7 Exciting Indoor Family Activities in Dubai – Beat the Heat!

The best family activities in Dubai in the heat. From 42 to 22 degrees, in just 2 seconds. But you're probably wondering: Why?? Who even goes to Dubai in the summer? There can be many reasons. Maybe you're just passing through and want to spend a few days in Dubai, or you're in town on business. Or maybe you just love Dubai, like we do, and enjoy spending family time there.

At 42 degrees Celsius in the shade, that's a challenge. You can barely last more than a few minutes outside. But there are countries like Dubai where life happens indoors during this short time of year. It's a joy for us to experience Dubai every time, and in 2024, we're even traveling there in July.

42 degrees in Dubai are much easier and more pleasant to endure than 35 degrees in Switzerland or Malta. Because there are a thousand and one ways for you as a family to have fun in the heat and continue to explore the world. All without breaking a sweat! Here I will show you some of the best family activities in Dubai in the heat. We tried all the activities ourselves for 10 days in July, in 42-degree shade 🥵. And we hardly even noticed it. That's cool, right? So let's get started with the program and the 7 indoor family activities in Dubai that I want to tell you about warmly recommend.

Travel to Malta via Amsterdam to Dubai

Instead of Qatar or Emirates, the usual suspects, we flew with KLM to Dubai this time. It worked perfectly, and KLM's service is great. We also mostly use airport lounges to shorten our wait time and have something nice to eat. Especially when you're traveling with children, it helps if you don't have to wait in a huge line at the gate, but can relax in the lounge. In Malta, children under 12 don't have to pay an entrance fee. So it pays off twice.

We're taking a taxi (Uber or Careem app) to our apartment in Jumeirah 1. Our taxi driver rolls up a banknote, tapers the end, and starts picking his teeth with it. Yes! We've arrived in Dubai. This actually happened and isn't even a curiosity for Dubai. 😊

1. Shopping Malls – From 42 to 22 degrees in 2 seconds

The simplest family activity in Dubai during the summer is definitely the numerous and, above all, huge shopping malls in Dubai. The Dubai Mall is clearly at the top, being one of the largest malls in the world with 1,200 shops, restaurants, cafés, and much more. Shopping malls are usually places we avoid when traveling. But not in countries like Dubai. Here, for families, shopping is naturally not the top priority.

Right now at the Dubai Mall, there are numerous activities you can do as a family. After you get over the shock of the cold, as it drops by a good 20 degrees Celsius when you enter a mall, you'll find a pleasant atmosphere here. So far, we haven't been to any mall in Dubai that wasn't nicely air-conditioned and had better air quality than what could be found outside.

Malls have the advantage of being free, as long as you don't fall for the advertising and buy unnecessary things. You can't do that on longer trips anyway. Plus point!

For example, you can easily spend a whole day in the Dubai Mall as well as the Emirates Mall just by looking at the aquariums and sights from the outside, without paying for admission. There are always small play areas or choo-choo trains that liven up the shopping experience for the kids. A visit to a café here, a longer stop at the food court, and a visit to some toy stores make time fly by in a shopping mall. Our kids love it, and especially in hot countries, malls are just as much on our to-do list as the usual sights. Therefore, shopping malls are at the top of my list of family activities in Dubai.

The Dubai Mall also has a really nice cinema called Reel Cinemas. There's a junior auditorium with seats that are very uncomfortable for adults. But the kids absolutely love it. This year, we watched Despicable Me 4 there and wallowed in oversized popcorn containers. 👍

My top 4 shopping malls in Dubai are

1. The Dubai Mall
   • Aquarium and Underwater Zoo
   • Waterfall with people
   • Burj Khalifa
   • Indoor playgrounds
   • Chinatown Dubai
   • Dubai Fountain (in front of the mall)
   • Cinema
   • Food Court
   • Ice rink (we didn't do it)
2. Dubai Marina Mall
   • Kids Train
   • Indoor playgrounds
   • Cinema
   • Food Court
3. Mall of the Emirates
   • Skiing and sledding at Ski Dubai (we, as Swiss, didn't do that 😁)
   • Food Court
   • Mall architecture
4. City Walk Dubai
   • I Saya Brasserie Café (my favorite, I love pink!)
   • Tropenhaus – The Green Planet

There are many more malls, including smaller ones, that are really nice. But with the tips above, you can already spend a relaxing four days in the cool.

2. The Green Planet Dubai

The Green Planet is so far the only tropical house I know that needs to be cooled down. Actually logical if it's too warm outside for tropical animals. It's located right next to the City Walk Dubai. Therefore, it can be easily combined.

Immediately after the ticket booths, there's a great outdoor area with a playground and bistro. However, it's too hot for that. So, we're going straight into the tropical house. In the entrance area, there's a shop as well as access to the tropical house itself and the night zoo. Right after entering the tropical house, the kids can get their faces painted. We take advantage of that (it costs money!) and the kids are now off as a unicorn and a butterfly. They love it.

Like everything in Dubai, the Tropical Forest is furnished with great attention to detail. It begins in an underwater world. Afterward, you take the elevator to the fourth floor and walk spirally through the entire house on four levels. In this artificially created rainforest world, centered around a giant tree, all 3,000 animal and plant species live. You navigate through the rainforest via canopy walks and bridges. In an accessible side room, an anteater roams freely, slithering between visitors' legs. It's fun.

Besides the countless colorful birds, parrots, toucans, and many more that fly around freely here, on one level we find a woman showing us spiders and cockroaches. Our little one loves reptiles and spiders. She is totally fascinated by the cockroaches. We were allowed to hold the South American cockroach. Dad has to go first though. OMG! Don't show any weakness and go for it.

The cockroach that survived the dinosaurs is now crawling enjoyably across my hand and up my arm past my watch. 😅 I tell my daughter how beautiful it is and that it's her turn now. She then enjoys it and is totally happy. I did my job well *pat on the back*. Afterward, we visit the night zoo in the building's basement. It's more like a night dream, and you can only see a few fruit bats, lizards, and snakes that are nocturnal.

It will take us about two hours to see everything at a leisurely pace. If it's not too hot, you can definitely spend another hour outside. When we leave the tropical house, the 42 degrees will feel like a wall again. It's Summer Time.

After the Tropical House, we'll make a detour to City Walk and have a golden coffee at Saya Brasserie Café, my favorite cafe in Dubai. They have several locations, but the City Walk one is right next to The Green Planet.

For me, golden coffee is just a gimmick. For a measly 15 euros, you get a café latte covered in „delicious“ leaf gold. That's life! But it tastes really good, and the cup is a bit bigger than normal. Starbucks calls it Grande. Well, but you also have to talk yourself into liking such a golden coffee! There are surely regular customers here who drink their coffee here every morning. 😉 Let's remember the banknote toothpick from further up in the text.

3. Dubai Indoor Playgrounds (supervised and unsupervised)

One of the Dubai family activities we utilize the most are indoor playgrounds. Our kids love them. You can find them here, big or small, supervised or unsupervised. For us parents, it's practical because we can also work during that time. In the malls, you'll always find smaller playgrounds as well as attractions like KidZania.

There, children can reenact everyday adult situations. For example, dressed as a firefighter, they can drive out on a mission in a fire truck, or dressed as a pharmacist, they can serve customers in the pharmacy. The airport check-in is also completely recreated here and designed for children.

Three of the playgrounds particularly impressed us, so I wanted to mention them in my Dubai summer travel report. They are not only to be understood as a backup plan for bad weather in Dubai, but also as attractions in themselves, or as experiences for the kids.

Treasure Island Galeries Lafayette Dubai Mall

Treasure Island is by far our children's favorite playground. It's located on the second floor of the Dubai Mall, right in the Lafayette gallery. A plus for us parents: the playground is right next to the Lafayette Food Court. It's a comfortable and, above all, quiet place to work.

The indoor playground has many additional activities, some of which are included in the price. The staff there take care of the kids by doing crafts, painting with them, or giving them tasks like puzzles. They came back happy every time, sometimes with painted fingernails, face painting, or with something they had crafted.

We were lucky to be there during the holiday season. So during the week, there was an opportunity to participate in the summer camp there. The price-performance ratio was even better then, as they could stay a few hours longer and did more together as a group.

The Treasure Island Indoor Playground is supervised, and we also felt right from the start that the staff there took very good care of our kids. This allowed us to get our work done in a relaxed manner.

Pro Tip: Download the Kidzapp Download it and sign up. The app regularly features promotions for kids where you can often save 50% or more.

Kids HQ – Indoor Soft Play Area Dubai

Another of the most attractive family activities in Dubai is Kids HQ. It is an unsupervised playground with a cafeteria. Unsupervised, of course, always means that there are supervisors present. But the children can play here on their own and discover all the attractions. There are also courses and events that you can book here. Especially during the summer months, the following activities are offered in addition

• 🎨 Arts & Crafts
• 🎠 Storytelling
• Singing & Dancing
• 🎮 Games & Activities
• Cloud Play
• Movie Time
• Zumba & Yoga
• 🥳 Edutainment

Our kids spent a few exciting hours there and enjoyed the slides, climbing towers, ball pit, and obstacle courses. Kids HQ is a typical soft play area, meaning everything takes place in a safe and padded environment.

The integrated cafe is ideal for us parents, as we can work there and still keep an eye on our kids.

OliOli® – Dubai's Interactive Children's Museum

OliOli is not a classic indoor playground and is located a bit outside the center of Dubai. It is an interactive children's museum in Dubai, developed with great care for the whole family. We had a great time there and were able to see numerous exhibits on two floors in different galleries. These were designed for children of all ages.

For example, in one exhibition, there were brightly glowing giant balls that produced sounds when moved. There are a total of 45 different exhibits here, all designed to awaken children's curiosity and joy of discovery. What we liked is that there's no right or wrong here. While there are instructions, children can still develop freely and also „misuse“ the exhibits and discover beyond their intended purpose.

The museum is unstaffed, but workshops and camps are also held here in the summer. However, you need to register your kids beforehand. The museum is more a place where families discover and play together.

On the ground floor, you'll find the La Petite Treehouse Café, where kids can design their own pancakes with toppings of their choice. Our kids really enjoyed this because their pancakes "smiled" at them. 😅 Right next to the café is a play area with a giant climbing net, where children can also play and let off steam on their own. Therefore, the OliOli® Children's Museum is also suitable for us to work.

4. Museums - The indoor classic on every trip

For those who know me, museums are never at the very top of my bucket list. But, especially when traveling, museums simply tell you a lot about the country, the culture, and the surroundings. Since our kids learn primarily on our travels, we still incorporate the occasional museum visit.

Al Seef – Museum of Illusions

In my first post about Dubai „Family Trip to Dubai 2022: Travel Report“I have already written about the Al Seef old town, which 2017 was built. But there, besides the city itself, there is also a wonderful museum where we spent some time. Now, Dubai is already a place of illusions in itself, and how can a museum top that?

Yes, that's possible. Because the Museum of Illusions Dubai is very interactive, which promotes and inspires perception and creativity. The visual tricks ensure that it's not just the kids who are sometimes left stumped. But the staff is very helpful and also showed us a trick or two when we didn't understand an illusion.

You can also consider Al Seef and the Old Town (or Dubai Old Town) as a large museum. However, it's outdoors and therefore rather strenuous to visit in the summer. There are a few nice air-conditioned cafes and restaurants here.

Arte Museum Dubai Mall

Haha, honesty is the best policy, as they say. So we decided, after we put our kids to Treasure Island brought to visit the Arte Museum all by ourselves. Just the parents! All parents know what I mean. 😁 And it was a great trip into another world.

The Arte Museum is surely only temporarily in the Dubai Mall, but you can find it in other locations as well. Except in Las Vegas, however, it's only in Asia otherwise. For example, also in Seoul:

Watch on YouTube

At Arte Museum, you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in nature right in the middle of Dubai Mall. The aim is to represent the harmony between the digital and analog world. Although this is actually a contradiction, they share a fundamental characteristic: eternity. This has also been very well achieved, and the animations and artworks amaze and delight.

For example, we are standing on an endless beach at night, enjoying the view of the Aurora Borealis, which I saw a few years ago in Lapland Several times. The feeling is frighteningly authentic. It's not -25 degrees, like on my trip to Lapland, but we still feel the magic of the Northern Lights. Within two minutes, you simply forget that you're standing in the middle of what is probably the largest shopping mall in the world.

A great experience that our kids would have enjoyed too, and that's why I want to mention the museum here among the family activities in Dubai.

Dubai has a huge selection of different museums. However, we haven't visited them all yet. It's best to google yourself at this point and see what might appeal to you most. There's also a stamp museum, for example, which might be quite interesting.

5. Museum of the Future Dubai (MOTF)

The Museum of the Future in Dubai is, of course, also a museum, but one that deserves its own mention here. You could spend the entire day here alone. And you've surely already seen the building in Dubai or in photos. It already looks super futuristic from the outside and has a whole lot of quotes and sayings about the future on its facade.

When you enter the museum, you feel a bit like you're in Michael Bay's movie „The Island.“ It's an exciting feeling, and somehow you wonder what's going to happen next. It's no wonder the Museum of the Future (MOTF) is considered one of the most beautiful museums in the world. Here, on seven floors, it shows how the Great Arab Minds envision the future of our world.

It starts high up in space and shows very detailed plans for space stations used for energy generation on the moon. The details are so sophisticated that I had to Google afterwards to see what was really behind it. (Spoiler Alert: You'll have to Google it yourself 😜)

Afterward, we head back to Earth. You'll learn how fire-resistant trees help prevent forest fires, and there's a kind of library that showcases 2000 animal species. A vast archive lovingly presents these animal and plant species.

Current developments like electric cars, robots, and exoskeletons are also presented. Some things are already very well implemented. We only spent about four hours at this museum. But you can easily plan a whole day for it. On the first floor, there was even a great playground where our kids unfortunately only got to play for a short time. We had other plans. 🤷‍♂️

The Museum of the Future should definitely be on your Dubai bucket list, and that's why, as I mentioned, I've dedicated its own point to it in my list of the best family activities in Dubai.

6. Mosque Visit – Jumeirah Grand Mosque

I didn't actually have visiting a mosque in Dubai on my list at all. But it's just perfect when it's hot outside. So, for me, it's practically a go-to for Dubai's bad weather program, even though the visit was so exciting that I can recommend it in any weather.

We were totally surprised by this trip. Since we were staying in Jumeirah 1 anyway, the Jumeirah Grand Mosque was within walking distance. But of course, Dubai has many other mosques that can be visited.

Even the start at the small museum where we bought our tickets was an experience. It had an exciting exhibition that shows life in old Dubai, introducing Arabian culture, history, and of course, Islam. On the ground floor, there is a small cafe where you can serve yourself. There was Arabic coffee, tea, and some delicious snacks. Everything is included in the ticket price.

The Jumeirah Mosque itself is absolutely stunning. From the outside, it is brilliantly white and majestic, and equally magnificent from the inside. We really liked how open the mosque tour was. We were allowed to ask all our questions, and our guide answered some of them in a very funny way. It was extremely important to him that everyone believes what makes sense or is right for them. He answered everything very warmly and spoke humorously about the daily lives of Muslims. It was so understandable that even someone who had never dealt with the topic before could easily follow along.

Since the mosque is usually well-attended, with a capacity of about 1300 people, and we were there between prayers, we were also told about the timeline. A board that glows red indicating the times for prayers. Every day the time shifts by one minute, and it starts at 4:30 AM.

The women have their own space. There are toys for the kids, and we're told that's the reason for this space. Otherwise, the children would be too loud for the main room. In reality, women and men often pray separately, but only to avoid distracting each other.

The colleague, our guide, explained to us that in the smaller mosques, most women and men simply pray together because there isn't enough space. We'll also be shown the minaret, but only from below, as it's no longer used nowadays. The mosques have also become so modern that no one climbs the minaret to write anymore. Everything is digitized.

Visiting the mosque was not only an educational day, but also incredibly calming and inspiring. We learned a lot about Dubai's culture and at the same time found a place that offered us a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. Visiting a mosque is a real insider tip for families!

7. Dubai Frame and Burj Khalifa

I really don't know how many times I've driven past the Dubai Frame and always thought, „I really need to go there.“ It's fundamentally nothing more than an oversized picture frame standing by the highway. But it is also the largest picture frame in the world. Of course! Dubai, the city of superlatives!

However, standing directly underneath the Dubai Frame still left me speechless. The building is 150 meters high and 93 meters wide. You only truly grasp the dimensions when you look up from below. The building, which cost almost 40 million Euros, is located in Zabeel Park in Dubai. In 2024, admission costs about 11 Euros, which is really worth it.

Since we saw in the taxi that it's even 43 degrees outside today, we won't wander around the building for long, but will go straight inside to the cool air. Downstairs in the building, there's a small museum that depicts life in Dubai and shows the daily lives of Emiratis. At the end of the exhibition, there's an elevator that takes us to the top in 75 seconds. That's about 50 floors.

The Dubai Frame's connecting bridge is an architectural masterpiece. From here, we have an overwhelming 360-degree view of the entire metropolis of Dubai. Because of the huge panoramic windows, you can see the Old Town with Dubai Creek from here, as well as the skyline with Downtown Dubai. The Frame is a great program for bad weather in Dubai, but in the rain, the view here is certainly not great. Fortunately, it only rains two days a year. So you would really be out of luck then.

I take a few steps forward and stand on a milky surface. A second later, it clears up, revealing the view. DOWN! 150 METERS! 🤢 😀 I wasn't expecting that and my heart dropped into my stomach, as they say. Our kids weren't bothered by it at all. They happily ate their croissants there and looked down.

Allow about 1 hour for the Dubai Frame. At least in the summer. If it's under 35 degrees Celsius, you can certainly spend a wonderful time in Zabeel Park, but it was too hot for us. Therefore, we went straight back to the cool afterwards.

I'll mention the Burj Khalifa in the title above. I've already written about it in my other Dubai travel report. It naturally offers a similar wow experience and is also perfectly suited for enjoying the hot Dubai summer. The Burj Khalifa was also one of the best family activities in Dubai for us. I can recommend a visit to the building that is „still“ the tallest in the world in 2024.

Conclusion Family Activities in Dubai

Our summer trip to Dubai was simply cool. 🥶 😎 Dubai is one of those places, similar to Las Vegas – you either love it or you hate it. It's artificial here, no question. But for me, Dubai is also one of the only places right now that truly has ambitious visions. That's why we enjoy traveling here. Especially as a family, Dubai is a fascinating place. I love the hashtag „Showing the kids the world,“ and that can be wonderfully and easily implemented, especially in Dubai.

If you want to visit Dubai in July and August, be prepared for temperatures around 42 degrees Celsius and above. But I hope my Dubai summer travel report has given you enough tips to keep a cool head. We had a great time here once again and hardly noticed the temperatures. Even escaping from Malta to Dubai makes sense in the summer, as it's much too hot in Malta and you can't do anything indoors.

Following this, as usual, is a gallery of pictures with many impressions from our family trip to Dubai. Perhaps you'll be inspired and plan Dubai as one of your next travel destinations.

Bad Weather Program Dubai - Image Gallery