Emirates National Auto Museum
As Jon is always keen to visit any car museum no matter where on the planet we are, we of course had to go to the Emirates National Museum in the UAE. Pat, a friend from NZ who also lives in Abu Dhabi and is another car enthusiast, was also joining us.
We had driven past the museum several times on our way to the Empty Quarter for camping trips, but had never had the time to pop in for a look. But on a Sunday morning, we drove the 45 minutes to this place in the middle of nowhere. The museum is a large pyramid shaped building housing all the cars, and the advertising along the motorway is a ginormous Land Rover Defender. At one point you would have been able to enter the Defender, but unfortunately the entrance door is now locked.
our car in front of the giant Land Rover Defender
We paid our 55 AED entrance fee, and parked our car in the empty parking lot. We were the only ones there. Before you enter, you are confronted with the world’s largest caravan. It even made the Guinness Book of Records as it includes 8 bedrooms with private bathrooms, a garage for 4 cars, all spread over 5 floors. It is 12m high, 20m long and 12m wide. Not something you tow behind your standard Land Cruiser….
Jon next to his favourite car in the collection, you can also see the giant caravan next to the Jeep
Like all cars in the museum it belongs to Sheik Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, a member of the ruling royal family of Abu Dhabi. He is also known as the Rainbow Sheik after he used seven Mercedes Benz S Class as part of his wedding fleet, all painted in every colour of the rainbow, including all the trim and accessories. There’s a yellow one, an orange one, red, blue, green, purple and of course a pink one. These are on display in the museum, as well as the largest model of a Willys WW2 Jeep in the world, another entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
Pat and Jude in front of some of the rainbow Mercedes
He seems to love big things, as he also created the world’s largest ute (pick-up truck), a Dodge Power wagon that weighs more than 50 tonnes, has 4 bedrooms inside and can move under its own power (albeit slowly). He also has a motorhome in the shape of a giant globe, complete with the continents and oceans painted on it. The globe and the Jeep were also outside the pyramid, but everything else was inside.
And it is vast. The pyramid is 100 x 100m and only houses around 200 of the more than 700 cars the Sheikh owns. I guess it is a bit like his personal garage. The boys were drooling over many of the vehicles on display of course, although there were also some questionable additions. Jude’s favourites were the rainbow-coloured Fiat 500, a white Mini Moke, and a VW beach buggy.
Jude next to one of her favourite cars in the collection
Pat’s favourites were the cars in the European row, and for Jon it had to be the giant Jeep parked outside. After a bit more than an hour checking out the vast collection we headed to our favourite cafe Alkalime on Saadiyat for a nice lunch. We can definitely recommend popping into this enormous museum if you are a car enthusiast.
Jon and the different sizes of Dodge utes, the big one is exactly 16 times the real one
a small section of the cars, this row has Pat’s favourites in it
the boys talking about cars of course