Dubai Safari Park swings back into action on October 12, kicking off its eighth season with a week of opening festivities and a brand-new play area for young visitors. Tickets start at just Dhs50, which makes it one of the more affordable full-day outings in the city.
The headline addition this season is the Little Explorers' Base Camp, aimed squarely at junior safari-goers. Expect face painting, clay modelling, arts and crafts, lawn games and safari-themed inflatables — basically a way to tire out the kids before you've even reached the lions. The park has also hinted at surprise experiences during opening week, though details are being kept under wraps.
Once you're through the gates, the main draw is unchanged and still impressive: more than 3,000 animals across 300-plus species, spread over six themed zones. These are African Village, Asian Village, Explorer Village, Al Wadi, Kids' Farm and the Arabian Desert Safari, each designed to mimic the habitats the animals come from.
If you want to go deeper, the Explorer Safari Tour is an optional add-on: a 35-minute truck ride through recreated African savannah, tropical rainforest and a waterfall valley, with decent odds of spotting zebras, lounging lions and a giraffe or two sidling up to the vehicle.
There's a show schedule too, with three productions — Birds Kingdom, Echoes of the Wild and Birds of Prey — where handlers pair crowd-pleasing wildlife with a bit of conservation education. Many animal encounters, including some feeding experiences, cost nothing extra; paid encounters start from Dhs20, with group packages available if you're travelling with a crew.
The park also positions itself as a conservation operation rather than just an attraction, citing involvement in research projects, breeding programmes and animal rescue work. Whether that sways your ticket purchase or not, it does mean the animal enclosures lean towards habitat recreation rather old-school concrete pens.
For families in Dubai or visitors travelling with kids, this is an easy win: the Dhs50 entry covers the zones and free encounters, you can scale up with the safari truck tour and paid feedings if the budget allows, and the new Base Camp gives younger children a dedicated zone to burn off energy. The park sits in Al Warqa 5, and tickets are available via the official website. It reopens just as the worst of the UAE summer heat fades, which is no accident — the park closes for the hottest months and returns each October, so this is effectively the start of the prime visiting window.
