Seven of the best water parks in the world, from Bali and Dubai to Singapore
- There’s many a fun wet and wild attraction to tempt the young and the young at heart
- Penang’s Escape theme park will soon be home to the world’s longest water slide
There has been a huge increase in the number of water parks in recent years. New attractions compete with each other to offer the steepest slides, the longest lazy rivers, the wildest wave pools and, er, the largest aircraft to ever be purposely submerged. Just when you began to wonder how rival developments could further outdo each other, a Boeing 747 was towed out to sea and sunk to form part of Dive Bahrain, the world’s biggest underwater theme park.
Here are some other watery fun destinations to tempt the young, the young at heart and parents trying to get their children off their phones during the summer holidays.
Dubai
The UAE is home to dozens of water parks, which is just as well given the climate. Dubai’s Wild Wadi comes out on top for sheer adrenaline but Aquaventure at Atlantis The Palm is larger and feels less crowded. And it’s about to get even bigger. There are plans to introduce 12 new slides as part of an expansion that will see Aquaventure surpass Tropical Islands, in Germany, as the world’s largest.
First choice for daredevils is the Leap of Faith, which sounds more like an acid trip than a water park ride: “A near vertical slide drops you from a height of nine storeys through a clear Perspex tube surrounded by sharks and rays.”
The biggest gripe concerning Aquaventure, which ranks fifth of 391 things to do in Dubai, according to TripAdvisor, is the admission fee. A family of four are looking at more than HK$2,400 (US$307) for the day.
Phuket, Thailand
