Abu Dhabi Winners: Weekend Getaways

John wasn't able to take off time for the girls' spring break, so we decided to have two separate weekends at local resorts.

The first was a place called Sir Bani Yas island, located in the Arabian Gulf 2 1/2 hours southwest of Abu Dhabi. About 130 square kilometers in area, Sir Bani Yas used to be a true desert island, without much on it at all. In the 1980s Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (may his soul rest in peace) turned the island into both a research park for growing trees in the UAE (part of his vision of Abu Dhabi as the garden in the desert) and a wildlife sanctuary, mostly for the native oryx that were becoming extinct in the wild. Today the island is now home to numerous trees, 10,000 mostly free range wild animals, and a small but luxurious lodge that can house about 150 guests and a seemingly equal number of support staff.

The arrival sequence is out of the ordinary. You arrive at a pier on the mainland, board a boat for the 20 minute ride to the island and then board an electric bus (charged by the only wind turbine in the UAE) for the last leg to the lodge. We were met by one of the staff and seated in the lobby for tea and an introduction to the lodge. After the tea and intro we were then escorted to the activities office where we booked some optional activities. Our selection included a morning safari ride, an afternoon snorkeling trip, and a sunset catamaran cruise. The following are pictures from our Sir Bani Yas weekend.

Adrienne during a walk around the lagoon with the lodge in the background.

Breakfast,

Lunch,

Dinner. Kidding.

Please note the women in abayas hanging out by the pool. Pretty standard around here.

Our morning safari ride. The guide was a very entertaining guy from South Africa.

Peacocks were everywhere.

These young bucks put on a good show for about five minutes.

What got our attention at first was the sound.

Oryx.

Sand Gazelles.

Whipper snapper.

Ostrich.

Arabian gazelle.

Not only do they look good but these guys also make a cool sound

when they shake their train of tail feathers.

Sleepy cheetahs. The number of deer on the island has skyrocketed in recent years, so cheetahs were added for population control. Plans are also being considered to sterilize some of the overly abundant animal herds.

Rock Hyrax. The girls were crazy about these little cuties.

Giraffe.

Viewing platform.

The next weekend we went to Fujairah, about a 3 hour drive from Abu Dhabi, on the east coast of the UAE, next to the Gulf of Oman. Unlike the endless sand dunes of the Abu Dhabi emirate, Fujairah has rugged mountains and rocky terrain, a nice change of scenery. It was a very relaxing weekend at the Fujairah Rotana Hotel, with most of our time spent poolside or on the beach. We shared the resort with mostly Russian vacationers who opted to come to the UAE instead of their standard spring break in Egypt which isn't quite as stable right now.