Last May I took my family for 4 days to Dubai. Our children are 11 and 13 years old and they had a great time. Please read about what things to do with kids when you’re in Dubai for 4 days with 2 teenagers. Get recommendations on when to go, what to do and what to avoid!
Getting from the airport to the hotel
We decided to get a rental car for our 4 days stay. All attractions in Dubai are pretty far apart and, especially when you also want to visit Abu Dhabi, it makes a lot of sense getting a rental car.
We stayed at the Park Hyatt, located at Dubai Creek. The Park Hyatt is a short 15 minutes drive from the airport which is perfect after an intercontinental flight. The hotel is located next to a golf course and a marina. From our room we could see the marina with the city skyline and ‘The Dubai Frame’. I can highly recommend the Park Hyatt Dubai. The hotel has several swimming pools and various restaurants. Breakfast is outstanding and the kids especially liked the home made ice cream at the breakfast!
Temperature & dress code
We visited Dubai in May when the temperature was around 34C (93F) – this was still very nice. But if you don’t enjoy temperatures in the 40’s (100’s), you’d better avoid Dubai during the June-August period.
One thing we were careful about was the dress code. There is no official dress code in Dubai but we did respect the local culture by avoiding revealing clothing (cover the shoulders, avoiding mini-skirts..). However, we were a bit surprised to see that quite a lot of tourists didn’t adhere to this unofficial rule…
Aquaventure Waterpark
One attraction not to miss is the Aquaventure Waterpark. It’s located at the Palm island next to the Atlantis hotel and is the biggest Waterpark in the world. The lazy river is brilliant and spins off to all sort of other water attractions. You can easily spend a day here. Tickets are around 80Euro for 8 years and above. When you don’t want to lay down with the crowd, take a stretcher at the beach area where it’s a lot more quiet.
Dubai Mall
When visiting Dubai, you’ll certainly end up at a shopping mall at one point in time. Far out the best one to visit is the Dubai Mall. Besides an endless row of shops, it hosts the Dubai Aquarium and an ice skating ring. One tip; when you enter the Apple Store, you can go onto the outside balcony; this will give you the view of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountains. The fountains are of course a copy of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas, but in true Dubai style, they are bigger…. They now have opened up a new attraction at the fountains in Dubai though; a floating platform which allows you to get close to 9 meters of the fountains…
If you like the Din Tai Fung restaurant chain; next to the Fountains is a Din Tai Fung restaurant. We were able to immediately get a table overlooking the fountains!
We also visited the Dubai Marina but I think this place is overrated. Besides the large apartment buildings (some of which aren’t finished and construction just stopped), the restaurants, bars and shops looked run down.
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
We went one day to Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is roughly one-and-a-half hour by car from Dubai. One place we visited there was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This is a truly an impressive place and attracts a lot of tourists. Make sure you book tickets in advance and you adhere to the dress code. There are no exceptions there!
Natural materials were used for the construction, including marble, stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics. The place is huge and can house 50,000 people. Definitely worth a visit!
The Louvre Abu Dhabi
One place I definitely wanted to visit was the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The architecture of the building is amazing. The dome of the building is the eye catcher. It’s a structure of 8 different layers and each layers has a complex structure of openings in the shape of stars. When the light of the sun filters through, it creates an effect inspired by the palm trees of Abu Dhabi; ‘The rain of Light’.
There is a lot of development happening in this area since this should become a new urban area of Abu Dhabi with other musea as well. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum are being constructed.
Summary Dubai – things to do with kids
We really enjoyed Dubai & Abu Dhabi. There is a lot of things to do as a family and there are certainly some more activities we would like to do when we come back another time.
Please also check out my Youtube video on my flight with Etihad 787-9 in Business Class from Abu Dhabi’s new Terminal A!
Please also read my review about the Park Hyatt Chicago
Leave a Reply