Dubai Mall | Self Guided Tour

Updated: 12 octubre 2021
 By Pri

Dubai Mall is one of the largest shopping malls in the world, with a total area of 12 million square feet. It’s home to a vast array of stores, from high fashion boutiques to kitschy treasures, and a plethora of restaurants serving food from all across the globe. What is more, inside you’ll find an underwater zoo, an ancient fossil, unique art installations and many other attractions. Since the area is so big, we’ve decided to provide a self guided tour of Dubai Mall, to help people navigate the massive complex.

Getting there

To get to the Dubai Mall by metro, take the Red Line to the Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall Station. You can see our guide to traveling by metro here. The station connects to the mall via a long, airconditioned bridge. The walk to the metro is a bit long (around 15 minutes), but there are moving walkways that make it seem shorter. If you arrive by metro, you will exit onto the 2nd floor of the mall.

You can also travel by car or taxi. If you travel by car, you’ll find plenty of parking at the mall. If you travel by taxi, the taxi will drop you directly at the ground floor entrance of the mall.

Dubai Mall , Self Guided Tour

Dubai Mall Tour

One of the best parts of visiting Dubai Mall is the exploration. To really get the Dubai Mall experience we also recommend doing some free wandering around the various shops. To complement your exploration, however, we’ve put together this self guided tour of several key attractions at Dubai Mall.

2nd Floor : 

Kidzania

Kidzania is an ‘edutainment’ center aimed at children between the ages of four to sixteen. Children can take part in role-playing activities, including as firefighters, dentists and journalists. Through their work, they earn ‘currency’ which can be spent within Kidzania city. Kidzania helps kids to explore different career paths through practical experience, whether it’s cooking up a meal as a chef or solving a crime as a police officer. It’s an experience that’s both entertaining and educational.

Economy tickets to Kidzania cost 150 AED, while accompanying adults pay a reduced fare of AED 50. There is also the option of purchasing a Business Ticket for AED 225, which includes Kidzania access for the child and Business Lounge access for the adult. More information on the various ticketing options can be found here.

SEGA Republic

Spread out over two levels, SEGA Republic is a wicked indoor theme park for all ages. It features 16 attractions, such as rope obstacles and trampolines. It is also home to 170 amusement arcade and video games (including several virtual reality games). At SEGA Republic, you have the option of either choosing a Pay & Play Pass (loaded with the credit amount of your choice) or one of the unlimited passes, which cost between 200 AED and 300 AED. You can find more information on SEGA Republic tickets here.

Hysteria Haunted Attraction

Hysteria is not for the faint of heart. It’s a haunter ‘manor’ located within the mall. As the story goes, the children of the manor have disappeared and the manor’s guests have to dodge their hysterical parents’ attempts at revenge. The attraction uses fog, strobe lighting and character actors to really make people jump out of their skin. Tickets for Hysteria cost 100 AED.

Ground Floor

Dubai Aquarium

The Dubai Aquarium is one of the mall’s key attractions and is easy to find. You’ll see signboard up above pointing you in the right direction, and the aquarium stretches over several floors, so it’s difficult to miss. The 10-million litre Dubai Aquarium Tank is one of the largest suspended aquariums in the world. It is home to over 140 species of marine life. The aquarium can be viewed from the outside, so anyone can admire the various sea creatures.

To get the full experience, however, you can purchase one of several tickets on offer, including Explorer Experience (with a glass bottom boat ride), Otter Encounter, Ray Encounter (with ray feeding) and King Croc Encounter.

Feel free to drop us an email if you want to purchase a Dubai Mall Aquarium Entry Ticket, on contact@dubaibyfoot.com.

Candylicious

Right opposite the Dubai Aquarium, on the ground floor, you’ll find Candylicious. Stepping into Candylicious makes you feel as if you are stepping into Willy Wonka’s factory. Inside, you’ll find over 5000 types of sweets, a 3-D printer for gummy candy in addition to an array of lollypop trees and towering spires of jellybeans in every flavor. You even have the opportunity to purchase candy-themed souvenirs, like ice-cream plushies or brownie key chains. The entire store is an experience (and a particularly Instagrammable one) so it should be a definite stop on your trip to Dubai Mall.

Dubai Mall Gold Souk

From Candylicious, make your way to the Dubai Mall Gold Souk, which is the world’s largest indoor gold souk. It features 220 fine jewelry outlets in an air-conditioned, Arabesque setting. The area has an almost maze-lie design, making it perfect for a leisurely walk as you ooh and ahh over the glittering jewelry showcased in the display windows. The meandering walkways are dotted with bronzed statues of camels, horses and palm trees, allowing for plenty of selfie opportunities as well.

If you’re interested in a more traditional souk experience, our Dubai Souk Tour will guide you through the textile, spice, gold and perfume souks in Old Dubai

Dubai Dino

While you’re at the Gold Souk, make sure you check out the Dubai Dino located at the Souk Dome. The impressive Diplodocus longus skeleton is 155 million years old. It stands at nearly 8 meters tall and 25 meters wide. Nearly 90 percent of the fossil’s bones are the original. This makes it the most original skeleton finding of a Diplodocus longus to date.

The dinosaur fossils were originally discovered in a sleeping position at the Dana Quarry in Wyoming, USA. Understanding the rarity of the find, Dubai Mall chose to purchase dinosaur and fly it to Dubai, rightly pointing out that the shopping mall sees more foot traffic than most museums. After a Twitter competition to name the mall’s new resident, the skeleton was titled, “Dubai Dino.”  and is a must see attraction in your self guided tour of the mall.

The Dubai Dino is open and free to view during mall operating hours.

Dubai Mall Ice Rink

After your walk in the gold souk (and your selfie with the Dubai Dino), head over to watch the figure skaters at the Dubai Mall Ice Rink. While the indoor ski park Ski Dubai is located in Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Mall has done its own part to build an indoor winter wonderland. The Dubai Mall Ice Rink is an Olympic-sized rink and is located on the Ground Floor. If you’re in the mood to try some jumps and spins, you can buy tickets online or in person.

Otherwise, you can watch the skaters from behind the glass. The Dubai Mall Ice Rink also has special sessions, such as Disco Sessions (with a DJ and light display) and Snowfall Sessions (wherein a snow sprayer rains white flakes on the crowd). You can find the list of session timings here. The skaters at the Dubai Mall ice rink are well worth a watch, so you should definitely make this a stop during your tour of the mall.

The Dubai Mall Waterfall

Close to the Ice Rink, you’ll find the Dubai Mall Waterfall, it is referred to as The Divers. It is a beautiful piece of installation art and one of the most recognizable features of Dubai Mall. The Waterfall cascades down all 4 floors of Dubai Mall. According to us the ground level is the best place to take pictures from. The most distinctive feature is the series of fiberglass sculptures shaped like human divers. They provide an intriguing stillness to the rush of water behind this. This is a very popular photo spot, so make sure you head over.

 Level Shoes

Once you’ve taken enough photos of the waterfall, it’s time to head to another shopping district – this one dedicated to shoes. At 96,000 square feet, Level Shoes is the world’s largest shoe store. It offers 40 boutiques with both classic fashion and hip trends on display. Level Shoes strives to make shoe shopping a luxury experience, offering feet therapy, shoe restoration in addition to customized designs. If you’ve been eyeing a pair of Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blahniks, this is definitely the place to pick them up. And even if you don’t purchase anything, you can still wander around the beautifully appointed store. Here, the shoes are on display as if they were museum pieces.

Apple store

You might be raising your eyebrow at the idea of going to an Apple Store while on a self guided tour. However, the Dubai Mall Apple Store is one of the coolest stores in the mall. Beyond the signature look featured in Apple Stores across the globe, the Dubai Mall Apple Store features great views of the Burj Khalifa. The store’s 180-feet wide window is comprised of 18 motorized “solar wings”. These "wings" open and shut in response to environmental conditions. In the evenings, when the weather is cool, you can head out to the terrace to view the Dubai Fountain show.

Lower Ground

Burj Khalifa

The entrance to get to the top of the Burj Khalifa is located inside Dubai Mall, so we’ll consider it as part of the Dubai Mall self guided tour. You can see our guide to visiting the Burj Khalifa here.

Dubai Fountain

Afterwards, head outside to view the Dubai Fountain. The Dubai Fountain isn’t operational all day. It’s the world’s largest choreographed fountain system and offers a spectacular show of music, light and water. The Dubai Fountain offers two shows in the afternoon (1:00pm & 1:30pm Saturday to Thursday, 1:30pm & 2:00 pm on Friday).

Otherwise, it has an evening show daily every 30 minutes from 6:00pm to 11:00pm. Viewers will find a different music and choreography for every show. The evening shows tend to be the best. They allow for full use of light along with the music and water. Therefore, if you’re planning a visit to Dubai Mall, try to time it so that you’ll be present for one of the evening shows.

 

About The Author

Pri

Pri is a true believer in the Rule of Three - she lives between Dubai, Bombay and Washington DC, speaks three languages and has 3 kids under 3. She graduated from Connecticut College and has a Masters Degree from New York University. Pri is a licensed Dubai tour guide, travel blogger, art aficionado, foodie and curious to check out all things new in her city. Pri has been part of the Free Tours By Foot team since 2015 and loves to make customized itineraries for her guests.
Updated: octubre 12th, 2021
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