Visit the giant AQUARIUM in DUBAI

The Dubai Aquarium in the Dubai Mall next to the Burj Khalifa is worth a visit, especially with the combo ticket that adds the underwater zoo. Walk through the tunnel to see the tank from the bottom, with thousands of animals and hundreds of sharks around you. Plan about an hour and a half; for me the zoo part had even more to see.

Update (October 2026): The Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo is located in The Dubai Mall; the standard ticket (Aquarium Tunnel, Underwater Zoo, Penguin Cove) costs AED 199 in 2026, children under 2 enter free.

The aquarium in the Dubai Mall

Talking about Dubai, the first thing, that comes to people’s minds is probably the Burj Khalifa – world’s tallest building, Burj Al Arab – world’s most expensive hotel or Dubai Mall, which is the biggest shopping mall in the world. Dubai tries to be the best in many ways and that’s why, there is a giant tank to be found in the Dubai Mall, right next to the Burj Khalifa building – AQUARIUM IN DUBAI.

visit Dubai Aquarium

FACTS ABOUT DUBAI AQUARIUM (1)

• the tank holds 10 million litres of water (in gallons it makes 2.64 million)
• there are almost 33,000 animals inside
• there are 400 sharks you can watch
• you can look into the aquarium through one of the world’s largest acrylic panels (the glass) which is 75 centimetres thick (30 inches) and once held the Guinness World Record (since 2014 the record belongs to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China)

WHAT TO DO THERE

• visit Aquarium Tunnel – if you want to see the bottom of the aquarium from fish perspective, visit aquarium tunnel that leads right through the bottom of the aquarium. From here you will see marine life all around yourself, sharks swimming over your head, starfishes next to your hand or scuba-divers maintaining cleaning the walls of this giant tank.
• dive with sharks – probably the most favourite attraction to do in Dubai Mall is diving with sharks, since there are more than 400 sharks living in there, you will definitely have lots of fun. Diving is safe and sharks act calmly. All you have to worry about is, whether you have enough time to explore all this beauty.
• dive in cage – another very famous attraction is the Cage Experience, where you can dive deep into the aquarium to see beautiful marine life and feed sharks.
• take boat ride – with the special boat, that has the bottom made from the glass, you can easily see, what is going on deep in the tank, even without getting wet.
• go behind the scene – see how employees run the aquarium, how they feed animals or clean the tank. Learn a lot of about how is it hard to maintain aquarium of this size and see, what’s behind of all of it.
• visit Underwater ZOO – there’s so much else to see, besides the aquarium. Go extra and visit Underwater ZOO and its live animals.

HOW MUCH DOES IT ALL COST?

There are several types of tickets you can purchase. If you don’t want to pay anything, you don’t have to – looking at the aquarium is for free. But if you want to visit the aquarium tunnel, then you have to pay the admission. The most basic ticket you can buy is the COMBO TICKET for 70 AED (18 EUR) where the visit of Aquarium Tunnel and Underwater ZOO is included. Today (2026) the standard ticket with the tunnel and the zoo costs AED 199. There are many more tickets you can decide from and experience more. For the list of all available admission tickets and applicable discounts visit the official website of Dubai Aquarium and make purchase beforehand.

from this distance you can look at Dubai Aquarium for free

Aquarium tunnel in Dubai

at the top of the aquarium in Dubai

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My visit to the Aquarium Tunnel and Underwater Zoo

When I visited Aquarium in Dubai, I bought the COMBO TICKET for 70 AED (18 EUR) I had the chance to visit the Aquarium Tunnel and the Underwater ZOO. If you want to see the Dubai Aquarium, you do not have to pay for it. Looking is for free, because of the aquarium is the part of the Dubai Mall. You can explore the aquarium just with your eyes, from the small distance, since right next to the giant acrylic panel, there is the rope, where only visitors, who buy admission tickets are allowed to go behind. The Aquarium Tunnel is very interesting, where you can closely watch marine life, as long as you want. I felt like at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by water and colourful fishes and starfishes.  We spent there around 15 minutes looking at everything what was moving, on the other side of the thick glass.

After the visit of Aquarium Tunnel your visit will continue to the Underwater ZOO, which is on another floor. Here you will see a lot of exotic animals, fishes, birds, turtles, spiders, snakes, snails and many more. For me, the visit of Underwater ZOO was even more interesting, than the visit of Aquarium Tunnel, since here I could spend even more time and there was so much more to see. I have purchased the COMBO TICKET for 70 AED (18 EUR) and spent around 1 hour and 20 minutes walking around the ZOO and Aquarium. I saw a lot from marine life and the price was fair for what, I got.

RESOURCES

(1) 10 Largest Aquariums in the World – http://www.touropia.com/largest-aquariums-in-the-world/ (8.3.2015)

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