Best Indoor Theme Parks in Dubai for Families, For Year-Round Entertainment

Dubai’s indoor theme parks, from Motiongate to The Green Planet, offer families unique experiences, thrilling rides, educational fun, and air-conditioned bliss.

Our recommendations consider age, ensuring there is an attraction for every member of the family. Legoland is perfect for toddlers and little kids, while IMG Worlds of Adventure appeals to all ages and VR Park caters to teens and adult gamers.

Discover our best indoor theme parks in Dubai for families, for year-round entertainment and thrills and spills indoors. 

IMG Worlds of Adventure is the world’s largest indoor amusement park featuring six distinct entertainment zones including MARVEL, Lost Valley Dinosaur Adventure, The Haunted Town, IMG Boulevard, Cartoon Network and IMG Kids Zone. The Marvel zone transports you into the Marvel Universe via different rides and attractions such as the Hulk Epsilon Base 3D experience on top of a moving platform.

You can meet your favourite Marvel Adventurers like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Thor. Ride Spider-Man’s Doc Ock Revenge Coaster – aboard a spinning train that weaves in and out of buildings at high speed. The theming for this ride is epic! Each ride has its own height restriction (children under 1.05 metres can enter the park for free. If you visit the super-scary Haunted Hotel in the IMG Boulevard zone, you need to be fifteen or older.

In the Cartoon Network Zone - The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time, The Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10 and LazyTown come alive. Go on a Mojo Robot Rampage alongside your Power Puff Heroines, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup as they try to save Townsville. Get ready to battle Khyber The Huntsman together with Ben 10 and Rook. The Dino Carousel in the Lost Valley is one of the most amazing rides at IMG with its eerie post-apocalyptic vibe and the Velociraptor rollercoaster; known for its velocity.

IMG is open from 12pm to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and from 12pm to 11pm Friday and Saturday. Tickets are available to book online and you can also sign up for a VIP package.

At Motiongate you can enjoy cinematic Hollywood thrills like Lionsgate’s Hunger Games, Columbia Pictures, Smurf’s Village and DreamWorks. DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Dragons, and Shrek lands theming is remarkable, it feels as though these animated movies have all been brought to life.

The Madagascar circus themed section is lots of fun with a Madagascar Mad Pursuit roller coaster ride. In the Dragon’s section you can enjoy The Swinging Viking ride - a large wooden boat that swings from side to side. It starts off slowly but ramps up to reach almost a ninety degree angle! And in the Lionsgate Hunger Games section your aboard the Capitol Bullet Train which climbs up a 90-degree pole and then falls backwards.

The Smurfs Village rides are ideal for families with young children. It’s a great place to wander around taking in the mushroom-shaped restaurants, ice-cream parlour and Woodland Play Park where your kids can climb and play on the swings and ropes. The interactive theatre is fun and your kids will also get to meet the Smurf characters.

Motiongate is part of Dubai Parks and Resorts which also houses Bollywood Parks, Legoland and the Legoland Waterpark.

We suggest purchasing the 1-Day VIP Package which gives you access to Motiongate and an additional park of your choice, within the Dubai Parks and Resorts precinct. This package also includes food and beverages allowing you to indulge in different options. Families will enjoy Mr. Ping’s Noodle Shop, Dragon Flame Grill, Empire Café and Slimers Diner. 

Legoland offers kids a creative adventure in Dubai, with sixty interactive rides and fifteen thousand models built from over twenty million Lego bricks. It’s a wonderland for families with young kids aged 2 to 12 and the perfect air-conditioned escape from the summer heat. Here, everything is made from Lego. Mindboggling!

The best feature is the themed Miniland. The area is filled with miniature displays of Dubai’s iconic landmarks crafted from millions of Lego bricks. Each model is interactive and you can engage with all the displays plus there is a dedicated play space where your kids can build their own skyscrapers. Watch the Miniland Light Show, Monday to Thursday at 5:45 pm or Friday to Sunday at 6:45pm. It’s an amazing site when hundreds of lights, light up the different models.

Lego City puts kids at the heart of the action from learning to drive their own electric Lego car at Driving School, to flying a Duplo plane and captaining a Lego boat. The whole family will enjoy the Rescue Academy where you compete to save a faux burning building from your fire engine. The Dragon offers your whole crew a medieval roller coaster ride in the captivating Kings Castle.

There are several eateries where you can cool off and fuel up for your next Lego adventure. Namely, Caesar’s Pizza & Pasta Buffet, The Café for sandwiches, paninis and quesadillas and Knight’s Table for burgers and fried chicken. The Big Shop is the ultimate Lego shopping experiences with the biggest, best and iconic Lego toy sets for sale. Book your tickets online in advance for the best price.

Located at City Walk in Jumeirah, The Green Planet is a tropical indoor rainforest set in an origami-style glass bio-dome. There are four different levels: The Canopy, The Midstory, The Forest Floor, and the Flooded Rainforest. Central to the bio-dome is an artificial tree, standing eighty two foot high.

Visitors can expect a myriad of experiences with exotic animals living in the lush greenery. Ranging from up close encounters with macaws, snakes, lizards, geckos, anteaters and sloths, to meeting nocturnal anaconda, porcupine, and slow loris. You can find out from the resident biologist, why all these animals are an important part of the rainforest ecosystem and ask any other questions you may have.

Animal loving kids can sign up to be a zookeeper – a three hour behind-the-scenes experience that includes a visit to the laboratory and a chance to learn how to look after endangered species, understand their eating habits, and discover the vital role they play in the future of our planet. You’ll also get up close and personal with different animals, muck out animal enclosures, hide treats for them to enjoy and participate in a training session.

There is also an opportunity to camp overnight at Green Planet. Happy campers enjoy a nocturnal tour complete with a scavenger hunt and a dinner and marshmallow grill before settling in for the night. You will sleep in a tent kitted out with a mattress, pillows, sheets, and blankets. The next morning, you get to help feed the animals and enjoy a complimentary breakfast at the Green Planet Cafe.

Another real-life, immersive experience is being caught in a thunderstorm while in the depths of the rainforest. A great opportunity to discover how animals react during the downpour. There are other educational programs for children aged 3 to 14 that include interactive role-playing activities, dancing, colouring-in, presentations and more.

Visit the Green Planet website to book a day pass or an experience.

If you or your teenager are into virtual reality gaming you will thoroughly enjoy the VR Park at Dubai Mall. From skydiving to taking part in a bank heist, to surviving an apocalypse, you will have access to 18 virtual reality experiences.

You will fight off rioting zombies, hunt down bad guys all through the lens of a high-resolution, high-FOV StarVR headset. The desert multi-player experience takes a family of four on an alternate reality Dubai dune bashing safari in a 4x4.

While the Dubai Drone, one of the most popular games at VR Park, combines an old school roller coaster with elements of VR. As cars zoom over the VR Park, you are hooked up to your headset which shows a futuristic Dubai complete with heavy drone traffic.

Teens will get a thrill out of the augmented reality and thrilling rides. It’s the perfect escape from reality for gamers. VR Park Dubai recommends a minimum age of 12 for its VR experiences, though some attractions may have higher age or height restrictions, and children must be accompanied by an adult. Entry to the park is free with set prices for each VR experience.

KidZania Dubai, located on level two of Dubai Mall, is a miniature replica of a city that offers kids an interactive play space where they can learn about real-world experiences and role-play different activities.

It’s a safe city just for kids where they can dress up in unforms and play pretend – imagining themselves as chefs, pilots, firefighters and teachers. They can interact, take charge and make up their own stories around each theme. 

Kidzania is built to scale for children and has streets, cars, delivery vehicles, shops and restaurants. Children can earn kidZos (money) which they can use at the KidZania shop or bank and gain hands-on experience in over forty different careers ranging from a journalist to a doctor.

Each job comes with a uniform, job tools and an interactive space which makes the on-the-job training more realistic. Kidzania has partnered with global brands like Domino’s Pizza and Al Aan TV. Budding chefs can learn to make their own pizza at the Domino’s Pizza station and aspiring TV broadcasters can work in a real Al Aan TV  studio. Kids can also choose to just relax at Kidzania City Hall.

KidZania offers a safe and fully supervised environment with RFID bracelets adding another dimension of safety to the experience. You can accompany your child, enjoy the parent’s lounge or leave them in the supervised care of Kidzania staff members while you shop at Dubai Mall. It’s a great opportunity for kids to take charge, to make decisions and gain confidence.

Kidzania is open daily from 10am to 11pm. The target age group is between 4 and 12 years of age. You can book tickets online here.

Novotel World Trade Centre is close to KidZania and VR Park and offers a complimentary shuttle service to Dubai Mall. The hotel's Entre-Nous Restaurant is a family friendly buffet restaurant offering breakfast, lunch and dinner. Kids will enjoy the themed dinner buffets and the opportunity to try out local Emirati dishes.