Top 5 Dubai Picnic Spots

With the weather warming up slightly, it’s a great time to take advantage of the forgiving temperatures and not spend a fortune in the meantime. Get your family all ready for lunch in the park with a few picnic favourites and you’ll end up enjoying half a day out, tiring the kids and not breaking the bank! 

Here are five of our top spots for picnics in Dubai:

Al Barsha Pond Park

Home to countless winter picnics, this pond-side spot is a brilliant place to unfurl your tartan picnic blanket and kick back for a bite to eat! There’s a huge lawn overlooking the pond and a running track if you fancy running off your picnic favourites you’ve just devoured. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can go and hop on a swan-shaped pedalo and exercise your way around the pond (which is much bigger than you’d expect). 

Open daily 8am-10pm. Al Barsha.

Burj Park

Get your picnic hamper full of your favourite finger food and settle down for the afternoon in front of the Burj Khalifa! What better place to get stuck into your sandwiches than the world's tallest tower with a magnificent view of the Dubai Fountains. It may be your lucky day if the food truck’s are around - your picnic will have to wait whilst you wander around and taste different cuisines. Burj Park is also home to the odd gig! You can rent bikes to get moving after your relaxing lunch! 

Open Sat-Thu 6.30am-8pm, Fri noon-midnight. Downtown Dubai.

Safa Park

This park just off Sheikh Zayed Road has endured in its popularity for years, and remains one of the city’s top spots for an afternoon spent in nature. If you want to make the most of it, food is definitely needed - you’ll build up an appetite in no time wandering around. Safa Park is also great for some bird watching being home to over 200 species of birds hiding among 16,000 varieties of trees and bushes. 

Open Sun-Wed 8am-10pm, Thu-Sat 8am-11pm. Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Safa.

Zabeel Park

In the semi-hollow shadow of the Dubai Frame is this gorgeous park found just north of Downtown Dubai and Dubai World Trade Centre. There’s so much going on that you can spend the entire day here, quite happily, and still feel slightly resentful when it’s time to go home. It’s equivalent in size to 45 football pitches, and three different technology-driven zones are designed to help entertain and educate the little ones while you can relax in one of the dedicated picnic areas. On top of that, there are boat rides, restaurants, live music and barbecue pits, too. Ideal!

Open Sat-Wed 8am-10pm, Thu-Fri 8am-11pm. Sheikh Zayed Road.

Ripe Market at Police Academy Park, Umm Suqeim

If you head to Ripe Market at the weekends, you can trawl through some homemade handicrafts – jewellery, knick-knacks, decorations and the like – as well as second hand books, toys, games, clothes and more. But it’s the fresh food merchants which make this place come alive, in our opinion. If you haven’t packed your own picnic, you can grab loads of fresh grub – whether it’s from one of the food trucks, the vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetables, or the clean-living baker.

Open Fri-Sat 9am-7pm, until Sat May 4 2019. Dubai Police Academy, Umm Suqeim (04 315 7000).