Our late September 2014 trip took us for a week to Abu Dhabi where we stayed at the St Regis Hotel on Saadiyat Island
We flew into the massive Dubai Airport and then took the 90 minute drive to Abu Dhabi along a superb road that seemed to vary between eight and in places fourteen lanes wide. With petrol at only 25 pence a litre, it made us a bit jealous.
We took a city tour where we visited the massive Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque with it's incredible white marble and inlays of semi-precious stones and amazing chandeliers 10 metres in diameter, 15 metres in height and weighing twelve tonnes.
The trip also took us along the stylish Abu Dhabi Corniche where we stopped at a Heritage Centre with views accross the water to the Emirates Palace Hotel and ultra modern city skyline.
We visited the Emirates Palace Hotel on the next day for 'Afternoon Tea' which came with their signature Cappuccino Coffee that was topped in an extremely liberal helping of real gold-leaf, as were the various cakes, and all this for around £30 for the two of us.
This hotel even has an ATM machine that dispences real 'Gold Bars', with the gold rate checked every few minutes.
Our final visit was to Yas Island, home of Ferrari World and the world's fastest Roller Coaster.
This is also the home of the Yas Marina Grand Prix Circuit, where we had a very comprehensive 'Behind the Scenes' tour of the workings of the Formula 1 GP Circuit, ahead of the November Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix round.
