Travel Diary – Breathtaking Mosque and Ferrari World

After a fantastic first day at Yas Island, we couldn’t wait to see what the next one would hold!  Our second day at Yas Island was even more jam packed then the first with highlights including the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and Ferrari World. As we left Yas Island to carry on our summer adventure the little adventurers were really sad about leaving.  We had a magical couple of days in the tiny Emirate state and lots of adventures which we will cherish for years to come.

Yas Island is a little out of the main area of Abu Dhabi and a visit to Sheikh Zayed mosque was on our wishlist for ages.  We decided to visit the mosque in the morning on Saturday and arrived in between two tour times which meant we did a self led tour instead.  I think the tour would have been interesting to join as the mosque is truly breathtaking and stunning beyond words and images can do it justice, learning about the history and the mosque itself would have been really interesting.  We arrived at the start of the 2nd prayers of the day and the call for prayers was even more profound and hauntingly beautiful in such an awe-inspiring mosque.

I will leave you pictures from our visit and will give lots more information about the mosque and things to do, in a separate post, but I would wholeheartedly recommend visiting the mosque.  It is an amazing for everyone, regardless of your personal faith / beliefs and as a free activity it is definitely a highlight of things to do in the state.

After a quick pit stop (couldn’t resist) we set off to Ferrari world.  We had been looking forward to this for weeks with Maya on constant height measuring missions at home.  Ferrari world is home to both the fastest rollercoaster in the world and its newest attraction, Flying Aces is the highest loop ride coupled with the steepest incline on a coaster!  If you are travelling with young children I would have a check on their heights before you decide to include a visit to Ferrari.  Maya could do everything apart from the fastest rollercoaster and Zayn at 1m could now get involved in a few activities.  It would have been horrible if he had been below the mark as there is very little for those under 1m.

We arrived at the theme bestacnedrug.com park about an hour or so after opening time and the two ticketing attraction of go karts and racing were already fully booked which was a shame.  I loved that everything was indoors which is really needed to avoid spending hours in the blistering heat queuing for the big rollercoasters.  Even though it was quite quiet as we walked around the queue time for the Rosso ride was still 100 minutes.  It is not as bad as the queue times in the UK but something to bare in mind.

Ferrari world has lots of cars on display which left my car loving boys a little love struck and for any fan of the car it would be great.  In terms of theme parks, the park is growing every year with great new rides being added all the time but in terms of rollercoasters and big rides, at the moment there are only two.  However, there are lots of things for visitors to still enjoy once you realise the amount of “big rides” are limited.  We left the park with happy adventurers which as a parent is all you really want.  My 20 year old niece added a few more notches on her adrenaline rush ride tally, Maya is probably the smallest every person to ride the Flying Aces at 1.31m, she was 1cm over the minimum height.  The boys got to have a go on a few “Ferrari rides” and were thrilled that they got to give myself and my sister a ride in their future car choices.  I liked that there was a good mix of queuing rides and more soft play / activity based options for children.  It can be very tiring move from queue to the next and having a few soft play options to break up the day was great.

Overall, with the great offer with the #SayYas campaign and free tickets to Ferrari world, it is a great time to give this more unique theme park a try.

We had a great time on Yas Island and it was the perfect location to experience the middle east with young children.  There was still lots we didn’t get to see including the F1 Marina circuit but we will be back soon I’m sure.  If for nothing else, if only to let Maya try the fastest rollercoaster in the world!