with kids.