city skyline during night time

Abu Dhabi for families

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Jump to a guide

Abu Dhabi for families

Abu Dhabi scores 8.5 out of 10 for families, 20th of the 108 cities TTDI measures. The 1 list picked for families in Abu Dhabi carries 12 places. Sheikh Zayed Mosque, St. Joseph's Cathedral, Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi lead the picks.

Abu Dhabi for families with kids, in numbers

Score for families: 8.5 out of 1020th of 108 cities
Picks on this page: 12 places across 1 lists, led by Sheikh Zayed Mosque, St. Joseph's Cathedral, Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Local 08:40

Weather 32° clear

Feels 40° · 72% · 5 km/h

Air 124 unhealthy-sensitive

PM2.5 54.8 · PM10 91

Sun 06:06 → 18:33

1 USD 3.67 AED

This week 1 event

Questions families with kids ask about Abu Dhabi

Family-friendly

Abu Dhabi is strongly family-friendly. Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld, and Warner Bros World on Yas Island keep kids busy for days. Malls have nursing rooms, play areas, and air conditioning that matters when it feels like 36°C outside. The heat is the main caveat. Visit between October and April for outdoor time.
Read the full answer →
Is it safe?

Abu Dhabi scores 8.2 out of 10 for solo-traveler safety (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index). Street crime against tourists is near zero, and the Corniche waterfront feels safe to walk alone past midnight. The risks here are legal, not criminal. Drug possession carries a mandatory 4-year prison sentence, public intoxication is a criminal offense, and LGBTQ+ friendliness scores 1 out of 10 (sourced from TTDI's editorial rubric). Emergency number: 999.
Read the full answer →
What to pack

Lightweight modest clothing for mosque dress codes at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, SPF 50+ sunscreen for summer UV indexes above 11, a Type G plug adapter for UAE's British-style 220V outlets, and a packable fleece for the 18-20°C AC in every mall and museum. Skip packing bulk toiletries. Pharmacies like Aster carry Western brands at comparable prices.
Read the full answer →
Getting around

Taxis and Careem cover nearly all visitor movement in Abu Dhabi. No metro operates. The city stretches 30 km from Yas Island to the Corniche, making walking impractical beyond the waterfront. Silver taxis charge 5 AED flagfall plus 1.82 AED per kilometer. Download Careem before landing for upfront pricing and better driver coverage.
Read the full answer →
Best time to visit

November through February gives Abu Dhabi its most livable weather, with daytime highs of 24-28°C and humidity below 60%. The Corniche, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and Saadiyat Island are all walkable without heat stress. Peak-season hotel rates climb 40-60%, but summer's 45°C+ makes any other window impractical for first visits.
Read the full answer →

Curated for families with kids

Must-see attractions

Abu Dhabi's must-see list reads differently from its neighbours'. The emirate built itself as a civic project: grand mosques, monuments, a planned cultural district on its own island: rather than as a marketed playground, and the result is a city whose headline attractions tend to be the size of small towns. This list is twelve of them, in rank order. The Sheikh Zayed Mosque anchors the spiritual register; a working circuit of Catholic churches (St. Joseph's, St. Therese, St. Francis, St. Paul's) carries the city's expat one. Saadiyat Island supplies the cultural set-piece, with the Guggenheim still a planned architectural structure and the Founder's Memorial supplying the civic counterweight. Wahat Al Karama carries the monument register. And the Ferrari World cluster: Formula Rossa among them: offers a different kind of attraction, built for sound and motion rather than silence. Read in order, the list moves from the spiritual to the civic to the kinetic. Skip nothing on it, but do not try to do it in a single day; the geography rewards two trips and a rented car. The locals do these on separate weekends, not on a single itinerary.
See the picks →

Browse experiences

Family & Kids in Abu Dhabi

Other traveler types

← Back to Abu Dhabi

Plan Your Trip to Abu Dhabi

HotelsCompare rates across the city

eSIMStay connected from the moment you land

Airport TransferPre-book your ride from the airport

Tours & ActivitiesBook top-rated local experiences