Dubai Miracle Garden

Dubai Miracle Garden opened on Valentine's Day 2013 and has become one of the city's most popular family outings. Spread over about 72,000 square metres in Al Barsha South, it uses more than 150 million flowering plants each season to create oversized floral displays, from arches and tunnels to castles, cartoon characters and an aircraft. It opens only in the cooler months, generally from autumn until spring, and closes through the hottest part of the year.

The best-known display is a full-size Emirates Airbus A380 covered in flowers and plants, recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest flower structure in the world. Other favourites include the Heart Tunnel, the Floral Castle, the Umbrella Passage, the Floral Clock and a Smurfs Village. There are more than 50 displays in all, many of them reworked from one season to the next, so returning visitors usually find something new.

Next door, the Dubai Butterfly Garden is an indoor space housing thousands of butterflies in a series of climate-controlled domes, with a koi pond. Combo tickets cover both sites and are the better value if you have children. The garden is open daily from 9am to 9pm during the season, with last entry 30 minutes before closing, but hours can change on public holidays, so check the official website before travelling. Entry is single-use, drones are not allowed and you cannot bring outside food.

Go in the late afternoon to see the displays in daylight and then lit up after sunset, or first thing in the morning for softer light and fewer people. Weekends and holidays are the busiest times. Paths are paved and the garden describes itself as wheelchair and buggy friendly, and there are food outlets and shaded seating on site. Allow two hours for the garden and another hour for the butterflies.

It suits families, couples and photographers, though anyone hoping for a natural or botanical garden should know that the emphasis is on spectacle. The garden is in Al Barsha South 3, close to Al Barsha and Arjan, and the easiest way to get there is by taxi, as public transport does not run directly to the gate.