"AbuDhabiأبوظبي" Top 5 Page for this destination Abu Dhabi by MM212

Built on an island off the main coast of the UAE, Abu Dhabi is a compact, modern, orderly and civilised city. I first travelled to Abu Dhabi on business in November 2005 and have since returned on many other occasions. The capital city of the UAE would strike you as more conservative than Dubai, though the hotels offer a very liberal haven for locals and westerners alike. All of this is quite a contrast from Dubai which is more flashy, super liberal and spread out.

A Ceramic Portrait of the Ruler of Abu Dhabi

The former ruler of Abu Dhabi is rumoured to have dictated that not a single particle of desert sand remain in the city. Abu Dhabi has since been planted with beautiful gardens and completely built up. In recent years, the government provided low interest (or no interest?) loans to landowners to destroy the ugly old buildings from the '70s/'80s and to replace them with nicer modern towers. The result has been this pretty and uniform city (despite some of the modern structures still lacking in aesthetics).

An island surrounded by islands

There are only about 35 hotels in Abu Dhabi (compared with Dubai, which has around 400), though many more, perhaps 100, are planned in the coming years. More recently, a Shangri-La resort hotel opened at the southern end of the island-city. Abu Dhabi is reinventing itself with mega projects to become an alternative to Dubai. Some of the islands adjacent to the main city are being developed into residential and business centres to attract businesses and tourists alike. The island opposite the swimming pool in these pictures is in the process of being developed into one such project, the new Pearl Island district. Other planned projects include a branch of Le Louvre and the Guggenheim museums.

• Pros:Scenic and very calm city, nice beaches
• Cons:Not much to do, though slowly developing
• In a nutshell:Better quality of life than Dubai, but less fun