The Radisson Blu was in the first wave of Yas Plaza hotels that opened in 2009 alongside the Formula 1 circuit, and its job has not changed since: to put you a few minutes from Yas Marina Circuit, Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld, Warner Bros World and Yas Mall at a rate the island’s flashier names cannot match. Abu Dhabi’s airport is around twenty minutes away, the corniche about thirty.
Inside are 397 rooms in the brand’s clean Scandinavian register, with family and interconnecting rooms that earn their keep and air conditioning that takes the climate seriously. The pool deck carries the daytime load, there is a spa and gym for recovery after Ferrari World’s accelerations, and a shuttle runs to Yas Beach when the children demand actual sea. Assymetri covers the international buffet, and Filini remains the dependable Italian of the Yas Plaza cluster, whose neighbouring hotels add half a dozen more restaurants and bars within a two-minute walk.
Candour requires two notes. This is a four-star logistics play, not a resort romance, and during Grand Prix week rates multiply while every corner of the island heaves. Outside race season, for a family assault on the theme parks, it is one of the most sensible bookings in Abu Dhabi.
