A stopover in the UAE’s capital and largest Emirate

Because of the crazy number of flights required to get from Sydney to Kigali, JJ and I made the decision to stopover in Abu Dhabi on the way to Rwanda. We were very glad we did! Our stay in Abu Dhabi was actually 3 days in total, but one of those days was spent in the Liwa desert and has its own write-up

Here’s how we spent 2 days in Abu Dhabi city…..

DAY 1 – SATURDAY

Our Etihad flight arrived at midnight. Evening arrivals are my favourite because you can just go to bed and don’t have to fight jetlag for the entire first day of your holiday. We stayed at the Hilton (now Radisson Blu) on Corniche which was the perfect location for our first day of exploring. The Radisson is close to a few attractions, as well as having an excellent private beach and fitness club.

Emirates Palace

On Saturday morning after breakfast, we headed to the Emirates Palace, just across the road from our hotel. Our main reasons for visiting the Palace hotel were to try their famed 24-carat gold cappuccino and pretend for a moment that we’re millionaires. We bought one cappuccino for JJ and a pot of tea for me. I had a sip of the coffee and it was nothing special, but I guess it was a worthwhile purchase for the photo op.

After the Emirates Palace, we crossed back over the road to Etihad Towers and made our way up to the Observation Deck at 300. With 360 views of the city, Etihad Towers is a great spot for a cocktail. As it was still morning we had a couple of refreshing mocktails instead.

Once JJ and I were done at the observation tower, we wandered over to Marina Mall for lunch. There’s an actual 15,000-year-old mammoth skeleton on display at the mall which was pretty cool, and unexpected. We got chicken salads at La Brioche on the ground level.

Image credit: www.qasralhosn.ae

Sadly (spoiler alert), our next mission was a total failure, but in hindsight was quite amusing. We wanted to check out Qasr Al Hosn fort, an 18^th century watch tower. By that time in the afternoon, it was quite hot outside, but we decided to walk anyway for the exercise.

When we arrived following an hour of sweaty trudging through the city, the fort was surrounded by construction hoarding. After investigating the perimeter of the building site twice and realising there was no way in, we called it a day and hailed a cab back to our hotel. Apparently the fort was undergoing restoration (oops!). It’s definitely re-opened now though.

DAY 2 – SUNDAY

In the morning, after a workout and breakfast, JJ and I hit the road to Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort. You can read all about our Liwa Desert experience here.

DAY 3 – MONDAY

We were back in the city by 2:00 PM and went straight to the Armed Forces Officers Club & Hotel. I chose this hotel not only for its location but also because it looked like it’d be an unusual accommodation option. AFOC has the most incredible recreation facilities; tennis courts, an athletic track, football pitches, a bowling alley, a martial arts studio, even a paintball field and shooting club. SO awesome. Plus the hotel itself is lovely and the service is excellent.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

After check-in, one of the AFOC porters kindly gave us a lift to the front gate in a golf buggy. The club/hotel complex is just huge. From the gate, we walked to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. I’d never been inside a mosque before and the Grand Mosque was a really spectacular first encounter. The building is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshippers. There are four minarets in the courtyard which are about 107 metres high. The courtyard itself measures about 17,000 m² and is thought to be the largest example of marble mosaic in the world. Also, the Persian carpet in the main prayer hall is believed to be the largest in the world.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped in at AFOC’s Caracal Shooting Club, to see if there was any chance that JJ and I could have a go at firing some rounds. The answer was “Yes”! We were so surprised that we could just go there without any membership, or licence, or even experience in my case. All we had to do next was go back to the room to pick up our passports before returning to sign-in.

Once we’d been through a safety briefing, we went to the range to start shooting 9mm handguns. It was nerve-wracking picking up a pistol even under close supervision, but after about 5 rounds I felt more comfortable. We purchased 25 rounds in total (around AED240). For my last 10 rounds I was allowed to shoot an assault rifle – seriously badass fun!

When we got back to the hotel we headed to dinner at Taverna, one of several dining options in AFOC. I had the lasagne and JJ had the Texan chilli, both were pretty tasty. The following morning we departed for the airport to finish our journey to Kigali.

So, that was our short but sweet itinerary in Abu Dhabi. There’s plenty more that we would have liked to have seen, there just wasn’t enough time on this visit. I’d definitely stopover in the UAE again in the future.

More posts from this trip:

24 Hour Abu Dhabi Desert Safari

8 Days in Rwanda – Primate Tracking

7 Days on Unguja Island – Exploring Zanzibar, Tanzania

UAE + Africa – 3 Week Packing List

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