My husband's work is looking at moving him (and me and our 10 and 15 year olds) to Abu Dhabi later this year. My husband has been there several times but I haven't. What are good neighbourhoods/areas maybe close to the corniche/CBD in the city to live?

And what should we expect to pay to rent for a year in these area (we need 3 bedrooms and wuld prefer somewhere with a communal pool). Would we get something decent for 160,000Dhs or is that too little?

Many thanks

A Kiwi family  

There are many nice areas in the UAW to live. Al-Batin, Khalidya and New Marina are to name a few. Each has different things to offer, but it is important to do thorough research before you make a choice.

Chesterton Humberts  

Thanks so much for this - I know we need to check places out first but it's always good to have others people's views. I appreciate it! Mel  

Hi Tuataragirl (& FourEd as well!)

Welcome to the forum,

'Scuse my ignorance FourEd, but what is the UAW?

Tuataragirl, agree with 4Ed - there aren't really "good and bad" areas in Abu Dhabi. In the main, the closeer the the corniche the more expensive, but also a lot of blocks in town have nice posh buildings round the outside of the block, with lower rise, low rent property in the middle - so it isn't like you have high rent and low rent "districts". Depnds where you want to be in terms of work, school and amenities (or space) for example we chose to look in two areas only - 1 x near the school and 1x near the office, that way one half of the family could walk to and from school or work. (and we only needed 1 vehicle)

Please post and let us know how your search goes and what you find, in terms of price a quality expectations etc.

Your up to date experience will be very usefull for others to read who may be following in your footsteps into Abu Dhabi.

All the best Y&F  

We just got our place in between 26 & 28 rd, next to 11 rd, it is a very lovely area, not bad with parking.
we have looked at many places, for what I have seen, something to share:
Tourist club area: very center, lively, reasonable rent, (2 bed apartment no parking 170K), PARKING impossible.
Khalidya, walk to the beach, park, 3 bed apartment with one parking around 210K, not bad, again, PARKING very difficult, if you have another car,
Al bateen, very nice, plenty of space for car, can be expensive,
Al Rowdah, (I think where we are) wide street, close to school, easy parking, close to shopping, 3 bed apartment(low rise) new building with one shaded parking 210K
Al raha, nice place off island, didn't go there, we prefer stay closer to town, but if you don't mind, you can check that out, people say it is very nice and big and plenty of space for car..
For what I know it is nearly impossible to not drive here,(I am one into walking, so far I can do that, but was told soon, I will not be able to do as it will be tooooo hot) so parking is no. 1 issue here.
Hope any of these can help you.  

I really appreciate your responses - many thanks  

More and more Abu Dhabi people are moving to Dubai and commuting because the rents are so much cheaper in Dubai. Usually they're in places like Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Lake Towers which are close to the Abu Dhabi border. You might want to check those out.