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Experience

Waterparks and a Beach Day

The day the children pick: slides at Aquaventure or Wild Wadi, then the warm flat sea off JBR or Kite Beach with the towers standing behind the sand and somewhere to eat every few steps.

At a glanceOn water
How longA full dayA full day, and it will use all of one
How hardModerateStairs, slides, swimming and a great deal of walking barefoot on hot ground
SeasonYear-round, hot in summerThe sea is warm all year; high summer is hard work on land

This is the day the rest of the trip gets negotiated around, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Dubai does water for families better than almost anywhere, partly because the sea is warm and flat and partly because the city has built two very large arguments for staying out of it.

Aquaventure is the big one, out on the Palm at Atlantis: a hillside of slides, a river you float round on a ring, a wave beach at the bottom and rays and sharks visible through the glass of the tunnel you drop past. It fills a day and it empties children completely. Wild Wadi is the other, tucked under the sail of the Burj Al Arab, smaller and easier to get round, and the better answer when there is only half a day or one nervous swimmer in the group.

Then the sea, which is open to anyone and rather underrated in a city with this much built on top of it. The strip at JBR runs beach, promenade and restaurants in one line, so somebody can swim while somebody else has coffee twenty metres away. Kite Beach is the same idea with more space and more sport on the sand, and the whole skyline stands behind you in both.

Heights and ages do most of the deciding at the parks, and they are worth checking before anyone gets excited. So is the season: from late spring to early autumn the sun makes the walking parts genuinely hard, and the trick is to be through the gate when it opens and out again by mid-afternoon.

Put a slower thing the day after. A dhow dinner asks nothing of anybody, and the week balances itself.

Good to know

  • Water shoes for the parks. The ground between slides is hotter than the slides.
  • Ride heights are measured at the gate, not taken on trust. Check before you promise anything.
  • Rash vests and reef-safe sun cream, reapplied. The Gulf sun works through a wet shirt.
  • Take a bag you can lock away. Locker arrangements differ between the parks and we confirm yours.
  • Public beaches are usable but not always watched. Keep children in front of you and read the flags.
  • Between May and September, plan the day around the opening hour rather than the afternoon.

Park opening days and hours, ride height and age limits, locker and towel arrangements, beach club charges and which public beaches have lifeguards on duty are set locally and change. We confirm what applies to your dates in writing before you pay anything.

The Gulf in the afternoon is the temperature of a bath somebody ran an hour ago.

Where to do it

Where we arrange waterparks and a beach day

Start from the destination, and we will build the days around this.

Or browse every itinerary andthe rest of the experiences.

Questions we are actually asked

Which waterpark?
Aquaventure sits at Atlantis on the Palm and is the bigger day, with the aquarium alongside it. Wild Wadi is smaller, sits under the Burj Al Arab and is easier to do in half a day. Height limits decide more of this than adults expect, so tell us how tall the children actually are and we will say which one works.
Are the public beaches usable?
Yes. The stretch at JBR and Kite Beach are open, kept clean, and lined with places to eat, with showers and changing facilities. Whether a lifeguard is on duty varies by beach and by the hour, so treat it as a beach rather than a pool and keep children in front of you.
What about the heat?
It decides the shape of the day between roughly May and September. Go at opening, use the middle of the day for water rather than queues, and expect ground too hot for bare feet. Outside those months it is simply a good beach day.
Is there a version for adults?
A beach club, which is the same coastline with shade, a pool and lunch, and none of the slides. Day-use arrangements and charges differ between them and change, so we confirm what is available on your dates in writing.

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