Can you believe we were only in Abu Dhabi for five full days? It felt like a lifetime. We ended our trip with an eight-hour city tour, exploring some of the city’s most iconic and beautiful landmarks.
Our first stop was the Presidential Palace, also known as Qasr Al Watan, which serves as both a venue for official government meetings and a cultural attraction open to visitors. Completed in 2017 and opened to the public in 2019, the palace is an incredible feat of architecture, featuring magnificent domes, intricate details, and an extravagant Great Hall.
Next, we visited Emirates Palace, an ultra-luxury hotel spanning over 84 acres. We stopped for cappuccinos and pastries in the lobby lounge, where we felt both extraordinarily fancy and slightly out of place. A fun experience, though!
Our tour guide also brought us to Heritage Village, which is an interactive recreation of a traditional desert village. While it was interesting to learn about Abu Dhabi’s past and cultural heritage, it was probably not a place I would go out of my way to visit.
Saving the best for last, we ended the day at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which was easily one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. Large enough to accommodate more than 40,000 worshippers, the mosque is the largest in the United Arab Emirates and is considered a masterpiece of modern Islamic architecture. Its remarkable architectural features include the world’s largest carpet, weighing 35 tons; a lighting system integrated into the surrounding pools that reflects the phases of the moon; and ornately detailed columns inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was truly breathtaking and a fitting finale to an unforgettable trip.
