Abu Dhabi

The United Arab Emirates is nothing, if not a place of extreme contrasts. Perhaps the first you’ll notice is that the hospitality and warmth of the local Emirati is as welcoming as the desert is hostile.

Talk to one of our UAE consultants, Richard French, and he’ll take you inside a world that offers you the chance to take a mind-stretching desert drive into the Empty Quarter…or go ice-skating!

Richard will also introduce you to the ‘Full Quarter’; a world of Formula One and Ferrari, fabulously opulent hotels – the Emirates Palace hotel, for example, you could almost say was built of pure gold – and towering examples of astonishing, 21^st century architecture. All in stark contrast to the traditional souks, beautifully ornate mosques and winding lanes that take you back to the time when this rich garden city was little more than a fishing village with a fort, coral buildings and a few barasti huts.

Abu Dhabi and the UAE enjoys a contrast of culture – the Louvre and the Guggenheim are coming soon – and one of the best ways to understand much of it is to sit down to a traditional feast with a few of the locals.