A desert oasis meets cosmopolitan coastal city in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Just over an hour’s drive down the E11 highway will take you from the hustle, bustle and glamour of Dubai, to its sometimes overlooked, more humble capital city – Abu Dhabi. It’s here that you’ll get a blend of authentic Arabic culture and ultra-modern extravagance.
Once a quiet desert location with a small population in the Persian Gulf relying on pearl diving and fishing for trade, oil money has since transformed Abu Dhabi into the largest of the seven emirates making up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
With almost year-round sunshine and warm desert temperatures, Abu Dhabi has a total of 200 islands and consists of 700 kilometres of coastline. Want to jet-ski around the city? It can be done. Pack lunch and stop in the beautiful shallow waters of the mangroves and if you’re lucky, spot humpback dolphins along the way.
Most of Abu Dhabi city is situated on the island itself, but it has many more suburbs on the mainland and a plethora of man-made islands scattered around the sparkling azure coastline. Take in the sky scrapers on the Corniche and move on to visit modern architectural wonders like the Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island.
A visit to the picturesque Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque will give you an automatic injection of Islamic culture, while a trip out to Yas Island is a haven for adrenaline junkies, with the likes of Ferrari World, the UAE’s largest waterpark and the newly opened Warner Bros. World all built on the same spit of land.
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