United Arab Emirates
Saadiyat Island
Hawksbill turtles nest on protected dunes a boardwalk away from the Louvre's rain of light.
Inside the Louvre Abu Dhabi, sunlight falls through 7,850 steel stars in shifting constellations, the effect its architect named a rain of light. Walk out and the Gulf lies flat and turquoise beyond white sand where hawksbill turtles still haul up to nest.
Saadiyat is Abu Dhabi's cultural island, and its centrepiece is a piece of engineering theatre: Jean Nouvel's 180-metre double dome, eight layers of perforated stars weighing 7,500 tonnes yet resting on just four hidden piers, sheltering a museum-city of 55 buildings against the sea. The district around it has kept growing, with the Zayed National Museum and the immersive teamLab Phenomena now sharing the shoreline. The island's second character is the beach: soft white sand behind a protected dune zone, reached by wooden boardwalks, where trained patrols guard the nesting sites of critically endangered hawksbill turtles. Mamsha Al Saadiyat strings restaurants along the waterfront, several with Michelin recognition, so a day can run from Mesopotamian galleries to bare feet in the sand without leaving the island.
Couple
Take the galleries in the cool of the morning, cross to the beach for the emptier late afternoon, and finish with dinner on Mamsha as the dome lights up across the water.
Family
The Louvre's children's galleries, the beach's gentle shallows and the boardwalk between them make a full day that never feels like a forced march; nesting season adds real wonder for older children.
Friends
Split the day between museum, beach club and waterfront tables, from Roman-style pizza to Japanese counters, without anyone needing the car keys.
- Jean Nouvel's 180-metre dome floats on four hidden piers, its 7,850 stars filtering sunlight into a rain of light.
- Critically endangered hawksbill turtles nest on Saadiyat's beaches, patrolled and protected behind a dune buffer zone.
- The cultural district now pairs the Louvre with the Zayed National Museum and teamLab Phenomena.
- Boardwalks cross the protected dunes to white sand and clear Gulf water, with beach clubs where you want service.
At Tean, footsteps from the water, spiced meats and seafood come off the grill the traditional Levantine way.
On Mamsha Al Saadiyat, Antonia's Roman-style pizza sets up an evening walk along the beachfront.
Lindos
Greece
Sugar-cube houses cascade to a bay below an acropolis older in worship than the Parthenon.
Pinhão
Portugal
Terraced vineyards plunge to the Douro so steep the harvest travels by shoulder.
Cephalonia
Greece
Sunlight pierces a collapsed cave roof onto an underground lake that glows from below.
St Michael's Mount
England
A tidal island castle reached by a granite causeway the sea swallows each evening.
Al Ain Oasis
United Arab Emirates
A 3,000-year-old falaj still waters 147,000 date palms in the middle of a desert city.
Hatta
United Arab Emirates
A turquoise reservoir pooled between rust-red peaks, in the emirate everyone thinks is all sand.
Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve
United Arab Emirates
Flamingos wade through a mirage-like lake in the middle of the Arabian desert.
Liwa Oasis
United Arab Emirates
South of the last date farm, Moreeb Dune lifts 300 metres of sand at 50 degrees.