Abu Dhabi With Kids: The Mosque, Ferrari World and the Louvre

Abu Dhabi is an hour from Dubai and calmer, greener and cheaper, and it has three things that the children will put at the top of the list.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the biggest mosque in the country and one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, white marble and gold, with a carpet the size of a football pitch and chandeliers the size of a car. Families are welcome, the dress code is clear, abayas are lent at the entrance, and the tour is free. Go at four to see it in daylight and lit up at dusk.

Ferrari World on Yas Island is the theme park under the red roof with the fastest roller coaster in the world, Formula Rossa, which hits two hundred and forty kilometers an hour in five seconds. Kids over a certain height only. The rest of the park has junior versions, a driving school and a car factory ride for everyone. Warner Bros World is next door and it is the one for the under tens.

The museum and the beach

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a museum under a dome of woven steel that lets the light fall through in a rain of light. The collection is a walk through human history from the first tools to today, and it is small enough that a child manages it. The children’s museum inside is good. An hour and a half, then the cafe under the dome.

The Corniche is the beach in the middle of the city, clean and calm with lifeguards. Saadiyat beach is the wild one with the turtles. Yas Waterworld is the water park if the Dubai one was not enough.

Two nights. The hotels are half the price of Dubai for the same pool. Then the flight home, with the mosque in every photo.

Planning UAE with kids? Start with the full UAE family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.