Dubai is a melting pot of every genre of entertainment that you can possibly think of. But on those days when you don’t want to head to a shopping mall to splurge or a theme park to get an adrenaline rush, it perhaps will serve you well if you drive yourself to one of the most whimsical places you can get to in Dubai – the Museum of Illusions.
Prepare yourself for a mind-boggling experience that will leave you confusedly entertained in the best possible way and take you to a wonderland of mirage. The Museum of Illusion is for everyone who wants to immerse in the fantasy of figment of the imagination. Let us help you get better acquainted with this place that is regarded among the best places to visit in Dubai and aid you in planning a day there with your loved ones.
Table of Content
Overview
We all know that famous saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The Museum of Illusions plays on this saying by making its proportions an illusion since according to them, an illusion dies more than a million words.
With the aim of entertaining its visitors by blowing their minds by showing how wonderfully the human mind works, this museum is a Pandora’s box of endless adventures. With immersive rooms, holograms, and optical illusions at every corner, you will be left bewildered in a pleasant way as you explore more than 60 educational and visual exhibits that this museum holds in its palms.
Unravel your inner nerd by solving the complex yet fun dilemma games that this museum has to offer. Navigate your way through the Vortex Tunnel as you put your sense of balance to the ultimate test. Re-question the laws of gravity and get a whole new perception of the size ratio in the dynamic Ames and Tilted rooms that take interactivity to an unexplored cycle.
Amidst the numerous shopping malls, theme parks, and other architectural landmarks of Dubai, this place stands out since the experience you will get here is hardly matched by any other place in the city, which should make this very high on your list of places to visit if you are coming for a trip in this emirate.
Whether it is for a school science field trip or just a fun unconventional weekend with your family, this museum will serve as the perfect spot for you to spend your day as you find yourself in the wonderland of illusion. Being in this place will remind you of how human perception is not based on a specter of illusion, a fact that most people don’t recognize in their daily lives.
Location
The Museum of Illusions is located in the middle of the Heritage Area at Al Seef in Dubai Creek.
Address: Bld. 17, Heritage Area, Al Seef, Dubai.
How to Reach There?
There are multiple ways to reach the venue – roadways, railways, waterways. Let us guide you with all three of them.
Roadways
If you are coming from Dubai or Sharjah, then you can pick your route from Al Garhoud Bridge, Floating Bridge, Al Maktoum Bridge, Business Bay Bridge, Shindaga Tunnel, or Sheikh Zayed Road to reach Al Seef, which is situated at the famous Dubai Creek.
If you are coming from Abu Dhabi, then you need to get on the Abu Dhabi – Ghuwaifat International Highway/E11 to Dubai. Then, follow the exit 54A-55 for D78/Umm Hurair Street. Keep driving and then move to take a left to Zaa’beel Street/D84 before turning right onto Al Seef Street/D84. You will come across a roundabout, from where you need to take the first exit and keep driving for a few minutes to reach Dubai Creek, where you will find the museum.
Metro
If you are taking the Dubai metro, then you have to take the Green Line to the Sharaf DG Station or take the Red Line to the BurJuman station.
Waterway
Those traveling by RTA water taxi or Abra, then you need to get down at Al Fahidi Boat Station.
Timings
The Museum of Illusion is open all seven days of the week for you to enjoy. So, it means that whenever you want to get a taste of the illusion, irrespective of it being a weekend or weekday, you can hop by.
From Mondays to Thursdays, it opens at 10:00 AM and closes at 10:00 PM, while on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, it stays open from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM.
Owing to the large number of exhibits that this place has to offer, we encourage you to visit this place as close to 10 in the morning as possible. Not only is it less crowded in the early hours, giving you a better opportunity to observe the exhibits closely, but it will also allow you to visit all the exhibits by the end of the day.
You don’t want to be in a situation where you are missing out on certain exhibits because you ran late to the museum. Not to forget, the breaks you will take in between will also add to the total time you spend here.
Tickets & Packages*
The Museum of Illusions tickets for individuals and packages are priced as follows:
Adults – AED 80
Children (5-15 years old) – AED 60
Children (Below 5 years old) – Free
Senior Citizen (Above 60 Years old) – AED 70
Students (With a valid ID) – AED 70
Family Package (2 Adults and 2 Children) – AED 225
Family & Friends Packages (5 Tickets – Adults or Children) – AED 320
Exhibits
Just take a moment and think about where else will you get to immerse yourself in a collection of holograms, get up and close to endless optical illusions, and explore jaw-dropping installations of mirages in your life. Every illusion that caught your attention while you watched your favorite science fiction and fantasy movie on the screen will seem closer, more real, and bigger in this place.
The museum has a plethora of exhibits for you to discover that will give you a new and profound perception of what you think is reality. Learning about science, the human brain, and vision, has never been more fun than it is with this place.
This is where you will understand why often the human eyes sees things that the human mind can’t comprehend. Take a look at the exhibits you can glance at the Museum of Illusions in Dubai.
Ames Room
A room that is going to question your visual beliefs, the Ames Room proves that size does matter as you watch the person next to you walk back and forth across the room shrinking and growing in a matter of seconds in front of your eyes. This masterfully distorted room will leave you confused about the reality of the visuals you see.
Anti-Gravity Room
You can leave Newton’s laws of gravity behind the door when you enter the Anti-gravity Room in the Museum of Illusion because it will certainly make you question what you have learned so far in physics. While there, don’t forget to pull off the iconic Michael Jackson move and create memories through pictures to show your cool moves later to your friends.
Clone Table
Have you ever imagined a world that has multiple versions of you? In real life, that might be a far reach but when you are at this wonderland, then everything seems possible. As you sit on what will seem like just another roundtable, you will get to indulge in a game of cards with not one, not two, but five of your clones. This is possible because of the circular cut of the table that reflects itself at a 60-degree angle into a complete circle.
Head on the Platter
Want to take a fun little revenge on someone and have their head served on a platter? Well, this is where you can make it happen as you get to see just the head appear over a tray without their body. And before you freak out, don’t worry! All of this is done without anyone getting hurt.
Hollow Face Illusion
Enter an exhibit where you might think that this is just a usual art gallery that you can enjoy as you lazily stroll by them. But, hold on! Do you notice the faces in the pictures being hollow? How about when you shift a bit left or right? Are you watching the art or are the faces in the art watching you? The only way to find out is by entering the exhibit.
Holograms
It is remarkable how we don’t pay attention to the illusions we witness in our daily lives but only get a better perspective on them when we are told about them. In this exhibit, you will get to witness various images with 3D illusion. But, before you start getting a grasp on them, you will see those pictures disappearing and again appearing, and transforming in front of you.
Infinity Room
Get ready to upload some attention-grabbing pictures for your Instagram as you enter the Infinity Room where wonder and fun never ceases to exist. Filled with full-length mirrors, this room creates the illusion of an infinite space where you will lose count of the number of images you see of yourself.
Infinity Tunnel
With just a set of mirrors, the Infinity Tunnel will grab your attention and keep you captivated as you are entertained by just a single fully reflective and a single partially reflective mirror. These two mirrors are set up in a manner where the partially reflected one reflects an image of yourself on the fully reflective one, thereby producing numerous reflections that retreat in what appears to be an infinity tunnel.
Kaleidoscope
The Kaleidoscope exhibit brings back one of the most intriguing optical illusions into a larger-than-life format in the Museum of Illusions. Get to experience countless patterns of yourself. Yes, you may have so far put colorful papers, bangles, and pearls inside a kaleidoscope to witness amazing images, but now you get to be inside of it yourself.
Magic Box
Images are powerful as they are believable and help in creating strong and vivid memories. But what if the images are lying? Presenting you with a mesmerizing experience of seeing your own photo get filled with an unusual background, you will be able to boast of images that bring together transparency, levitation, shrinking, and then some, to create a jaw-dropping story.
Optical Illusions
An exhibit that is flooded with confusing images that are bound to play tricks on your mind, thereby forcing you to view things differently, the Optical Illusions area in the Museum of Illusions is a subtle reminder that the human senses are imperfect and the perception that people have of the world is often not their own but what is told them to have, which means it is distorted.
Rotated Room
How about an exhibit that literally changes your view of the world bringing you upside down? Yes, the Rotated Room rotates you by 90 degrees and makes space for you to click some funny, captivating, and interesting pictures to put on your socials. Run wild with your imagination in this space.
Rubin’s Vase
Yes, you can go ahead and place some flowers in the Rubin’s Vase but its potential will only be completely realized when you spin it across to see how many faces lie in its reflection. Explore this magical illusion and gain a whole new perspective on reality and optics.
Swap Noses
One of the funniest exhibits of the Museum of Illusions, you will get to see what it is like to have someone else’s nose on your face. As you stand on one side of a mirror and align your face with the face of the person who is standing on the other side of the mirror, you notice a merge of two faces that is hilarious with the most amusing case of nose exchange.
The Chair Illusion
Often the perception of size is dictated by the objects that surround it. And the Chair Illusion plays with this exact facet. Play around the laws of perception as you swap places on a chair with your partner to witness each other in different roles and sizes.
The Vortex Tunnel
The Vortex Tunnel requires you to simply walk over a flat and stable platform. Sounds easy and ordinary, right? Well, not really. You need to brace yourself as you are taken for a ride of your life. You will feel the ground underneath you slipping away as your head spins round and round through an illusion that is bound to leave you spellbound.
Tricky Stick
Playing on the idea of what humans conceive as a sense of space, the Tricky Stick involves a simple stick that is attached to a horizontal plate. As the plate rotates, it encounters a curved hole in its path. You might think it will not be able to pass through because of simple geometry. But you will be amazed to see how seamlessly it passes without any struggle.
Turntables
Comprising of two turntables that form a hypnotizing illusion, this exhibit is not to be missed. It will keep you mesmerized and is one of the highlights of the museum. It gives you an idea of how the entire museum plays with the concept of illusion.
Zoetrope
The Zoetrope is built to create an illusion of movement. It does so by creating a rapid motion of a sculpture. The illusion is highlighted because the sculpture has specific geometrical features that are brought forth as it spins under a strobe light. This is the result of a new invention by John Edmark who created this animation device, called Bloom, back in 2014.
You will be amazed to know that even though the cubes might appear to be passing through one another and tumbling on their way, the sculpture’s surface doesn’t move and remains absolutely solid.
Smart Playroom & Shop
In between visiting the exhibits, don’t forget to stop by the smart playroom and shop that the museum has created for your amusement and convenience. Challenge the grey cells in your brain by participating in a wide range of games, brain teasers, and puzzles that are meant for people of all age groups.
As you take a tour of the Dilemma World, you come face-to-face with a range of mental games that will keep you engaged for hours. And if you find something interesting, be sure to take it home with you. Purchase it from the Smart Shop and take a piece of the day with you to your home. It will serve as a perfect gift for people back at home.
The souvenir will remind you not to give up on hard obstacles in the form of puzzles that you may have struggled to solve while in the museum but did so when you took it home with you.
You may also like to read:
IMG Worlds of Adventure
La Perle Show Dubai
Dubai Miracle Garden: The Blooms of Wonder
Hosting & Events
The Museum of Illusions provides opportunities for you to host group events on its premises. For instance, if you want to have a school excursion for your students where you want them to have a new perspective on vision and science, then this museum is the perfect place as they will get loads of opportunities to explore maths, science, and art altogether. For hosting a school group, the group needs to be of at least 15 students and the ticket price will be charged at AED 50* per student.
The same goes for a birthday party. If you want to celebrate your or your loved one’s birthday, then you can book the space as well. Nothing gets better than enjoying the birthday by surrounding yourself with numerous illusions and then heading to the Smart Shop to get souvenirs for home. In this package, the tickets cost AED 55* per child and two parents can go for free.
You can also host corporate events in the museum since it serves as a great place for hosting a brand launch or any ice-breaking event. In fact, if your group exceeds a specific number, then the museum can install a pop-up museum at your preferred location with some of its most popular exhibits.
You can get further instructions by writing to the authorities at social@museumofillusions.ae or calling them at +971 4 357 3999.
Conclusion
The Museum of Illusions makes education fun. Never has spending time with science been more worthwhile to enjoy than it is with this place. A place suitable for people of all ages since kids will get a larger-than-life version of their theoretical education, adults will get to have a deeper perspective of what creates reality, and the older generation will get to unleash their inner kids as they discover the mirages that will leave them spellbound.
A perfect place for spending a holiday, you will not want this experience to get over soon and we are certain once you visit it, you will want to come back for more. A family gateway, a corporate fun meet, a friends’ day out, a school trip – this place is apt for any kind of tour that you can think of.
Don’t deny yourself of enjoying this experience that will generate memories that you will often question the reality of, and that is what makes it unique. Speaking of memories, don’t forget to ensure that the batteries of your phones and cameras are fully charged up before you head out to this museum because you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to capture the incredible moments you will experience here.
FAQs
Answering the Most Common Queries Related to the Museum of Illusions
Are there parking spaces available near the museum?
Yes, there is parking space available free of charge at Al Seef, Heritage Area. So, feel free to bring your car to the museum. However, the earlier you come, the better odds you have of finding an empty parking space.
Is photography allowed inside the premises of the museum?
Oh yes! In fact, the authorities of the museum encourage its visitors to bring along their cameras and post them on their socials using #museumofillusionsdubai. If you are in need of commercial photography or videography, you can contact the authorities at social@museumofillusions.ae.
Can the tickets for the museum be bought online?
Yes, the tickets for the Museum of Illusions can be bought online. This is recommended since you not only have to not stand in long queues at the entrance but it will also make sure you are guaranteed entry when you arrive here. To ensure an enjoyable and safe experience, the museum limits the number of visitors every day. When you book your tickets online, you ensure you will be guaranteed a ticket when you arrive at the venue.
Is the Museum of Illusions wheelchair-friendly?
Yes, the Museum of Illusions is a wheelchair-friendly place and has made all the provisions to ensure not only the buildings and grounds but also the parking lot are accessible through wheelchairs and strollers. However, there are three exhibits that can’t be accessed through a wheelchair, unfortunately. They are the Ames Room, Anti-gravity Room, and the Vortex Tunnel.
Which days of the week does the museum remain closed?
The Museum of Illusions remains open all days of the week and even on public holidays. This means that you can visit this place any day of the year you want. While on Mondays to Thursdays, it stays open from 10 in the morning to 10 in the night, on Fridays to Sundays and public holidays, it stays open one hour extra from 10 in the morning to 11 in the night. You just have to make sure that you book your tickets beforehand since on weekends and holidays, there is a bigger crowd at the museum.
If I cancel my ticket, will I get a refund on it?
Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t provide a refund for the tickets. However, they can help you rebook on a different date or time as per your preference and their availability. If you want to reschedule your trip, then you can contact the authorities at info@museumofillusions.ae with your ticket number and preferred date and time.
Are there any concessions on the tickets for People of Determination (PoD)?
People of Determination (PoD) can buy tickets at a 50% discount, which means, their tickets are priced at AED 40. A valid disability card must be present to avail of this ticket. However, this is subject to change. Contact the authorities before planning a trip.
Is there a Wi-Fi connection inside the museum?
Yes, there is Wi-Fi access throughout the museum free of charge. So, stay connected online when you enjoy the amazing exhibits of the museum.
How long can I stay in the museum once I enter it?
You can stay in the museum for however long you wish to. But a typical visit usually lasts an hour.
*Disclaimer: The prices of the tickets are subject to change. Please contact the authorities before making a trip.
