Dubai reopens outdoors on seven separate dates. The last one is 14 October.

Sharjah Safari reopened on Monday. Global Village does not open until 14 October. Sitting between those two dates are five more UAE outdoor venues, each coming back on its own day, and if you are pricing a Dubai trip for next month that calendar decides which week you should book.

This is not a policy change. These are the ordinary summer closures that happen every year. What is new is that the 2026-27 dates have all landed in the past fortnight, so for the first time this season you can see the whole staggered restart in one place. It is more staggered than most people assume.

The dates

• Sharjah Safari, in the Al Bardi reserve at Al Dhaid, reopened on 21 September. Khaleej Times reported 186 animals born over the closure, and behind-the-scenes tours running in selected periods.
• Hatta Resorts and Wadi Hub reopen on 28 September. Dubai Holding's own announcement calls it season nine and lists two restored heritage trailers, the 1958 Coach and Route 1948, alongside premier lodges with private plunge pools.
• Dubai Parks and Resorts reopens on 7 October, covering Motiongate, Real Madrid World, Legoland Dubai and The World of Riverland. Gulf News reports a bowling alley and Lamborghini racing simulators added to Riverland.
• Dubai Miracle Garden at Al Barsha South opens on 8 October for its fifteenth season.
• Dubai Safari Park in Al Warqa opens on 12 October. Emirates 24|7 reports a new four-hour private Royal Safari for groups of up to ten.
• Global Village opens on 14 October and runs to May 2027. The National gives the season theme as A More Wonderful World.
• Liwa International Festival, out in Al Dhafra, starts on 11 December. That date comes from The National's roundup.

The gap at the top of that list is the part worth staring at. Twenty-three days separate the first reopening from the last. A trip landing on 4 October catches Hatta and very little else.

What each one costs

Miracle Garden has published its prices and they are the clearest numbers on the list. General admission is AED 100 for adults and AED 80 for children, with under-threes free. UAE residents showing an Emirates ID pay AED 70 and AED 50. All of those exclude VAT, which in the UAE is 5 per cent. At roughly ₹26 to the dirham, an adult ticket is about ₹2,600 before tax. A combo covering the neighbouring Butterfly Garden is AED 140, near enough ₹3,640, and that is the better buy if you were going to both anyway.

Dubai Parks and Resorts starts at AED 295 for Motiongate or Real Madrid World, about ₹7,700. Entry to The World of Riverland on its own is AED 25, roughly ₹650, and that is the cheapest evening on this page if all you want is to walk around and eat.

Global Village has not set Season 31 prices yet. Last season ran at AED 25 from Sunday to Thursday and AED 30 on Friday and Saturday, so budget ₹650 to ₹780 and expect it to hold. VIP packages are already out, from AED 1,890 to AED 7,900, which is ₹49,000 at the bottom and just over ₹2,05,000 at the top. Pre-orders ran 21 to 25 September, with general sales from the 26th.

Dubai Safari Park has said its ticket details arrive in October. Leave that one as a placeholder in any itinerary you are costing this week.

What this means if you are flying from India

Diwali is on Sunday 8 November. Every venue above is open by then, which makes Diwali week the safest booking of the season and, inevitably, the dearest one.

The temptation is the fortnight before it. Early October fares out of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru tend to sit below the second half of the month, and now you know part of the reason. A family landing on 3 October finds the flower garden shut, the theme parks shut, the safari park shut and Global Village shut. They are paying autumn prices for a summer city.

Move the same trip to the third week of October and every one of those gates is open. The fare difference is real. It is also usually smaller than the cost of a wasted day and a disappointed eight-year-old.

One other date belongs on the same page. Abu Dhabi's programme covering UAE entry visa costs for eligible Indian travellers on qualifying packages runs until 31 October, as Khaleej Times reported when it launched. If both that offer and a fully open city matter to you, your window is 14 to 31 October. Seventeen days, and the second half of them are into half-term pricing.

What to do about it

• If your dates are already locked for early October, plan the trip indoors and stop resenting it. The aquarium, the observation decks, the museums and the malls never close for summer, and the desert has cooled off well before the venues reopen.
• If your dates are flexible, land on or after 14 October. That single choice changes more than anything else on this list.
• Buy the Miracle Garden and Butterfly Garden combo if you are doing both. AED 140 against AED 100 for the garden alone is the only obvious saving here.
• Do not buy Global Village tickets from a resale site at last season's rate. Official Season 31 pricing is not out, and anything being sold as a Season 31 ticket today is not one.
• Check each venue's own website the week you fly. These are announced dates, not promises, and a venue puts a change on its own page before anyone else carries it.

What is still unclear

Global Village has not published Season 31 ticket prices or its daily hours. Dubai Safari Park has confirmed neither. And apart from Global Village's May 2027 finish, none of these venues has said when its season ends, so anyone planning a Dubai trip for April or May next year is working on precedent rather than information.

Ticket prices for the parks are also quoted as starting rates. The AED 295 for Motiongate is a floor, not a fixed price, and it moves with the date you pick.

The whole city is open from 14 October. Book before that and you are paying full price for a partial Dubai.

If you are within a fortnight of flying, the venue websites are the only pages that count. Everything above came from announcements made in the past ten days, and the ones that are still missing are the ones being decided right now.