TEN MILLION GALLONS

[noyda5236]

All are scaled down for the little people, who get to try their hand at 80 different jobs and earn KidZos (the official currency of KidZania) for their efforts.
Three nights’ B&B at 4 Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Residences is from ?845pp incl. flights from Heathrow with Emirates and private car transfers. Call 020 7590 1461 or visit .
Bear with me if all these numbers are giving you a headache — but there are also the 33,000 living animals from 85 different species to take in, including more than 400 sharks and rays.
Not my 12-year-old’s normal reply when I ask if she wants to go to the beach — but then this is Dubai.
Arabian Adventures’ Desert Safari gave us a chance to change the pace and see some of nature’s marvels.
These fabulous hotel apartments are perfect for families — two,Louboutin Sale, three and even four-bed with full-size kitchens,UGG Boots Cheap, lounges and dining rooms for those who want to save a bob or two and self-cater.
But for my two this made the experience even more authentic and, after four hours, we had to literally drag them away.
And here at KidZania it is the CHILD who is in charge.
Dubai through the eyes of a cynical travel journalist may still have its challenges.
Go: Dubai
Here we visited the hotel’s AquaAdventure water park. Open to all, this,Tods Shoes Sale, just like the rest of Dubai, is off the scale. Acres of lazy rivers, rides and up-close encounters.
While we may have been enjoying the experience with some 300 other tourists it was extremely well done, the food was plentiful and tasty and the kids adored the chance to ride a camel and meet the birds of prey.
Donning diving helmets, anyone over the age of eight can, on the Shark Safari, descend into the depths and meet the critters.
EMIRATES run 112 direct flights a week from the UK to Dubai – from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow. See .
Ben washed skyscraper windows from a hanging cradle while Abbi donned overalls to paint walls. Then there were fires to put out, surgical operations to perform and clothes to design.
But don’t miss the lake at ground level — the world’s largest dancing fountains perform every half hour from 6pm daily, water jets shooting 500ft up into the air.
We’d started the day at the top of the world’s tallest building, the 2,Prada Clothing,717ft Burj Khalifa. This 160-storey megalith is an engineering marvel and the slick At The Top experience sees you soar by elevator at ten metres a second toward the observation platform on the 124th floor.
With so much to see and do, it was a relief at the end of a busy day to return to the Hilton Jumeirah Residences — our home from home. Well, if we’d won the lottery.
And they can spend their hard-earned KidZos on everything from toys to sweets. From the moment my normally too-cool-for-school tweenagers collected their KidZo pay packet from the HSBC Bank they were hooked. We were banished as they tried everything from flying an Emirates plane to presenting the daily KidZania news in a pukka studio.
A TV exec would have had a heart attack over the product placements — youngsters can work in a Coca-Cola plant, McDonald’s restaurant, Baskin Robbins ice-cream store or Waitrose supermarket.
But for my kids,Prada Handbags, blown away by the amazing experiences they could enjoy in a safe, slick environment, it was paradise.
But the Residences still come with all the bells and whistles of a full-service hotel and, with its own stretch of beach as well as pools, it is the perfect base.
And from here it was a short stroll to the Dubai Mall — home not just to KidZania and hundreds of high-end stores but also the Aquarium — where a tank holding TEN MILLION GALLONS of water features the world’s largest viewing panel, 32.8 metres wide and 8.3 metres high.
Or feed huge stingrays — minus their barbs, of course, but still very hungry for the shrimp snacks that you can tempt them with. My tweenagers were, of course, also up for the Leap of Faith — an insane ride that catapults you down an almost vertical 27.5metre-tall slide, through a transparent tunnel and into a shark-filled lagoon.
The trip, by four-wheel-drive vehicle, sees you travel out to a conservation reserve for thrilling dune-driving before watching the sun set over the sands and enjoying a feast and belly-dancing in an authentic Bedouin camp.
But while the kids were living out their every fantasy in Dubai, I felt a need to connect them with the place’s roots — just 30 years ago it was a small fishing village on the shores of the Arabian Gulf.
Arabian Adventures tours, including the Desert Safari, with dune drive and BBQ, from ?60pp. See  or call 00971 4303 4888.
In this pint-size town inside the Dubai Mall streets are lined with shops, offices, factories, a town hall, race track and airport.
As we headed into the clear tunnels for an up-close view of those sharks, Ben said: “I want to touch one!” And of course, here in the dreamworld that is Dubai, he could. Later, we made our way to the colossal pink confection that is the Atlantis hotel on The Palm — the man-made island shaped like a tropical tree.
“GO away, Mum! I’ve not done my pilot training and I want to pay my wages into the bank.”
Yet in Dubai there is so much more for kids to explore — although the tiny United Arab Emirate sells itself as the ultimate adult playground.
相关的主题文章:
 
 
   Giraffe-ic Park! Angry giraffe attacks jeep  The S
 
   My year as a Page 3 Idol  The Sun VideoPage 3
 
   Death and destruction in Texas Tornadoes  The Sun VideoNews