Stopover at a great hotel in Abu Dhabi!
On the way back to Australia from a trip to the UK, my brother, nephew and I made a two night stop in Abu Dhabi and chose the Intercontinental Hotel – great place to stay!
On our first night I went for a walk outside; silly thing to do – it was over 40 degrees but got to see great views of the skyline and lovely boats!!
The hotel has a couple of upmarket restaurants and a buffet which is where we had our breakfast and lunch each day…so much choice – I usually had eggs on toast for breakfast and a cup of peppermint tea – a great way to start the day.
My usual choice for lunch was the hummus/tabbouli/vine leaves/Arabic flat bread and a delicious fattoush (salad with mixed greens and tomato).
On occasions we would sit in the foyer and chat and I would take the opportunity to prepare my photos for my posts…
One afternoon we enjoyed a late lunch in the foyer cafe after we completed a ride on the hop on-hop off bus, around the city. We ordered two burgers [Mark and Braydon] /fries [to share] and a salad [me] and vegetable samosas [to share] with coffee/wine and a couple of soft-drinks – oh my goodness I forgot how much hotel lobby cafes charge – it was incredibly expensive but good food and allowed us to relax in the air-conditioning so for us it was worth it.
Whilst we were on the bus, we got to see the city and surrounds but we didn’t get off as it was midday and the temperature was incredibly high.
My nephew and brother would then take a dip in the pool whilst I would sit on the lounge chair in the shade with a little esky which the staff provide that contains ice and a cold bottle of water. We didn’t last that long though as again it was so hot.
There is also a great gym which overlooks a lovely beach area within the hotel gardens…
Great cakes and pastries too…we tried a few of the Arabic sweets – delicious.
The rooms were also good; spacious with wi-fi all throughout the hotel…it was a great place to stopover on our way home.
Before even arriving in Abu Dhabi, I knew I wanted to see the Grand Mosque. It’s a spectacular building that took approximately ten to twelve years to build, depending on which website you read. The wonderful concierge at the Intercontinental Hotel told us the best time to visit, for two reasons; 5pm – firstly to watch the sunset and secondly it’s said not to be as hot as during the middle of the day (she was sort of wrong – it was awfully hot and having to wear a scarf over my head and shoulders only made me more hot!).
