Travel Guide Al Ain

Al Ain is an oasis city located about 120 km from Dubai and 150 km from Abu Dhabi. It is the fourth largest metropolis in the Emirates and has the highest proportion of local residents, giving it a rather authentic Arabian feel. Nicknamed the "Garden City of the Gulf", it offers a surprising facet of the region, which is wrongly thought to be uniformly arid. The land is indeed fertilized by the ancient presence of underground springs and has been largely developed by the vast date palm plantation programs initiated by Sheikh Zayed, who was born in Al Ain and was its governor for more than twenty years. With more than 10,000 hectares of greenery, the city rolls out its carpet of emerald vegetation at the foot of the ochre Jebel Hafeet and is worth a visit. You can easily stay here for 24 hours, the best view of the city being from the terrace of the Mercure hotel, located precisely at the top of Jebel Hafeet and where you can spend a pleasant day with a panoramic view (allow 30 minutes to get there from the center). Throughout its many parks and gardens, from palm grove to palm grove, one can also discover all the faces of modernity. Today, it is a gigantic university campus and a center for aeronautical technologies. Uniquely in the emirate, the population of Al Ain, almost half a million people, is almost 50% Emirati, some of whom work in Abu Dhabi and go to their villa or ezba (farm) for the weekend. Some will tell you that the general climate is a tad more conservative than in the capital, which can be misunderstood. For the city is cheerful, airy, full of life and malls overflowing with globalized fantasies and no more uptight than its Abudhabi sister. Simply, and this is a matter of geographical evidence, there are no beaches occupied by ladies in bikinis and few festive places in the Western sense of the term.The hedges of palm trees that follow one another as soon as you enter the city transport the traveler into another space-time sphere where the seconds turn slower under a bigger sky. This feeling is heightened by the city's appearance, which has been deliberately deprived of buildings of more than four floors to preserve the singular majesty of a historical setting rich in the country's most beautiful forts. 4 sites are part of the UNESCO World Heritage: its 6 oases, and the sites of Hafit, Bidaa Saud and the last Hili that you can visit partially. Al Aïn, we love it!