In mid-December, one of the most anticipated leisure facilities, Safari Park, opened in Dubai. The opening of the project was delayed for almost half a year, but now it is finally open to visitors. Almost 150 million dirhams were spent on the creation of the park. It is planned to house almost 5,000 animals. The new zoo has completely replaced the one that was located in Jumeirah.
The park is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Ticket prices:
1. Without safari: adults 50 AED, children 20 AED
2. Including safari: adults 85 AED, children 30 AED
3. Safari ticket separately: adults 50 AED, children 20 AED
Children under 3 and adults over 60 are admitted free of charge.
Tickets are already available for purchase on the website. If you want to go on a safari, it is advisable to buy tickets in advance as they are limited and may be sold out on weekends.
So, let me try to explain what exactly is included in the tickets.
Dubai Safari Park includes 5 zones.
1. Arabian Village (this is the first zone you enter after the entrance)
2. Asian Village
3. Safari Village
4. Al Wadi Zone – this is an area for picnics and walks
5. African Village.
The first zone you enter is the Arabian Village. Here you get into mini-trolleys with open windows and are taken along the animal habitat.
There are a huge number of all kinds of horned animals, a couple of wolves and ostriches. Gazelles lie on the road, blocking the bus.
The trip took a maximum of 15 minutes, and at the second station we got off at the entrance to the Asian village. Here, everyone walks.
There is a theatre in the Asian area, where there may be some entertainment in the future. On the day of our visit, there was a very sluggish pelican feeding =)
This same ‘village’ is home to three insanely loud and cheerful gibbons, crocodiles and Himalayan bears. In the future, there will be komodo dragons.
Al Wadi zone The Safari Village was the most anticipated part of the trip. In the end, it was the biggest disappointment.
We arrived at the zoo quite late (at 12 noon) and the queue for the safari was impressive. After waiting for 40 minutes, we had only moved halfway, and then we got lucky. There were two free seats on the departing bus, and since most people had come with their families, we quickly reacted and offered our places!
The ‘safari’, which cannot really be called a full-fledged safari, takes place in closed buses. It is more reminiscent of Volkswagen minibuses. There were also other options:
We were loaded onto a bus like on a school trip and taken to see the animals. This took 40 minutes.
To sum up, we can say the following: the zoo is still a bit wet! Many enclosures are still empty and waiting for their inhabitants. The elephants haven’t been brought in yet, and there are no gorillas. Some enclosures contain only 2-3 individuals of one species. The organisation is still lacking, and it’s not clear where to go and what to see, but the zoo staff are happy to help. It is highly likely that animal feeding will be added (for example, there is an area for feeding giraffes, but it is closed) and some entertainment for children.
