The 20 Best Places in Abu Dhabi

Hawksbill sea turtles nest on this long white-sand beach minutes from central Abu Dhabi, which tells you something about how seriously the island takes its coastline. The surrounding waters are a protected marine reserve, so the dolphins out there aren't accidental. Ranked 19th on the World's 50 Best Beaches list, Saadiyat is the kind of place that makes city beaches in other Gulf capitals feel like afterthoughts.

1. World's 50 Beaches #19 · The World's 50 Best Beaches

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

White marble and pearlescent finishes run throughout this Forbes Five Star hotel on Al Maryah Island, a nod to the UAE's pearl-diving past that somehow doesn't feel like a museum. The building's facade, inspired by souk fabrics, deflects the region's brutal sun while looking the part. Business travelers, locals, and holidaymakers circulate through the lobby in equal measure, kept moving by a staff that treats a slow check-in as a personal failure.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key
3. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

Five towers of iridescent glass catch Abu Dhabi's relentless sun from the Corniche, which is as good an establishing shot as any city offers. This Forbes Five Star hotel sits in the Ras Al Akhdar district near Emirates Palace, and the interiors lean hard into the globe-trotting materials brief: agate crystal elevator walls, petrified wood floors, unusual stuff from unlikely places. The kind of hotel where the lobby itself requires a few laps.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A Forbes Five Star beach resort on Saadiyat Island where the sand runs straight into a stretch of Gulf water that really does look like a travel poster. Mediterranean architecture keeps things cool and shaded, butler service comes standard with every room, and six restaurants mean you'll never eat in the same place twice. It's close enough to the airport to feel effortless, far enough from the city to feel like you've escaped it entirely.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Perched on the Al Bateen Marina waterfront, this Ian Schrager hotel threads Arabian design references through a thoroughly modern, high-gloss package. The rooms and common spaces lean into dramatic art and architecture, and the property has enough photogenic angles to keep a certain kind of guest busy indefinitely. Forbes Four Star. If you came hoping to quietly unplug, the vibe here will gently discourage that plan.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Perched inside Nation Towers on the Corniche, this Forbes Five Star hotel runs butler service as a baseline, not a perk. The Nation Riviera Beach Club puts a private stretch of sand within easy reach, which matters in a city where good beach access is politics. The spa and dining are polished, the kids' club keeps younger guests occupied, and the staff seem to have genuinely read the room, whoever's in it.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

Hawksbill turtles nest on the beach outside this Forbes Four Star resort on Saadiyat Island, which sets the tone: this is a sustainability-minded, design-forward property where the natural world is part of the pitch. A glass chandelier in the lobby riffs on the seven blues of the gulf outside, and every room faces the water. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is minutes away, though the mangroves make it easy to forget the city exists.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Hawksbill turtles surface just offshore at dawn, which sets the tone for this Forbes Four Star beachfront resort on Saadiyat Island. The palette runs sandy and muted throughout, the pool is one of Abu Dhabi's largest, and even the entry-level rooms clock in at a generous 583 square feet. Restaurants, a spa, and eco tours make it easy to feel busy while doing very little, which is the whole idea.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Sand-hued and vaguely palatial, this beachfront resort sits on Saadiyat Island, one of Abu Dhabi's natural islands where actual gazelles wander the grounds freely. The lobby goes contemporary rather than maximalist, with handmade carpets on the walls and a quiet nod to the UAE's conservation ethos. Rooms and villas look straight out to the Arabian Gulf, and seven dining options mean you rarely need to leave, which is rather the point.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Sand-hued walls and hand-crafted details model a Bedouin village in the middle of the dunes, well outside Abu Dhabi proper. This Luxury Collection desert resort spreads across 99 rooms, suites, and villas, with six restaurants and a Saray Spa pool that frames a view of nothing but open desert. Flamingos gather at the nearby wetland reserve, which is a sentence you don't expect to write about the UAE.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A former recreational compound for UAE Armed Forces officers, now reimagined as a waterfront hotel on the Arabian Gulf, ERTH carries its past lightly. The FIFA-certified pitch and Blue Flag beach suggest a resort that takes sport seriously, but it's the on-site mosque, Arabic-style café, and Al Fayy Garden that pull it away from the city's standard luxury playbook. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Middle East & Africa

1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Middle East & Africa

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Hotel Bar – Middle East & Africa

The tower leans. Not a little, either: Capital Gate tilts at an angle that makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa look timid, and Andaz has filled the interior with art, warm materials, and a 19th-floor pool deck rather than let the spectacle do all the work. It's a luxury boutique hotel, so expect Hyatt-level service alongside the gallery space and spa. The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre is next door, the airport fifteen minutes away.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The W Abu Dhabi sits astride the Formula One racecourse on Yas Island, its glass-and-steel shell running a synchronized LED light show after dark that makes the building look like it's auditioning for something. This is a full-throttle luxury hotel: edgy, color-saturated rooms, suites that scale up to genuinely extravagant, a multi-cuisine flagship restaurant, and a wellness center with a lounge overlooking the track, in case you like your massages with a side of motorsport.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels