It was not the first time in the United Arab Emirates and we have already gone to all possible and interesting excursions, we don’t like zoos (we feel sorry for animals), but all guides persistently persuaded us to go to this safari park that the child really wanted to go on this excursion. We bought it from the guide of “Anex Tour” for 180 dollars for two people.
Dubai Safari Park, an eco-friendly park located in Dubai, was under renovation for a long time and only recently reopened its doors.
In total, Dubai Safari has around 3,000 animals and birds from over 250 species!
Interestingly, Dubai Safari is a municipal project, and its area covers 119 hectares of land, which is divided into different artificially created climatic zones – so that animals from all parts of the world will be comfortable in Dubai Safari. The new zoo places a lot of emphasis on animal comfort and instilling in people a love for the natural environment.
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What got me going was the fact that this park is going to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest. And what doesn’t make it into the Guinness Book of Records, so we had to go there.
The park is zoned into four parts: “Explorers’ Village, African Village, Arabian Desert Safari and Asian Village. Each zone contains animals and birds that live in the respective region. There is a map of the park, on which are drawn the inhabitants that can be seen. We took a picture of the map on our phone (the guide showed us and there is also a map on the way from the entrance). We orientated ourselves on the map where to go, because the distances are very decent and it is easy to get lost. We had to be back in four hours, as the guide was waiting with the bus. There are taxis around the park, but I was tempted to pay for it.
The zones are all differently decorated and you can not only see the animals, but also take photos of yourself in different cute locations.
There are really a lot of animals and birds. And to be honest, I am not very good at classifying all these species. There are posts near the cages with information about the respective inhabitants in English and Arabic.
In some pavilions there were exhibits like skulls and jaws. I am not particularly fond of such subjects, but my child likes biology, so he looked at them.
The only way to get around in the Explorers’ Village is by small bus. The cost of the trip was included in the price of the tour. The guide gave us a ticket at the entrance to the park and we used it to board the bus.
We saw hippos both from the bus window in the Explorers’ Village and in the pavilion behind the glass in the African Village.
It was interesting to show the child lemurs like in the animated film “Madagascar”. One lemur had a tiny cub hanging on it.
A red antelope with white stripes on its flanks looked at us so attentively that it reminded us of our dog. We were not the only ones looking at the animals and they were looking at us too.
Our guide told us that we should definitely visit the “Explorers’ Village” and “African Village”. We did, but we were running from shade to shade so fast that we had time to see both the Asian Village and the Arabian Desert Safari. The Asian Village has waterfalls, interesting buildings, flowers and Himalayan bears. And in the Arabian part we had a breezy ride in an open car, where we again saw ostriches and gazelles. The transport was very useful, because by the end of the excursion our legs were already buzzing. The driver stopped and patiently waited for us to take photos.
I really wanted to show my child a gorilla, but they turned us away at the pavilion and said it wasn’t working. I saw gorillas in a park in the Canary Islands, they were very impressive.
In general the park has very atmospheric views with waterfalls, ponds, flowering shrubs.
It would have been better to visit the park at a cooler time of year.
Each area has food and drink stalls, toilet facilities and restaurants. After a run in the heat, we went into one of the restaurants and ate freshly baked pizza while looking out the window at some kind of hoofed animal passing by.
At the exit you could buy photos that the photographer took while feeding the giraffe or at the entrance and buy souvenirs. We had more photos of our own than we needed and the souvenirs were not pretty. Although I like to bring myself some trinket as a souvenir, there was nothing to choose from. Even the plush toys were ugly.
In the end, I would say that we liked the park. It is especially useful for school-age children. But even us, hardy people were hot, pensioners and small children should not go there in the heat. The guide selling excursions lied, she said that everywhere there is shade, everything is located under the crowns of trees. Huge distances need to pass under the scorching sun and only near the animals themselves there are canopies, fans, that in the heat of the sun does not save.
I advise everyone to visit, preferably in the cool season.
I wish you all a pleasant trip!
