Dongtan aquarium with capped entry: experience card tour at Artis

Today I'm writing about our trip to Artis Theme Park in Dongtan with my kid!!!!!! You know how going to a zoo with a child can mean looking at the animals, feeding them a couple of times and being out the door?

At Artis Theme Park you start by preparing the animals' food yourself, and there are all kinds of activities plus a stamp tour, so my child loved it haha. And what I liked best was that they limit the number of visitors, so it never felt crowded!!!!

Artis Theme Park hours and ticket prices

Artis Theme Park is open Monday to Friday 13:00–19:00 and Saturday to Sunday 12:00–19:00, and it's closed on Tuesdays. Tickets are free for ages 0–17 months (proof required), adults are listed at ₩35,000 down to ₩16,900, and children at ₩32,000 down to ₩18,900.

• Mon–Fri 13:00–19:00 (closed Tuesdays)
• Sat–Sun 12:00–19:00
• Ages 0–17 months (proof required): free
• Adult: ₩35,000 → ₩16,900
• Child: ₩32,000 → ₩18,900
• 7-type animal feeding pass, per person: ₩7,000 → ₩6,900

Will Artis Theme Park in Dongtan be crowded with a kid?

Artis Theme Park limits how many people it lets in, so it felt much less packed while we were doing the activities!! When you go somewhere with a child, no matter how many activities there are, too many people is just chaos, right? T_T The kid wants to rush to the front... and Mom is so busy keeping track of the kid that she can't tell whether she looked at the animals or at people T_T

I liked that the kids could meet the animals in turn and take their time. Little ones need time to settle into a new space, and I appreciated that we could go along at my child's pace without rushing 🤍

Preparing the animals' food yourself

After we entered at Artis Theme Park, we got to prepare food for the animal friends ourselves!! It's not just being handed food to give out, you take part from the stage of making what the animals eat, which made it even better haha.

After making the animals' meals and feeding them by hand, my child seemed much more interested than when just looking. Watching those little hands prepare the food was adorably cute to a mom's eyes too 🥹

How does the experience card work?

Artis Theme Park gives you an experience card, and you join each activity by showing the card.

Showing the card and doing the activities one by one made it easy to follow what we were doing haha. Above all, I loved that there were so many ways to get close to the animals and interact with them directly!!

Kids like watching from a distance, but they like touching and feeding even more, don't they? There were activities even small children could join, so our kid had a great time 🤍

Animal friends little kids can get close to step by step

Many of the animals we met at Artis were aquatic creatures, plus lots of small, cute herbivores, so they felt relatively gentle. That put me much more at ease doing the activities with my child!!

We could watch my child's reactions, move closer slowly and do the activities side by side haha. Meeting animals you'd only seen in books or videos right in front of you and even feeding them!! I wondered whether a time like this stays in a child's memory longer 🥰🥰🥰

The fun of collecting stamps, plus a badge

Artis Theme Park also has a stamp activity as you tour the zoo, and my child loved this too lol. Stamping one by one while visiting the animal friends made the tour more fun!!

If you collect all the stamps, you get a badge on your way out 🏅 Doing the animal activities, collecting stamps and getting a gift at the end makes it a thrilling course right to the finish for a child haha. A little mission on top of looking at the animals made the visit more fun.

A café and a small indoor playground after the visit

When you come out of the zoo at Artis Theme Park, there's a café and a small indoor playground too!! When you're out with a kid, it's a shame to go straight home after the activities, and sometimes Mom just wants to sit down for a bit, right? T_T I loved that there's a space where kids can play a little longer and moms can rest.

It's not a big playground, but it was a welcome spot for my child to play a bit more after the animal activities haha. Being able to spend everything from the activities to the rest time afterward in one place was great ☕

A Dongtan outing with kids, more satisfying because there's so much to do hands-on

What I liked most about this visit to Artis Theme Park was the variety of activities and the relaxed atmosphere thanks to the entry cap!! Preparing the animals' food ourselves, showing the experience card to join activities and collecting stamps one by one gave my child plenty to enjoy haha. Kids like doing things as much as looking at them, right? In that sense, it was a great fit for our child 🤍

If you're in Dongtan and want to meet animals and try a variety of activities with your child, I hope this Artis Theme Park outing story helps!! It was a day that made the kid happy and Mom satisfied too 🥰