by Natasha Hatherall-Shawe
Childless us continue in our exploration of the places deemed “family friendly” as alternative date spots. Some may call us crazy when we could be sipping crazy expensive cocktails at a beach bar, but I guess we’re just curious on what we’re missing out on.
On our second “Alternative Date” we headed off to The Green Planet to get up close and personal with nature and furry and not so furry friends. We’re both big fans of David Attenborough and wildlife, so this should be perfect, right?!
I arrive patting myself on the back as I consulted all my friends with kids who told me there were great deals to be had if you booked online rather than on the day, so I’d already got my two tickets for far less than they usually go for on the door – savings, we like that!
On arrival, it’s packed. First fail, not having kids we don’t know when the school holidays are and you guessed it, school’s out and we’re in smack in the middle of hundreds of families. Kids aside, it’s also still Covid and I’m a bit nervous of busy places so any excitement has gone before I even get in the front door and my husband is death starring me too.
We enter the main doors and there are queues for everything. And it smells a bit musty. I’m sure that’s part of the experience. It’s a good job I’m not carrying my Zoflora spray I tell you ;)
As you begin you need to get the lift to the very top and then the experience makes you walk downwards through the rain forest. We walk out at the top and the view is stunning. It’s green and there are colourful things flying everywhere. A massive parrot type thing near misses my husband’s head and everywhere you look there are families posing with whatever animal or critter they happened upon. But it’s busy, really busy. Did I say that 3 times already? Honestly, it was so busy we didn’t loiter too much and we walked down as quickly as we could avoiding the small children weaving in and out and the various animals flying around.
We were in and out in about 20 minutes end to end. It was nice to see some lovely creatures up close and personal and it definitely made a change from what we normally do, but it was truly terrible timing clashing with the school holidays and truly not a great date for the childless ones.
On the positive, there is a nice Arabic restaurant just opposite entering City Walk and I comfort ate my way through bread and hummous breathing a big sigh of relief to have escaped in one piece!
More alternative date adventures coming up soon!
Adult prices start from AED 140