jothefw

As the thread shows, we're stopping in Abu Dhabi for a few hours this week on our way back to the UK.

We're only in UK for 7 days and then we have about 12 hrs in Abu Dhabi on the way back.

My children (boys aged 10 and 8) haven't been to the Middle East before so I'd like to fit in as much as we can in each brief stop as possible!

Any ideas! The airport website has obviously shown me a fair bit but I'm interested in peoples personal experiences/recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

Kim67

F1 Track and Ferrari World (though I hear it's not that great, young boys will probably like it). The roller coaster looked pretty good when it was being built. Maybe just a quick couple of hours driving around the city and walking through the shops to get a feel of the place. Emirates Palace is interesting (a hotel) but make sure you wear long trousers or they won't let you in.

jothefw

Thanks Kim! Looks you are the only one to do a tour around!

Kim67

No worries. There are a few middle easters on this forum I think, maybe they'll see this at some stage before you go and give you some more ideas.

Melbourne bound Mark

Make sure you buy some Flintstones memorabilia.

Apparently it is one of the few places in the middle east where it is really big.

For some reason other places in this area don't get the humour but people in Abu Dhabi Do.

gelsal

Hi,

I would suggest that you take a taxi to the city, takes 30-45 minutes. You can ask the taxi to take you to the “Emirates Palace”; if you want you can ask the driver to drop you on the other side of the street, i.e. the sea side, they call it here “corniche”. From that point you’ll be having a good view of the palace, the sea and marina, the high rise buildings on the cornice and the Guinness world record registered UAE giant flag at the “waves breaker” you can have very nice snap shots from this location with all these monuments in the back ground.

Then you can walk to the flag base and on your way just 200meters before the flag you’ll find the “Heritage Village” which you can have a tour inside if you match the opening hours. At the flag base you’ll be having a full view of the city cornice from the harbor to the Emirates Palace.

If the weather will be so humid for you or if you arrive after the sun set, you can walk directly to the huge shopping mall there “Marina Mall”. You will not miss it as it has three big tents at the top of it covering the whole area. You’ll find a lot of fine restaurants at every corner of the mall and shopping stores for all famous brands. There’s a huge hypermarket (Carrefour) at the basement floor as well. The kids can enjoy the ice rank or a bowling game there as well as the indoor playing area or you may enjoy a 3D movie at the cinema complex. You can also go up the “Center Point” tower to dine at the rotating restaurant while viewing the whole city from above.

I hope you'll enjoy your short visit.

gelsal

You can have this city tour on your way back from the UK as it will consume more time. You can use the short stop on your way to the UK to visit the F1 and enjoy the roller coaster as Kim67 suggested. There is also a huge IKEA store next to it.

Note: It will all depend on what time of the day your stops will be.

jothefw

Thank you Gelsal. That's excellent help.

Can you walk from the airport to the malls? Wasn't sure from your response?

gelsal

The airport is out of Abu Dhabi island. you'll need a taxi to go to both the city's corniche as it is a 40min. drive (costs around $20) and also when going to the F1 even though it is very near to the airport but it will need 20 minuites to go there by taxi (costs around $10).

jothefw

Thank you for your help again Gelsal - armed with my print off of the BE thread we were well armed in Abu Dhabi earlier this week! Sadly (or perhaps not) the F1 centre was closed for the day!

For our 6 hrs stop we just booked into one of the lounges. For about $25 ea we had showers and access for 4 hours to the bar, snackes, drinks and wifi. It was worth it just for the shower TBH! The lounges are much more peaceful and quite relaxing so it was a good choice.

This weeks stop for 12+ hrs we arrived at 7 am from UK so we're fairly worn out. We took a taxi out to the island and stayed at the Radisson for a day rate in a twin room (I obviously lost something in translation as 2 adults and 2 boys doesn't usually mean twin in my book) but we were that tired I think we'd have slept on a washing line! After a few hours rest, showers and clean clothes we got a taxi into the Marina Mall. Had a look around and some food and the got another taxi to give us a slow tour back to the airport.

We could definitely have done more but in reality tiredness and heat (humidity) left us with very low energy reserves!

The Grand Mosque was beautiful and I wish we'd had time to go inside for a tour, it was truely a wonder to behold!

Next time we'll do it, and remember our swimmers!

ittakesages

If you get the chance I would definitely visit the Grand Mosque. We stayed in Abu Dhabi for 3 nights on the way back from the UK in July and the Mosque was the absolute highlight - stunning.