Four Seasons Hotel Abu Dhabi at Al Maryah Island

We recommend the Four Seasons Al Maryah to business travellers seeking a polished palace without local folklore, and to families in transit looking for pool, spa and proximity to shopping centres. It is a hotel for professionals in their forties and fifties on business trips, shopping weekends, long layovers before a long-haul flight. Honeymoon couples will prefer Saadiyat or the desert, here it is too corporate.

The Four Seasons occupies a 34-storey glass and steel tower inaugurated in 2016, architecture by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the New York firm specialising in skyscrapers. Contemporary neutral interiors: beige marble, light wood, Poltrona Frau furniture in the suites. Double-height lobby on the ground floor, 8-metre Swarovski crystal chandelier, Calacatta marble floor. Rooms from 42 to 280 m², all with panoramic glass windows and private balcony from the 12th floor.

Three tables at the Four Seasons Al Maryah: Café Milano for Italian cuisine (fresh pasta, saffron risotto, Tuscan wine list), Butcher & Still for matured meats (Wagyu beef, Black Angus rib, charcoal grill), Zuma for contemporary Japanese cuisine (sushi, robata, sake). The breakfast buffet at Café Milano offers 80 references, from Lebanese manousheh to American pancakes. Room service operates 24/7, reduced menu after midnight.

The Four Seasons stands on Al Maryah Island, an artificial island linked by four bridges to central Abu Dhabi, 15 minutes by car from the Corniche. The Galleria Mall (400 boutiques, Hermès, Dior, Apple Store) three minutes on foot, Abu Dhabi Global Market (financial hub) five minutes. Abu Dhabi International Airport 35 minutes via the E10 motorway, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque 20 minutes. The district is new, clinical, heavily air-conditioned, without street life: one moves via covered walkways between towers, shopping centres and banks.