ABU DHABI
If you can splash out, buy a premium ticket($ 85 for those under 1.1m and $ 105 for those over) to skip the queues at Ferrari World. Or get a Yas Park Pass, which includes Ferrari World and Yas Waterworld, where you can take even more fun rides, this time in, on and through water. Before daylight runs out, head over to Yas Beach. Entry is free if you’ re staying at one of the island’ s hotels( there are also shuttle buses from the hotels). It’ s definitely the place to go if you’ re into sports activities – the adventure company Noukhada offers kayaking, sailing and stand-up paddling.
Here’ s a tip: Yas Express is a free bus service from all the island’ s hotels, so you don’ t have to pay for any transport or rent a car if you stay on the island.
Arabian Nights
To see a different side of life in Abu Dhabi, take a fullday tour to Arabian Nights Village. Driving there is an experience – from the surprisingly green city, you enter a seemingly endless desert surrounding it. Outside the car
When you go windows, skyscrapers and mosques are replaced by rolling dunes, sandy roads and herds of camels. About an hour later, you arrive at the isolated Arabian Nights, built to resemble a traditional Emirati village in the middle of a wide dune valley.
During the day, you can do various desert activities – camel or quad bike rides, dune bashing with experienced drivers and sandboarding down huge dunes. At night, you get a taste of Bedouin life as you kneel around traditional knee-high tables for a buffet of Arabian food and entertainment. When you’ ve had your fill of hummus and lamb kofta, order a hookah pipe and sit back while a musician plucks the strings of his oud or a belly dancer twirls the crowd into laughs and applause. It’ s a door-to-door service – one of their Land Cruisers will pick you up at your hotel in the morning and drop you off again at night.
Abu Dhabi Tourism: www. visitabudhabi. ae The Grand Mosque: www. szgmc. ae / en
Saadiyat Island: www. saadiyat. ae Yas Island: www. yasisland. ae Arabian Nights: www. arabiannightsvillage. com
Etihad Airways operates daily flights from Johannesburg via Abu Dhabi to major destinations around the world. You get a luggage allowance of two bags of up to 23kg each in economy class and 32kg in business and first class: www. etihad. com / en-za
Travel Update travelled as a guest of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority.
42 Travel Update | issue 9