In this review, I will provide information that I did not have when I was preparing for my trip.
What do you need to know before visiting?
The park is called ‘Safari Park.’ ‘Safari’ means that visitors do not walk, but drive through the territory in special vehicles to observe animals roaming freely.
Dubai Safari Park has two parts, which are regular zoos, and there are not one, but TWO safaris.
The first safari is the Arabian Village. A mini train with no windows runs through the Arabian Village, and this is where the entire journey takes place.
This is the smallest area of the park. It takes no more than 10 minutes to visit. Instead of a tour guide, an audio guide tells you about the animals in this area. There are no queues, and the mini-trains depart one after the other. The train will take you even if there are only two of you.
The second safari is called Explorer Village. This is the largest area of the park. Here you ride in an armoured mini-bus with glass windows. You are accompanied by a guide who tells you about the animals you encounter along the way in English. The trip takes about 30 minutes. The buses run strictly on schedule, so sometimes you have to wait about 15 minutes, and sometimes even longer if there is a queue. Therefore, you should allow at least 1 hour for this area.
The African Village and Asian Village are zoos.
There are four types of tickets: Day Pass, Day Pass+, Safari Journey, and Safari Journey+. The first two include everything except the safari (Explorer Village).
Day Pass: All-day access to the entire park. Also includes the following experiences: a 10-minute safari through the Arabian desert; all live presentations throughout the day;
all animal feeding sessions throughout the day (giraffe feeding at an additional cost); any educational talks and workshops (according to the schedule). An adult ticket costs 50 dirhams, a child’s ticket (3 to 12 years old) costs 20 dirhams.
Day Pass+ – same as Day Pass, but with VIP seats at shows. Adult ticket – 50 dirhams, children (3 to 12 years old) – 20 dirhams.
Day Pass+ for adults – 75 dirhams, children – 45 dirhams.
Important: Day Pass already gives you access to all shows, but Day Pass+ gives you VIP seats (which are not essential).
Safari Journey differs from Safari Journey+ in the same way – VIP seats at the show.
A Safari Journey ticket costs 90 dirhams for adults and 35 dirhams for children.
Safari Journey + for adults costs 110 dirhams, and for children, 55 dirhams.
A Safari Journey ticket will allow you to visit everything included in the Day Pass and, additionally, the main safari – Explorer Village.
IMPORTANT: If you buy tickets at the ticket office, you may be charged an additional tax of 5% of the ticket price. (We were charged this.)
Which ticket is better to buy, the Day Pass or the Safari Journey? Definitely the Safari Journey. In fact, it is the main attraction of the park. But if these tickets are already sold out, then take the Day Pass, because the zoo itself is also very interesting.
I would like to draw your attention to one feature that was explained to us at the ticket office: there are two types of mini-trains running throughout the park between the zones. One has no windows and is available to ALL park visitors, even those with a Day Pass. The second has windows and air conditioning. You can only ride this one if you have purchased a Safari Journey ticket.
Not all tourists understand that they can ride the open mini-trains for free and walk around.
The park is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Then we followed the route recommended by the park staff:
First, at station ‘0’, we boarded the mini train and went to the furthest zone – the African village – marked with a circle and the number ‘1’ on the map. We looked around and got off at stop 2. We also took the mini train and rode to the Explorer Village (circled with the number ‘3’ on the map).
Here, we were advised to go to the show first and then go on the safari. But we didn’t go to the show and went straight to the safari, which was the reason we came. Then we went to see the hippopotamus and fed the giraffe.
Next, we walked to the Asian village (number 4). We wanted to take the train, but the station attendant said that it would be faster to walk. He was right.
The Asian village is small and has a direct exit to the Arabian village (number 5), where our second safari awaited us.
From the exit, after the safari in the Arabian village (6), to the Children’s Farm and the entrance/exit of the zoo, there is also a short distance, which we walked.
I also marked the places where the shows take place on the map.
By the way, the Al Wadi area is a picnic area. It is only visited by locals.
We only had four hours to visit the zoo, so we didn’t go to the shows.
We are me, my husband (we are both 50 years old) and our 30-year-old daughter. This is not our first zoo, and we know a lot about animals, so we managed to fit everything into four hours.
Of course, you can make your own plan, and to help you do that, I have included photos of the feeding and show schedules below. They are valid until summer.
We were afraid that in 35-degree heat all the animals would hide in the shade, but we were wrong.
What is difficult for us is pleasant weather for them. However, it was easy for us to walk around the park — all the paths are equipped with water sprayers that mist the air above you. And when you walk straight along the paths, the air temperature is very comfortable.
Each mini-train station is beautifully decorated.
There are many benches, interesting areas, cafes and restaurants. You can bring your own water. We didn’t eat, but we bought ice cream. Here is a photo with the prices for ice cream:
They explained the difference in prices to us – in the top picture, one scoop costs 15 dirhams and one scoop also costs 19 dirhams. So, for 15 dirhams, you get a hollow scoop, i.e. with nothing inside, and for 19 dirhams, you get a good scoop filled with ice cream. We took one scoop for 19 dirhams each, which was enough. By the way, the ice cream is very tasty and comes in different flavours.
At the entrance to the zoo and each area, there are maps of the park and the areas. Next to each animal, there are posts with information about the animal — who it is, where it lives, what it eats.
On a safari in Explorer Village, you will see ostriches, herons, white storks and ibises.
And among the animals, you will find African buffalo, Watsoni cows, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, pig deer, cheetahs, lions, tigers, giraffes, African wild dogs, baboons, ibexes, kudu antelopes, Saharan oryxes, and Sambar sheep.
It was planned that the centre of the Asian village would be the panda house, and in old advertisements you can even read that there are pandas in the zoo. But China refused, so there are no pandas there. A large amphitheatre has been built in this area for performances.
In the Asian village, we found only two animals: a red-grey wallaby (a species of kangaroo) and an Asian black bear. And two species of birds – a cassowary and a cormorant.
There are many animals in the African village. And there is a separate area for birds. The birds walk right next to you.
On the map below, it is marked with a small circle. Don’t miss it, it’s small but very interesting. The only thing that really disappointed us was that the swan wasn’t even swimming, but sitting in a small basin. They shouldn’t have put the swan there at all.
Overall, we really liked it. My daughter and her husband had been to the safari park in Sharjah, but they liked the one in Dubai better.
There are many souvenir shops at the entrance, exit and inside the park. The assortment varies, but everything is expensive.
You can see our entire trip on YouTube. I’m trying to learn video editing and am using my videos about Dubai for this. I created a channel called ExploredDubai and posted my video there – Dubai Safari Park.
