Are you going on holiday to Dubai with children and are you looking for fun activities in Dubai for children? Or are you wondering which sights in Dubai are good for kids? In this article, we have listed five fun activities and sights in Dubai for children for you. Curious about what else you can do with children in Dubai? Then take a look at our page the best sights for children in Dubai, the page what to do in Dubai with children or take a look at our category page “Dubai with children“.
1. Visit a water park in Dubai
If your kids love swimming, Dubai is the place to be! Dubai has no less than six water parks where you can cool off with your children and go swimming all day and enjoy all kinds of water attractions and slides. Which aqua park in Dubai is best to visit with your children depends on the age of your children and their height. Some water parks in Dubai are more aimed at older children, while other parks also have fun attractions for younger children. Would you like to read more about the various water parks in Dubai? In our article “Water parks in Dubai” we have listed all the water parks in Dubai for you.
Aquaventure Waterpark
The Aquaventure waterpark is the largest water park in Dubai and is located on the famous palm island between the Atlantis The Palm hotel and the Atlantis The Royal hotel. Just like the adjacent hotel, the water park is entirely dedicated to the sunken city of Atlantis. The park is 42 hectares in size and there are 105 different water attractions spread over the park, including some beautifully landscaped swimming pools surrounded by palm trees, fast water slides and relaxed attractions where you float on the water. The water park also has a 1-kilometre-long private sandy beach. Since 2022, the Aquaventure water park holds an official Guinness World Record for the water park with the most water slides. The park has no less than 50 different water slides.
Wild Wadi Waterpark
The Wild Wadi Waterpark was the first water park to open its doors in Dubai. Wild Wadi is located right next to the Burj Al Arab and the Jumeirah Beach hotel in the Jumeirah district. The water park is over 12 hectares in size and has more than 30 attractions including several water slides, swimming pools, a huge wave pool and other water attractions. The park’s star attraction is without a doubt the Jumeirah Sceirah slide. In this 32-metre-high slide, you fall down through a hole where you reach speeds of up to 80 km/h. To slide down this spectacular slide, you must be at least 1.1 meters tall.
LEGOLAND Water Park
The LEGOLAND Water Park in Dubai is part of the Dubai Parks and is located 25 kilometres south of Dubai. The LEGOLAND water park is, as the name suggests, entirely dedicated to the famous LEGO bricks from Denmark. All attractions in the park are built with real Lego bricks or are built entirely in the style of the Lego blocks. Children can have fun in the Joker Soaker where they can play with numerous water attractions. In the Twin Chasers they can have competitions and in the Build-a-Boot attraction you and your child can build a boat out of Lego bricks. For the toddlers, the Splash Safari is a fun attraction where they can splash around in the water together with life-size Duplo animals.
Jungle Bay Waterpark
Dubai’s fourth water park is the Jungle Bay Waterpark which can be found at the Le Méridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina. The Le Meridien Mina Seyahi resort is located near the Dubai Marina and Palm Jumeirah. In principle, the water park of Jungle Bay is only accessible to guests of the Le Méridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina and the adjacent The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina. For non-guests, however, it is possible to have a day of fun in the water park by buying a day pass for the Mina club.
AquaFun Water Park
Unlike the other water parks in this article, the AquaFun Water Park is not a water park on land with pools and slides, but a water park with inflatable elements that floats on the sea. The water park floats on the water 25 meters from the shore in the Dubai Marina, at the level of the popular JBR Beach. The water park has a size of 130 x 33 meters and has more than 72 different obstacles and water slides where you can climb, slide and jump endlessly. The attraction is not only great fun for children, adults can also enjoy themselves for hours. The attraction has its own lifeguards who keep a close eye on everything so that nothing goes wrong.
2. Visit an aquarium or zoo in Dubai
Dubai has a number of nice aquariums that you can visit if you are on holiday in Dubai with children. Dubai’s most famous aquarium is without a doubt the Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo. This aquarium is officially the largest aquarium in the world and can be found in the Dubai Mall, the largest shopping mall in the world. You can visit the large Dubai Aquarium for free because it can be seen from the mall, but the Underwater Zoo behind it and the tunnel that goes right through the gigantic aquarium can only be visited for a fee.
Another well-known aquarium in Dubai is the Lost Chambers Aquarium at the Atlantis the Palm hotel on Palm Jumeirah Island. This aquarium is entirely dedicated to the sunken city of Atlantis and can only be visited for a fee. Check out our Lost Chambers Aquarium page for more info on ticket prices. In the corridor to the Lost Chambers Aquarium you can also visit some aquariums for free, these are located in the public area of the Atlantis hotel.
Would you rather visit a zoo? That is also possible in Dubai. In the Dubai Safari Park you can see more than 3500 wild animals from all over the world. Or visit the unique Green Planet, an indoor tropical rainforest in the middle of the city where you can admire a large number of animals from the jungle up close.
3. Visit an amusement park in Dubai
In addition to water parks, Dubai also has various amusement parks for young and old. For young children up to about 12 years old, the Legoland Dubai theme park is recommended. This family park is located in the Dubai Parks area and is completely dedicated to the famous Lego bricks. The park is full of fun attractions for young and old, including two roller coasters, various attractions where children can drive themselves in a LEGO car and of course there is also a place where children can build with LEGO themselves.
For older children, there is the IMG Worlds of Adventure amusement park. This theme park is fully covered and air-conditioned so that children can play in the park even in the hot summers. The park is the largest indoor amusement park in the world and is dedicated to the superheroes of Marvel, the characters of Cartoon Network and the Lost Valley Dinosaur Adventure. In the indoor park you will find, next to several roller coasters and four different themes, including a huge dinosaur land with moving dinosaurs.
Dubai Parks is also home to the Motiongate theme park, an amusement park inspired by Hollywood’s famous film studios. The Motiongate park brings together four of the world’s largest film studios in one park. It has 27 attractions inspired by Hollywood blockbuster films from DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Studios, Columbia and Lionsgate. You will find attractions entirely in the style of the films Shrek, The Smurfs, Ghostbusters, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Step Up and The Hunger Games. The park’s biggest attractions include the five roller coasters The Green Hornet, Capitol Bullet Train, Mad Madagascar Mad Pursuit, Dragon Gliders, and Smurfs Village Express. In addition, there is a wild water ride, a Smurf play area for children and a swinging Viking ship. Many of the rides in Motiongate require children to be at least 90 inches tall, making this park unsuitable for small children.
4. Go to the beach in Dubai with your children
The beach in Dubai is always a good choice if you want to have a fun day with children. Dubai has 12 public beaches, of which Kite Beach and JBR Beach, also known as Jumeirah Beach, are without a doubt two of the best beaches in Dubai. Curious about all the beaches? In our article “beaches in Dubai” you can read everything about the different beaches of Dubai.
At JBR Beach, children can easily enjoy themselves for hours on the beach, in the water or in one of the playgrounds behind the beach on the promenade near the boulevard. You will also find the AquaFun water park here, which floats a few dozen meters from the coast on the sea. If you get hungry, you can have lunch or dinner on the promenade that is located right behind the beach. Here you will find a lot of nice and affordable restaurants. You can get to Jumeirah Beach by taking the Dubai Metro to DMCC Metro Station on the Red Line Metro. From here you can walk to the beach within about 10 minutes, or you can take the Dubai Tram or a taxi.
Kite Beach near the Burj Al Arab is also a nice beach to visit with children. Beside to a wide sandy beach, you will find a playground with outdoor trampolines and the restaurant Salt. There are also several food trucks where you can grab a quick bite to eat. To get to Kite Beach you can take the metro to the Noor Bank metro station and then take a taxi in Dubai, which takes about 10 minutes.
Another great beach in Dubai is the La Mer Beachfront beach. La Mer is one of Dubai’s most popular attractions in terms of beach and seafront. This is mainly due to its location right by the sea, the presence of a large and spacious beach with numerous amenities, various cozy eateries and trendy shops. La Mer is very attractively built with trendy and modern buildings which are interspersed with palm trees, lawns, ponds, playgrounds, decorations and atmospheric lighting. Especially in the evenings it is very cozy in La Mer when the terraces of the restaurants are filled with locals and tourists.
5. Visit the Dubai Mall with a.o. KidZania, a VR Park and Dino Skeleton
The huge shopping mall of the Dubai Mall not only offers hundreds of shops where you can shop for hours, there are also a number of fun attractions for children. For example, you will find KidZania, an interactive city where children are encouraged to learn through play. They can recreate more than 40 professions from the real world in a fun and learning way.
For older children, there is the Hysteria ghost attraction. This haunted house is full of riddles and will take you on a journey through a creepy world that is sure to scare the hell out of you. Please note, this attraction is not suitable for young children. If your kids are crazy about virtual reality, you should definitely not skip a visit to the VR Park in the Dubai Mall. In this entertainment center, children can have hours of fun in numerous attractions with virtual reality.
The Souk Dome of the Dubai Mall houses a 155-million-year-old skeleton of a 24.4-metre-long and 7.6-metre-high Amphicoelias Brontodiplodocus dinosaur. The skeleton can be visited for free and is a fun activity to do with your children. Then you can go ice skating on the Ice Rink in the Dubai Mall or check out the huge aquarium with your children.
In front of the Dubai Mall is the beautiful Dubai Fountain, an attraction that you should definitely not miss if you are on holiday in Dubai with children. From six o’clock there is a fountain show every half hour.
