Some locations will at all times get pitted towards each other. On this sequence, two passionate writers go head-to-head to elucidate why it is best to go to their chosen vacation spot.
Simply how totally different are Dubai and Abu Dhabi?
Whereas solely a bit of over an hour’s drive from one another on the nation’s Persian Gulf coast, these two main metropolises are distinctly totally different.
So which is the most effective? Let’s hear the arguments from two writers earlier than you resolve.
Why Dubai is extra enjoyable
Lonely Planet Editor-at-Giant Sebastian Modak’s thought of an excellent time is asking a Dubai cab driver the place to get lunch. After which, after a scrumptious meal, asking the workers at that restaurant the place he ought to go for dinner.
I might take the straightforward route right here by itemizing all of the superlatives hooked up to Dubai. In a single afternoon, you’ll be able to take an elevator to the highest of the world’s tallest constructing, hit your 10,000 steps on the earth’s largest shopping center and even glide down the world’s largest indoor ski slope. You possibly can trip the world’s largest Ferris wheel after which chill in “the world’s solely seven-star lodge.” You ask why, Dubai solutions, “As a result of we are able to.”
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However pointing to Dubai’s unmistakable attraction as a sort of residing theme park for vacationers is simply too apparent. As an alternative, I need to level you to its actual magnificence, as a crossroads of the world. Title a nationality and also you’ll discover it in Dubai. Certain, the identical could possibly be argued for close by Abu Dhabi, however as a worldwide monetary middle, Dubai simply has extra of it. And it’s a spot the place encountering the world – with out the federal government bureaucrats and buttoned-up diplomats you’ll discover in Abu Dhabi – is simply extra enjoyable.
Dubai’s latest museum needs to take you to the yr 2071
The actual magic of the town is discovered the place it started, alongside Dubai Creek and within the low-rise neighborhoods of Bur Dubai and Deira that reach on both aspect of it. It’s like stepping again in time – the Sixties are historical historical past in a metropolis as new as Dubai – and is a reminder of what the town was like earlier than it began rising vertically. Observe your nostril by the souks and very quickly you’ll discover the most effective Filipino, Indian, Pakistani and Iranian meals you’ll discover exterior of the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Iran. Overwhelmed? There’s a tour for that: the women-run Frying Pan Adventures provides strolling excursions with a concentrate on the immigrant communities and their cultures that flourish away from the five-star accommodations and amusement parks.
High neighborhoods to discover in Dubai
Okay, however possibly you got here to Dubai since you need the amusement park vibes. You possibly can encounter the world in a kind of too, on the deliciously kitschy International Village. A sort of turbocharged Epcot Middle, “village” is an understatement right here. Unfold over an enormous house, totally different international locations and areas are given totally different pavilions to promote meals and handicrafts. It’s a celebration of the 190-something nationalities that make the U.A.E. the U.A.E and good, previous family-friendly enjoyable.
Abu Dhabi is your very cultured – however, let’s be sincere, sort of stuffy – uncle. Dubai is your polyglot good friend who is aware of about that one hole-in-the-wall kebab spot the place you’ll be able to have the most effective meal of your life for beneath ten {dollars} however can also be going to persuade you to go skydiving and splurge on beachside cocktails proper afterward. They usually’ll have a complete different day deliberate while you get up the subsequent morning.
High 7 seashores in Dubai
Abu Dhabi: A Stuffy Uncle?
Dr. Jenny Walker is a long-term resident within the Center East the place she works in increased training; she has contributed to many Lonely Planet guidebooks on the area through the years, together with the primary version of the Abu Dhabi pocket guide.
The strait-laced alter ego of Dubai? Abu Dhabi solely seems as such to those that don’t know higher. And you would be forgiven for not realizing higher as a result of, the place Dubai likes to speak itself up, boasting ‘greatest’ this and ‘quickest’ that, Abu Dhabi doesn’t really feel the necessity to brag, quietly assured because the Emirati capital.
Modesty shouldn’t be confused with mediocrity, nevertheless, and Abu Dhabi is not any stranger to world information. However the place Dubai measures firsts when it comes to tower blocks, Ferris wheels and purchasing malls, Abu Dhabi’s finest lists are extra culturally distinctive. Take the magnificent Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque; with its 100,000 tons of marble usual into 80 domes, 1000 pillars and 4 107m-high minarets, it’s a masterpiece of latest Islamic design. Accommodating 40,000 worshippers, the nice prayer corridor, lit with 12 tons of crystal chandeliers and burnished with 40 kilos of 24kt galvanized gold, homes the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet. Weighing in at 38 tons, that’s a superlative to boast about!
Tania AbuZeid Dahbour: Revelry, romance and household in Abu Dhabi
Or let’s discuss dynamic innovation. There’s Capital Gate, a constructing with the world’s best tilt, or Masdar Metropolis, constructed with recycled supplies and targeted on power effectivity. The Saadiyat Cultural District will showcase the biggest cluster of cultural buildings constructed this century and already Abu Dhabi Louvre is breath-taking with palm-frond-inspired inside and wealth of artwork displayed inside.
Desire theme parks to museums? Abu Dhabi has these too. The truth is, it has a complete island devoted to high-adrenaline enjoyable with a Grand Prix circuit and twilight racing exhibiting off the Yas Island marina complicated to its most glittering benefit. Subsequent door, the world’s quickest rollercoaster, at Ferrari World, hurls the courageous from zero to 240km/h in 4.9 seconds.
So no, this capital metropolis shouldn’t be shy of world information, neither is it as parochial as its neighbor would have you ever consider. Abu Dhabi doesn’t want a Dubai-style International Village as a result of it encompasses the true factor. Grown rich on oil (and previously pearling), it is aware of about commerce and its worldwide malls and eating places add accretions to the cultural combine, just like the layering of a Gulf pearl.
Hashel Al Lamki: Creating house for creativity in Abu Dhabi
Stroll the Corniche and it’s shortly obvious that Abu Dhabi isn’t merely a blandly globalized entrepôt. It identifies with Bedouin roots, celebrated in camel races, dog-rearing on the Arabian Saluki Centre and bird-husbandry on the Falcon Hospital. The truth is, Bedouin tradition is in all places in proof – from coffee-drinking hospitality within the Qasr Al Sarab desert resort to cross-legged storytelling on a Liwa Oasis sand dune. Sure, in Dubai you’ll be able to ski on a black run, however you would most likely do this nearer to house on actual snow. The place aside from Abu Dhabi, although, are you able to paddle by kayak by herons in a thicket of mangrove searching for sea cows?
So, let’s overlook about ‘stuffy uncle’ to Dubai’s petulant nephew and assume ‘refined aunt’. Grown-up, multi-tasking, urbane (just like the Abu Dhabi girls rising from increased training), she wears a glamorous pair of heels beneath the abaya to impress these gutsy sufficient to have interaction.
Discover the deserts of Abu Dhabi on these new off-roading routes
