When I was in Abu Dhabi last month to speak at the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit, I also had a free day to look around the emirate. I had been there before, six years ago, and it has changed dramatically, with dozens of new high-rises and hotels. It’s still a far cry from Dubai and its forest of skyscrapers, but the development was striking.
On my first visit, I had walked around the almost-complete Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the largest in the world. Plans had already been announced to build a collection of world-class museums. Their completion is still years away, but it seemed that a somewhat sleepy Abu Dhabi was preparing for the world stage.
It’s in an interesting state of development now. Whereas Dubai seems at times to have looked to Las Vegas for stylistic inspiration, Abu Dhabi is developing as part Orlando, part Cambridge, Mass., part Fifth Avenue’s “Museum Mile.”
Commercially, it’s positioned not only as an oil-producing nation but more broadly as an energy-producing nation. In partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it’s creating what is meant to be the “greenest” habitat in the world, Masdar City, with the goal of carbon neutrality.
Every material used in its construction is fabricated to have the least impact on the environment, and it’s a wonder: Solar-powered cars — some with a driver, some driverless — move visitors short distances through the campus. The buildings incorporate traditional Islamic architecture and updated traditional technology. It is both aesthetically and technically impressive, and it’s worth a visit. (For more photos from Masdar City, click here.)
Masdar City is also, perhaps, an offset for two state-of-the-art amusement parks that, even if they’re built to exacting environmental standards, seem blissfully indulgent.
The first is Ferrari World, inspired by the high-performance Italian sports car. It houses the world’s fastest roller coaster: zero to 150 mph in 4.9 seconds. I sat in the very front; passengers wear goggles to avoid getting sand and insects in their eyes and, tempted as I was to scream with joy, I kept my mouth closed, just to be on the safe side. I haven’t experienced anything like it, and might not again unless I’m lucky enough to get a seat on a Virgin Galactic flight. Tremendous fun.
(Watch a video of the roller coaster on its run here.)
The second attraction is Yas Water World. When I heard about it, I admit I wondered how local women in this conservative country would dress at a water park. On the street, many Emirati women are covered from head to toe in a somewhat shapeless black gown called a burka, with only an opening for their eyes.
It turned out that many local women wore what appeared to be a wetsuit that went up over their hair and covered their necks, showing only their face. Over the wetsuit was a sundress of sorts, colorful and made from a nonclinging material. The ensemble is called, I was told, a “burkini.”
I stayed at the Anantara Eastern Mangroves for one night. The property features a hammam, or Turkish bath, in its spa. I like hammams in part because they tend to be pretty basic. My first experience was in a hammam attached to a large mosque in Paris. Its resident masseur looked like Mr. Clean. He was not there to make you feel special and pampered but rather to dig his elbow mightily into your back, trying to untangle the deepest knots.
The hammam in Anantara was certainly an updated experience, beginning with a steam room, then sauna, followed by a treatment on a marble slab. During the last stage, I felt as if I were being alternately buffed with sandpaper, then completely covered in near-weightless froth.
This was followed by a deep-tissue massage and, alas, a “water ritual” ending: I sat on the side of the slab as pleasing warm, and not-pleasing cold, water was poured over my head. At the time, it felt a bit of a rude awakening, but I can honestly say that when it was finished, the overall effect was deep relaxation.
Taking into account the aesthetic of Masdar City and the mosque, the rush of the roller coaster, the water park rides and the massage, perhaps what surprised me most is that, at the end of the day, conservative Abu Dhabi provides a surprisingly sensory experience.
Email Arnie Weissmann at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter.