Good Day Travelers!
How is everyone? After my last Post about the Seikh Zayed Mosque I will share more about my experiences and impressions about Abu Dhabi. In total I've stayed there for 3 weeks and I can't deny that I enjoyed this City quite a lot! The only negative thing was (same as in Bahrain) the extreme heat with temperatures way above 40°C. Little spoiler - As beautiful as the City is - Don't visit it during the hot summer months!
In this post I will give you guys a virtual tour about the trips an walks I did during my time around the City. Abu Dhabi is not only one of the safest countries around the world, it is also one of the "walking" friendliest countries I've ever seen! There are huge walkways all around the City and almost every car respects pedestrians! Something I was missing in a lot of countries I've visited before :))
How to get around Abu Dhabi?
Abu Dhabi has a great infrastructure with several ways to get around. I will mention a few transportation possibilities below and also need to point out that Abu Dhabi will have a Metro by the end of 2030!
| Transportation | Availability | Price Range |
|---|---|---|
| Taxi/Uber | Everywhere | Med-High |
| Bus | Everywhere | Low |
| E-Scooters | Everywhere | Low |
For both, Busses and E-Scooters you can download a map in the App-Store for Abu Dhabi which makes traveling around the city super easy for absolute reasonable prices. You can buy oneway, daily, weekly and monthly tickets for both options. Ubers can get quite expensive if you driver longer distances.
You can see the layout of the City is pretty interesting and really everything is connected with well build roads and streets.
What to do in Abu Dhabi?
Before I start with a picture tour I want to mention some of the highlights of the city. I was really surprised on how much there is to do in Abu Dhabi!
- Seikh Grand Mosque
- Ferrari World
- Louvre
- Warner Bros World
- Qasr Al-Watan
- Emirates Palace
- Yas Waterpark
- Different Beaches
Sadly because of the heat I was not able to visit all of these places. I really have to come back during the "winter" months again to see a few more of Abu Dhabi's attractions!
I'll now take a walk with you guys around the City!
Beside many Malls there are also quite a lot of open Mosques around which you can visit at almost any daytime. You can probably already tell from the images above that this City is incredible clean! There is no garbage lying around, every grass is perfectly cut and just overall everything looks just super polished!
The biggest part of the city are basically just main roads with shops, restaurants and apartments on the side.
But let's come to my personal favourite thing to do around the city - Taking evening/night walks around the beautiful beaches of Abu Dhabi. Yes, you heard right - There are massive beaches around with white sand and clean water! If the temperature wasn't that high and the water that warm, I would have loved to take a swim there as well! But hey, I've really enjoyed my evening walks! :))
My personal favourite was the Corniche Beach which was build in 2008 and has a total length of 8 KM! Beside the beach there are beautiful walkways and beside the walkways there is another road for people who enjoy sport activities such as Bicycle rides, Longboards, Inline blades or just simply jogging.
Looking at the pictures again I really miss my daily walks at the beach! There were also some cafes and little snack shops around the walkways which were perfect to get some water or some delicious hot tea (black tea without sugar but lemon and mint was my personal favorite)!
There is just one thing which you need to be cautious about - Don't take pictures of people In Abu Dhabi! That's by law illegal and you can get serious trouble for it! On one side I think it's good to protect the privacy of people but on the other side - I like street photography :D - Well, not in Abu Dhabi!
Restaurants & Nightlife
Yes! Abu Dhabi actually has a night life. The country really turned out more liberal than I expected. Now they only need to work on their human rights policies and this country really has a great potential for a holiday destination for all kinds of travelers!
From what I've heard - There are many bars and nightclubs around the city. I didn't visit any of them as this is nothing I'm to interested in. I much more enjoyed the delicious restaurants around the City. As 90% of the people living in UAE are foreigners - There are toooons of different restaurants with food from all over the world!
On the picture above you see some quite popular meal from UAE which is basically just a bread with some nice yoghurt sauce and any topping of your choice (veggies, meat, fish). It's served with a little soup, some vegetables and a nice and hot pepper! :))
The food prices at most restaurants were quite reasonable if you don't go to the most fancy places and the quality was always super good from my experience. So, don't be shy and try as much food as you can!
Do I recommend a visit to Abu Dhabi?
Absolutely! People are nice and helpful, the infrastructure is great, you have tons of activities to do and overall you can enjoy many things around this City. This really is a great destination for solo travelers, couples or families. Abu Dhabi provides activities for everyone!
Even if it's not the most exciting country for adventures travelers it really has it's own charm which you should check out if you haven't yet!
I hope you guys enjoyed this little virtual tour with me through Abu Dhabi! :))
Best,
Chris
