Saadiyat Public Beach

Saadiyat Public Beach is on the northern shore of Saadiyat Island, ten minutes from central Abu Dhabi. It is nine kilometres of natural sand — which in this emirate is worth stating, because most of the region's beaches are engineered.

The island is being built into a cultural district: the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017 under Jean Nouvel's perforated dome, with a Guggenheim by Frank Gehry and a Zayed National Museum by Norman Foster under construction alongside. The scale of the project and the labour conditions on it have both been the subject of sustained international reporting, which a register describing the beach in front of it should note rather than omit.

The beach itself is protected. Hawksbill turtles nest on this shore between March and June, and the site operates under a management plan: lighting is restricted, nesting sections are cordoned, vehicles are excluded and the beach closes at dusk in season. Dolphins are seen offshore. The dune vegetation behind is fenced and is the reason the sand is stable. The island was largely uninhabited until the 2000s and its name means island of happiness.

Facilities are unusually good — a public beach with paid entry, lifeguards, accessible matting and beach wheelchairs, showers and shade. Gulf water reaches over thirty degrees from July to September, which is warmer than most people find refreshing. Yas Island next door holds the circuit and the theme parks, and Abu Dhabi's Corniche is the free city beach the emirate's own population uses.

Nine kilometres of natural sand in an emirate that mostly builds its own, with hawksbills nesting from March under a lighting curfew and a dusk closure. The island is becoming a museum district — the Louvre opened in 2017, a Guggenheim and a national museum are under construction — and the labour conditions on that project have been reported on at length, which belongs beside the architecture rather than after it.