My 7-year old son Khalifa loves to travel. Every time he sees a plane in the sky, he will ask, without fail, when we're going on our next adventure. It doesn't help that we live in Khalifa City A, five minutes away from Abu Dhabi airport, so you can imagine how many planes he sees over the course of the day.
My wife and I have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to be when he grows up: an international journalist travelling and telling stories from around the world. As long as he’s exploring and discovering new places, I’m sure he will be happy.
Khalifa and his little brother are in school, so the only chance we get to do proper travelling is during the winter and summer breaks. As a father, it breaks my heart when he asks to travel during the school week and I have to say we can’t, because I know it’s something he really loves to do. Sometimes, I cave in and we go on a mini weekend holiday to a neighbouring Arab country. However, I have a feeling that Khalifa might be asking to stay a little closer to home in the near future.
This summer, my family and I experimented with a staycation, experiencing local attractions rather than travelling abroad. We spent a weekend on Yas Island, which is about a 10-minute drive from our home. During that weekend, we tried almost every attraction Yas Island has to offer – we stayed at the Viceroy hotel, shopped at Yas Mall, went on rides at Ferrari World and slides at Yas Waterworld. My wife and I even got a little time in the evening to enjoy a romantic dinner at Yas Marina’s Italian restaurant Cipriani.
The experience was awesome, but one moment stands out above all the rest. As Khalifa was coming off one of the car rides at Ferrari World, I jokingly asked him: “Shall we go on the plane now, son?” He responded: “Can we stay here, Baba? We can go on the plane later.” I’m sure he meant as soon as we leave the island, but my wife and I were still in utter disbelief.
His words had a strong effect on me – he was so immersed and engaged in the experience, he felt like he had, in a sense, travelled to a completely different place. It was then that I began to reflect on my life growing up in Abu Dhabi, comparing his experience as a 7-year-old Emirati boy to mine. You see, when I was 7, my family and I had to travel to experience something he was experiencing only 10 minutes away from his home.
What I’m witnessing now in Abu Dhabi is that projects such as Yas Island, among many others, are completely changing the way families can experience the city. It gives us a chance to go on adventures right here at home, to create special moments and memories in a way that my father’s generation – and to some extent, my generation – never could. In addition to catering to tourists from around the world, attractions are being developed for citizens and residents to regularly escape the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life.
These are the types of attractions that the UAE thrives on; places that represent so much of what is beautiful about this country: family, happiness, laughter and love.
Whether I ask expats or Emiratis about what makes Abu Dhabi stand out, the sense of community and the comfort of building a family are always among the top answers. Now Abu Dhabi is giving them the opportunity to create more memories with the people they love, right here at home, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Khalid Al Ameri is an Emirati columnist and social commentator. He lives in Abu Dhabi with his wife and two sons.
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