Weekend

The Scientific Center: an aquarium and an IMAX on the Salmiya shore

An aquarium that moves between desert, coast and sea, an IMAX theatre, and a dhow mooring. One of the few family destinations in Kuwait that is not a mall.

The Scientific Center on the Salmiya waterfront

On the Salmiya seafront, the Scientific Center stands under a white roof shaped like a sail. Run by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, it is one of the few places in the country where you can spend half a day with children without being inside a mall.

What is inside

The aquarium is the best-known part: routes that move between desert, coast and sea environments, with tanks holding Gulf species. Alongside it is an IMAX theatre with a large-format screen showing documentaries, and a mooring for traditional wooden dhows on the waterfront.

The centre also runs a shark research programme — genuine research rather than a fixed exhibit — and publishes its findings and updates on its accounts.

Why it works as a weekend destination

Because it combines three things that rarely sit together: something a child learns, something an adult wants to watch, and a location on the sea you can walk along afterwards. The centre publishes a weekly programme on its accounts, along with seasonal educational programmes for students.

Before you go

Opening times and ticket prices are published and kept current on the centre’s official Instagram account in its saved stories, and they change between seasons and days of the week — worth checking before you leave the house rather than after.

Location: the coastal road, Salmiya.

Source: the Scientific Center’s official Instagram account.

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