From F1 to camels, adventurous Abu Dhabi has it all
LEWIS Hamilton would be in big trouble for this. My lap around Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit – home to the final Formula 1 Grand Prix of the season next Sunday – has been paused for a bottle of water and an ogle. The circuit passes under the Yas Viceroy hotel, where a 4,898-LED canopy puts on a splendidly distracting light display.
I wasn’t in any danger of breaking the lap record anyway. It’s Tuesday night and cars are banned from the circuit, giving thousands of cyclists the chance to live out their Grand Prix dreams on two wheels.
Pedalling around the three-anda-half-mile circuit is a brilliant experience. The floodlights blaze, Lycra-clad wannabe Wigginses attempt to hog the racing line and kids pootle alongside their parents.
It’s on crossing the finishing line that my wife begins to change her mind. When I’d proposed Abu Dhabi as somewhere for a holiday, she gave me a puzzled look. Her face said: ‘A two-night stopover when taking an Etihad flight further afield, sure. But there’s nothing to do.’ Yas Island has plenty to do, though – the Ferrari World theme park and Yas Waterworld are also there. But where Yas provides the fun, Qasr Al Sarab provides the fantasy.
A two-hour drive into the desert, this fortress-like resort is surrounded by rolling sand dunes. Meals are eaten on rugs on the sand, the pool is the perfect mirage, and the activities list includes dune cycling (the bikes have extra-fat tyres), desert sailing (karts with sails attached) and falcon shows. But it wouldn’t
be the desert without camels, so we sign up for the sunset camel trek. The beasts lumber through a landscape fit for any romanticised Hollywood take on Arabia. Later, a day trip to Al Ain involves driving up Jebel Hafeet, Abu Dhabi’s highest mountain. From the lookout, it’s possible to gaze over the rocky mountain range that forms the UAE-Oman border. Elsewhere, there’s an oasis where farmers shimmy up date palms, and a camel market. And, most weirdly of all, there is Wadi Adventure, which offers a man-made whitewater rafting experience in the middle of the desert. As the raft is buffeted from all angles, there’s no time to be bored. And for all-action types, the same applies to Abu Dhabi.