Expo City Dubai is a sustainable, smart city designed to showcase a clean and resilient future. With a focus on green living, the city features ample green spaces, residential units, co-working spaces and more. The city is built on the belief that creating a greener world is not only possible but can be achieved through the collective effort of all. Well, we at Gulf Buzz decided to have a fun day out and experience the future of urban living at Expo City Dubai. After spending the day at this beautiful place, here are our top 7 recommendations of things to do at Expo City.
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1. Take A Dip At The Water Feature
Oh boy, this was our absolute favourite. There’s something innately fun & childlike in cutting loose from the daily hustle-bustle & the water feature helps in doing just that!
One of the most popular attractions in Expo city, this stunning water feature dances to music. The waterfall cascades to the ground before disappearing into the stone, and at night, the water appears to flow upwards while the stone is coloured with rainbow streaks. The experience is set against a specially written musical score by well-known Game of Thrones music composer Ramin Djawadi.
Located between Al Wasl Plaza and Jubilee Park, the water feature is easily accessible with three viewing platforms that overlook a lower plaza area that is about the size of half a football field. Visitors can walk up to the feature, and the area is strong enough to accommodate them. The stones are porous at the bottom, giving the illusion that the water is rushing towards you before it disappears at your feet.
2. Travel Around With Free Buggies & Expo Explorers
Expo City is HUGE! Although Expo City is completely car free, there are free buggies and Expo Explorers all over the city to make your journey within the place comfortable. Expo City Dubai is a sustainable, smart city that offers visitors the opportunity to explore its parks and other public areas for free. The city is car-free and fully pedestrianized, encouraging visitors to explore the city on foot or by using one of the transportation options available.
1. The Golf Buggy
Visitors can hire a golf buggy and pay either per trip or hour. People of Determination can use the buggies for free, while tenants can register their own private buggies. This is the fastest and easiest way to get around the city.
2. The Expo Explorer
Another option is the Expo Explorer, a train shuttle that runs to key locations in the city. Visitors can hop on and off the train at various locations, making it easy to get around.
3. Bicycles
For those who prefer to pedal their way around, visitors are allowed to bring their own bicycles or rent them from the city. Additionally, visitors are also allowed to bring their own e-bikes or rent them from the city to move about while standing up.
Expo City Dubai is committed to sustainability and offers visitors a variety of options to explore the city in an environmentally friendly way. Whether you prefer to move around in a golf buggy, on a train shuttle, on a bicycle, or on an e-bike, the city has something to offer. Experience the future of urban living at Expo City Dubai, where exploring the city is convenient, easy and eco-friendly.
3. Visit The Vision Pavilion
The Vision Pavilion tells the story of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, showcasing his childhood, love for nature, and the influences that shaped him as a leader.
We visited the Vision Pavilion where you can explore various galleries, learning about the valuable lessons he learned and his embrace of Emirati culture, making him the visionary leader he is today. The experience is a reflection of Sheikh Mohammed’s vision for Dubai and its people, showcasing inspiration and boundless possibilities.
4. Overlook The Expo Site At Garden In The Sky
This was another of my personal favourites. Located in Jubilee Park, the Garden in the Sky is a rotating observation tower offering breathtaking panoramic views of Expo 2020 from 55 meters above. The tower earns its name with its lush green upper deck, lined with trees.
For those who prefer a more comfortable experience, the lower floors feature air conditioning and large windows with the same stunning views. At night, the base of the tower and the observation cabins glow with light, adding an otherworldly atmosphere to the attraction.
5. Explore The Alif Pavilion
The Alif – The Mobility Pavilion is one of the three signature pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai, focusing on the sub-themes of Mobility, Sustainability, and Opportunity. The pavilion has been developed in partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai to align with the overall theme of “Connecting Minds and Creating the Future” and provide a platform for fostering creativity, innovation, and collaboration on a global scale.
Located at the south entrance of the site, the Mobility Pavilion features a unique ribbed and curved design that evokes movement and its highly reflective stainless-steel cladding is inspired by chrome fenders and aircraft wings. The building’s lines hint at how we are all connected, even when physically far apart. An amphitheater and a second stage, as well as a piazza surrounding the building, will host mobility-related performances, events, symposiums, and demonstrations.
Internally, the display areas are divided into three key zones, each forming a petal in the tri-foil plan. Visitors enter directly into the central core, featuring the world’s largest passenger lift, capable of holding more than 160 people, with a capacity of 38 people during social distancing restrictions. The lift takes visitors up to the third level, where they can then move down through successive interconnected galleries to the lower ground floor, viewing innovative, immersive, and interactive visitor experiences focused on mobility.
A partly underground, partly open-air 330-meter track will allow visitors to see cutting-edge mobility devices in action, as well as witness mass-produced technology that has the potential to vastly improve the quality of life for people in developing countries.
Sustainability was a key consideration in the design of the Mobility Pavilion, which has been built to LEED Gold standard. The building is self-shading, with metal cladding that reflects heat, and photovoltaic panels on the roof take advantage of solar energy. The landscape design is also sensitive to water usage.
6. Unwind At The Terra Pavilion
Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion, opened to the public in 2021 as one of the top three attractions of the Expo 2020 Dubai, aims to showcase the ingenuity and possibilities of sustainable architecture as society looks to intelligent strategies for future living. The pavilion takes visitors on a journey that brings them closer to the natural world. Our journey began with an exploration of the fascinating “wood-wide web” under a forest, an intricate collaboration and communication network between plants and fungi.
Visitors can also delve into the depths of the world’s oceans and experience the mysterious sounds and eerie bioluminescent glows of the creatures that live there. The pavilion also highlights the effects of human activity on the rest of the natural world, from the changing ecology of the Arabian peninsula in Terra’s wadi, or dry riverbed, to the “sea of consumption,” a dramatization of the effect human activity has had on the world’s oceans. The center-piece of the pavilion is a giant angler fish, its mouth choked with plastic pollution, and TVs displaying advertising on a loop.
