The best time of the year to visit the UAE is between November and April, when the weather is at its coolest. The rest of the year you’re more likely to be running from one air-conditioned environment to the next instead of getting out and about and exploring. Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, is strictly adhered to in the UAE; that means no eating, drinking or smoking in public from sunrise to sunset. Places that normally serve alcohol stop serving it during this month. Ramadan is timed by the moon and will start around September for the next couple of years.
Abu Dhabi (Arabic: أبو ظبي transliteration: abū ẓābī, literally Father of gazelle) is the capital and second most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after Dubai. It is also the seat of government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western coast. Approximately 1,000,000 people lived in Abu Dhabi 2008, of whom 80% were expatriates. One of the world’s largest producers of oil, Abu Dhabi has actively attempted to diversify its economy in recent years through investments in financial services and tourism. Abu Dhabi is ruled by Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also the President of the UAE.
The United Arab Emirates is a Middle Eastern federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia. The seven states, termed emirates, are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain.
The UAE, rich in oil and natural gas, has become highly prosperous after gaining foreign direct investment funding in the 1970s. The country has a relatively high Human Development Index for the Asian continent and ranked 39th globally.
Before 1971, the UAE were known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a nineteenth-century truce between Britain and several Arab Sheikhs. The name Pirate Coast has also been used in reference to the area’s emirates in the 18th to early 20th century
