Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, and it’s located about 2 hours outside of Dubai. While you’ll still find the beautiful sky scrapers and gigantic malls that seem to be a UAE staple, it’s much quieter than neighboring Dubai.
We have friends who live in Abu Dhabi, so we got a week’s worth of insiders views of the city. If you do go, please don’t miss the Grand Mosque or the Emirates Palace Hotel.
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
-
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque © 2017 MSJ
The mosque is absolutely stunning.
It’s built out of white marble, inlaid with precious stone, and it’s domes are topped with gold. Inside and out, the artistry of this place is amazing. I highly recommend a guided tour (which is free!), but you can wander around the exterior without a guide if you wish. The Swarovski crystal chandeliers alone are worth the tour. It’s a good idea to wear/bring socks, as you will need to remove your shoes before going into the mosque.
A note about the dress code:
Women: Cover your ankles, wrists, and everything in between, along with your hair (but not your faces). I wore a long skirt, t-shirt, and a cardigan to cover my arms. However, the cardigan was too sheer and I was asked to wear an abaya in order to continue my tour. They offer them free of charge at every mosque we went to, and will even help you put them on if needed.
Don’t want to wear an abaya? Make sure you’re covered up. I didn’t have to borrow one at any other mosque once I switched to a black cardigan that wasn’t sheer.
Men: my husband wore long pants and a polo shirt to every mosque and didn’t encounter any issues. Men shouldn’t wear shorts or tank tops.
Emirates Palace Hotel
It’s a luxury hotel built like a palace, complete with a gold plated vending machine in the lobby that dispenses gold bars. The hotel by itself is beautiful (and huge!), but I was mostly interested in the cappuccinos.
The cappuccinos that come with GOLD FLAKES!
We went for high tea and were delighted to find almost all of the food was decorated with gold flakes. Everything was delicious and stunning, and these little cappuccinos NEED to be on your must eat see list.
Yas Mall
Shopping isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing at Yas Mall. It’s big, beautiful, air conditioned, and offers free (super high speed) wifi. It also contains Ferrari World, an indoor Ferrari themed amusement park. Even if you don’t have time to visit the park, you’ll have plenty of photo ops with some Ferraris at the entrance.
Food
Abu Dhabi is very diverse, so you’ll pretty much find any type of food you can imagine. I 
was worried about what I’d be eating because I’m a little picky (and working on getting over it!), but my worry was in vain; The food was delicious everywhere we went.
Because we stayed with friends for the week, we had a chance to go grocery shopping. The grocery stores are located in the malls (usually on a lower level). If you’ve ever been to a Carrefour in France, expect the same setup.
Grocery stores can be a good place to buy souvenirs, especially if you’re buying chocolate or dates – they carry a huge selection, and a lot of the packages are already in decorative wrappers. If dates aren’t your thing, you can always bring home a gigantic jug of Nutella!
Another thing we were excited to see was camel’s milk. As I already said, I’m not adventurous with food. But I was forced convinced to give it a try, and was very pleasantly surprised to find it tastes almost exactly like cow’s milk. It was a little creamier than cow’s milk, but I think it had more to do with buying the “full cream” variety rather than that much of a difference between the two. If you don’t want to try it straight, get the camel’s milk chocolates from Godiva – SO good.
It’s hard to have a bad time Abu Dhabi; The buildings are beautiful, the food is phenomenal, and there is so much to see. I hope you add this city to your bucket list.
