A Day at the Zoo : Be a Child for A Day

A Day at the Zoo. 02 December 2017

Oh, this post is long over due! I have mentioned about our trip to the Emirates Park Zoo on my post last week, when I shared about our UAE National Day Weekend.

But Nature has other plans for me. I have been down with flu for a week now and I am just not in a position to complete this post the way I want it to be.

I really want to share this experience with you all, so here it goes...

Out of the Blue

Unlike most families who have their long weekends scheduled ahead of time, our decision to visit the Emirates Park Zoo just popped out of my head the day before the trip. I have long wanted to bring the kids to the Zoo and this is the perfect opportunity, given that hubby @kennyroy is off and the weather is perfect!

Upon browsing the website, they have an offer for "Buy 4 Bracelets, Get 1 Free"! Great. That means, AED 95 ($25) for an all day outing for our whole family. I sent the photo to kennyroy and he says, "Go!" so I start to plan. To save money for food, we just packed lunch, too.

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Our Day at the Zoo!

The Zoo opens at 9:00am but we did not reach there until 11:00am. I figure we will have enough time since after the zoo I plan for us to go at the Corniche and watch the Air Show.

Emirates Park Zoo is located in Al Bahiya, on the Abu Dhabi- Dubai highway. It is 35 kms away from the city and the drive is very smooth and light that morning.

The kids are so excited, especially when we reach the Zoo and they see a boy riding a camel! Oh my girl wants to ride a camel too, but that is for an extra cost so NO. LOL

Obviously, we are not the only ones who decided to spend the day at the Zoo. A lot of other families are there and there is quite a queue in the ticket booths.

I end up not getting the discount package because apparently, my youngest who is two, is still free to enter. So I paid for the four of us AED120 ($32).

That's it. We are ready to conquer the Emirates Park Zoo!

The Emirates Park Zoo and Resort is home to more than 1,400 different animals - both wild and pets. The zoo is divided into different sections - The Reptile House, Birds Park, Hippo House, Primate Parade, Petting Zoo and lot others.

We first came inside the Reptile House, which obviously has the Iguanas, turtles, snakes, phytons and lizards.

We also passed by the aqua house, which for me is not too impressive. It is just a collection of a few aquariums and some fishes. The Dubai Mall Aquarium or the one at the Atlantis hotel is much better in terms of fish collections.

If there is anything that the kids truly enjoy, it is the feeding and petting part. I always look back to find my eldest, who I will find feeding goats and sheeps. Even the two smaller ones are not afraid to give food to these gentle animals. Fortunately, we passed by at exactly the feeding time. I am surprised to find animals out of the cage, but yeah that's what make it more enjoyable for the children.

There is a specific kind of grass for hippos and giraffes, and then grass that we can give to other animals. The grass is AED 10 ($2.70) per bundle, but it is big enough to feed a lot of them. The kids were able to feed goats, horses, camels and donkey which they really enjoy.

There is this Giraffe, her name is Maria. She has two other friends whom I forget the names but they are oh so gentle they love meeting people. My girl is so brave to feed her grass from her hands! The grass for the giraffe is different, we need to buy it for AED 10 per bundle. Hubby is resourceful enough to just pick up fallen pieces on the ground. There, no need to buy! :)

I remember one lady, she bought a bundle then offered the whole lot to the giraffe. The giraffe is not shy to get the full bundle! haha.

After the giraffe encounter, next is the Animal Paradise wherein we could find the Hippo House, donkeys, camels, crocs, birds of prey and other mammals. There is a Sea Lion show at the Park Theatre. It is for a separate cost though, so we did not go, like wise for the Elephant Encounter.

There are hawks, falcons, eagles and vultures...

On our way out, we passed by the beautiful zebras too.

We want to go get our food which we left at the security but we saw that we have not yet visited the Petting Zoo yet, so we decided to go, only that it is still full of cute animals and birds that we spent a lot of time inside we forgot to take our food until it is time to go.

There's big tortoises, ducks roaming free,

There is giant rats and porcupines too! I could not imagine rats this big! They are as big (or even bigger) than your normal household cat.

Not to mention lots of beautiful caged birds. But the one that captured my (our) heart is this peacock.

There are many other activities inside the Zoo like zip line and bouncy castle and arcades even. We did not have time to engage in them since we are rushing to go back to the city in time for the Air Show that is scheduled for 4:00pm that day. Besides, we can do these activities somewhere else even. Not necessarily in the zoo. What we missed is the Flamingo Farm, for which we have to go around the end of the Zoo. Since we are running late, we decided to pass.

The kids really love zoo, especially the feeding part. It is really a welcome change in our routine, especially after all the stress that we have been through the past weeks.

Above all, mommy and daddy get to take a photo together!

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Thank you for reading!