Emirates Park Zoo – Abu Dhabi
Scotch and I are always thinking of things to do to keep our energetic toddler busy on the weekends instead of staying at home and watching TV or preoccupying ourselves with the computer.
This week, we spent a few days on the beach in Abu Dhabi and on the way back to Dubai, we stopped at the Emirates Park Zoo to check out the wildlife.
Turtle Exhibit
The Emirates Park zoo is a small private zoo and the animal enclosures are not as generous as in the Al Ain Zoo but much better than the conditions at the Dubai zoo.
We didn’t linger too long at any particular animal exhibit and were able to do a complete tour of the zoo including the Ocean Park (which is an indoor aquarium exhibit) in under two hours.
We did not go to the seal show which is an extra 20 dhs per person.
White Camel
Giraffe Exhibit
Peacock
Something we did not know when we visited is that you can stay at the Zoo overnight. The hotel rooms look pretty nice on-line and seem to overlook the giraffe exhibit – you can check it out for yourself by clicking this link for the Emirates Park Resort.
There is a Cobone discount at the moment for 399 dhs which includes one overnight stay in one of the chalets.
photo credit: http://emiratesparkresort.com
photo credit: http://emiratesparkresort.com
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PRACTICAL INFO:
Please always check the Emirates Park Zoo website for up-to-date information.
Getting there: From Dubai Marina, it took us about 30 minutes. Check the zoo website for directions and a location map.
Opening Hours: Sunday – Wednesday: 9:30am – 8:00pm; Thursday – Saturday & Public Holidays: 9:30am – 9:00pm.
Admission Fee: Adult – Dhs 25; Children under 5 years old: Dhs 10; Under 2 years old: FREE. Sea Lion Show: 20 Dhs per person, Children 3 Years old and under free.
Emirates Park Zoo
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We really enjoyed a lot. Kindly mention the name of the animal,life span, habitat, and other information about the animal in front of each cage. We appreciate the hospitality of the persons in charge of each division.
I visited the zoo yesterday and was shocked, the enclosures are too small and the cat house for the felines, not the big cats type but a normal cute domestic cat should be called cat prison, it’s cruelty in my eyes. Baby kittens locked in a box basement with no light and adult cats that can bearly turn around in a cell on their own. A disgrace, they should not bother with a zoo at all!
Hi, found you through the Weekend Wanderings post! I read about this place recently and was wondering whether to visit. Now, I think I must! Great pics too.
We were just there this weekend. We bought the Group4Deal coupon for a 1 night stay at the Emirates Park Zoo “Resort”, and spent the night there last Friday.
The rooms, all one-bedroom chalets, are large enough, but slightly lacking in polish. They have a small kitchenette, a bedroom, living room, and a decent bathroom. It’s good enough for a family. For the kids it was great. After waking up, they literally stepped outside and walked up to the giraffes and and other animals, all waiting to be fed by the guests. In the hours before the zoo opens, the animals are more than happy to hang out by the chalets and wait for the kids to come running outside.
The zoo itself was okay. I spoke with one of the zookeepers, and they mentioned that a new exhibit would soon be opened (the “Wildlife Park”). You can see that a lot of money went into the look of the zoo, making it look somewhat akin to a theme park. However, whatever money went into the initial construction of the zoo, the funds leftover for operations does not appear to be enough. The staff was few and far between, the “cafes” were more than a little dodgy, and there was one particular detail that caught my eye – In the lizard exhibit, next to every booth, was a large Samsung LCD that had pieces of laminated papers with pictures and descriptions of the animals taped or glued onto the screens.
Overall I would have given the trip a solid 3 out of 5, except that the night I stayed there, shortly after having a coffee and a snack at the cafe, I felt quite ill. The lack of customers, and the fact that the serving staff had no uniforms (and gave off a quite unhygenic vibe), should all have warned me off. But no, I decided to be a blithe idiot, and ended up with a nasty bout of gastroenteritis. (Today I graduated from saltines and yogurt, to food with taste!)
I will say that I was fine paying 20dhs a pop for the sea lion show. The kids loved it, and it was very entertaining. That said, I wasn’t willing to fork out 50dhs a pop afterwards to get pictures of us getting a “kiss” from the talent.
If there is nowhere else to go, then maybe I’d go back. But given the choice, I’d choose the Al Ain Rotana and trip to the Al Ain Zoo anyday.
Thank you James for sharing your experience – especially your stay in the hotel rooms or “chalets.” Sorry to hear about the food poisoning.
I agree with all your comments – you should have written that blog post for me 🙂
I said the same thing to my husband about Al Ain zoo – would much rather go there but for a quick visit (only 25 minutes from our apartment in Dubai Marina), the Emirates Zoo wasn’t too bad.