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The 13 Best Hotels in Abu Dhabi

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The best hotels in Abu Dhabi, according to the experts: the Forbes Travel Guide, the Michelin Guide, and The 50 have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi at Al Maryah Island comes out on top.

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Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers and The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi hold the next two places. The Michelin Guide shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with the Forbes Travel Guide close behind.

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  1. 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.


  2. 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.

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  3. 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.


  4. 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.


  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.


  8. 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.


  9. 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.


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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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  13. 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.

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The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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      Four fifths of the score is the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin Key outweighs a listicle. The last fifth is where it is: the ranked places to eat and things to do around it, and how safe the country is. When you sort by what's nearby, distance from you changes the order, never the score.

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        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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