Hey all, on 5th Sep I'm heading to abu dhabi to meet my family and "escort" them back to Riyadh.

I arrive 6am in the morning - family arrives midnight that day.

Presume I can taxi to AD and spend the day there before returning to the airport to pick them up.

Any thoughts on what I could do for the day? Will it still be ramadan, hence nothing open? Cinemas? Restaurants? Bars?

Appreciate the insight and any suggestions

Get a taxi to Dubai and have a good time ;0)

cinemas should be open (ours is in Dubai) but no popcorn before Iftar.... some hotels *might* have food / booze - need to check first though....

yeh still ramadan. yes you can get a taxi into town around 100dhs. all cafes etc are closed until sunset, but you can find places in hotels that will open "behind closed doors". shops will do a am shift and then a even shift. shops usually open 1 hour later than there normal times. cinemas are open but no food.

Thanks for the replies, any suggestions re which hotels I can grab a beer "behind closed doors"..?

You won't be able to grab a beer anywhere until 7pm. Not all the hotels are open either. I went to the Beach Rotana for an Iftar yesterday, Trader Vics and Brauhaus were closed so went to Captains Arms at Le Meridian Hotel for a beer instead.

Do you think the etihad lounge in the airport will be serving food/beer all day, or will that be after 7pm as well? Is the airport some sort of ramadan free zone?

'king Bahrain airport wasn't the other day. Irish pub and the upstairs bar both closed till the gong went off, restaurant was open but not serving booze, didn't try the Dilmun. Despite the lying toerag at check-in who assured me they'd be open--seemed very happy just to move the problem away from him, safe in the knowledge that I couldn't come back through immigration to poke him in the eye.

Sorry, dunno about AUH.