Simply Abu Dhabi VI

5 9 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I “When you book the Burj Al Arab, you don’t stay at the Burj, you live there !” A fter our stay at the sumptuous Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, that’s the best way we could think of to describe a place where you are truly made to feel like it is your home. Along with Abu Dhabi, Dubai is a star of the United Arab Emirates, home to a culturally diverse, dynamic community. And one of its most striking icons is the Burj Al Arab hotel, rising out of its own man- made island 280 meters from the Jumeirah coast, 15km south of the city and 25km fromDubai International Airport. The Burj Al Arab is designed in the shape of a billowing Arabian dhow sail, and it certainly makes a striking sight. The incredible sail has a double-skinned, Teflon-coated woven glass fibre screen across its ribbed belly. It’s dazzling white by day and transformed to display a spectrum of colour at night: vibrant and alive against the skyline. But it’s as we entered the Burj Al Arab, and passed the truly spectacular Ellipse Fountain, with its 20,000 litres of water, combined with bursts of fire, that were all brought together in what seemed like a dramatic visual symphony, that we began to understand that this really was a cut above the rest.