The best things to do in Dubai, starting with the famous one that is closed

Dubai’s attractions have a seasonal rhythm that the guides ignore. Between April and October the outdoor parks close, the balloons stop flying, half the beach clubs pause, and this year the Museum of the Future joined them: its own page says temporarily closed, with the press giving 1 September 2026 to the first quarter of 2027. So the first job of this page is to say what is open now. The second is what it costs on the operator’s own site rather than a reseller’s, which turned out to be harder than it should be: the Burj Khalifa and Ain Dubai ticket sites refused our requests, and the prices shown for both are what resellers print, labelled as such.

Thirty entries, grouped by the kind of day: the icons, the culture, beach and water, desert and nature, and the family parks. Where an entry is seasonal the card says when it opens (Global Village on 14 October, the Safari Park on 12 October, Hatta on 28 September, Miracle Garden in October with no date yet). Where two sources disagree, as they do about Wild Wadi, the card says that too.

What is not here: the Museum of the Future, the Dubai Balloon at Atlantis (paused with no date), the Dubai Museum in Al Fahidi Fort (closed since 2021), Dubai Parks and Resorts (closed since March with an October return reported), and everything inside the Burj Al Arab until late 2027. All of them are still on other lists.