Weekend getaways from Abu Dhabi: desert, mountain and island

Abu Dhabi's emirate is the biggest in the country and almost none of it is the city, which makes the weekend options genuinely varied.

Liwa, two and a half hours south, is the desert proper — the edge of the Empty Quarter, dunes at a scale that makes the ones near Dubai look like landscaping, and a small number of places to stay that need booking well ahead. Go in the cooler months; go with a full tank; do not attempt the dunes without the right vehicle and someone who knows them.

Al Ain, ninety minutes inland, is the opposite kind of trip: oases, a fort, a proper mountain in Jebel Hafeet with a road up it, and a temperature a few degrees below the coast. It works as a long day or a comfortable overnight.

Sir Bani Yas is the island version — a wildlife reserve with resorts on it, reached by ferry, and the closest thing in the Gulf to a safari weekend.

The east coast, around Fujairah, is two and a half hours across the mountains and gives you a different sea, better diving and quieter beaches.

And Dubai, ninety minutes north, is the easy one — a completely different city for the price of a tank of petrol.

On timing: leave the city before three on a Friday or after eight, and the E11 in either direction stops being the worst part of the weekend.