Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates stopover Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque night visit

Freetimetravellers

23 Jun 2025 — 4 min read

It has been never in our plans, Wizzair changed our flight from Abu Dhabi to Muscat what made us to spend 8 hours at the airport. Since arrival time in Abu Dhabi was 9pm and departure to Muscat at 6.40am we decided we will take a taxi and go to see the mosque. It turned out that you can buy a ticket for a night tour! You need to book it online at the official website of the Mosque, chose Sura Tour and pay 20 AED per person.

In the price included is audio guide (available in 14 languages).

To get from Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, we booked a return taxi via Booking.com’s Airport Taxi service.

It was £40 for a standard car (up to 4 passengers), round trip.

There is a cheaper option — a bus, but I’m not sure if the buses operate during the night and since the journey is around 1 hr it was too long for us. Also, keep in mind that once you arrive at the closest bus stop, you’ll need to walk approximately 10 minutes to reach the mosque’s visitor gate. Our taxi journey was:

10 mins to find the driver at the airport, 15 mins to drive 10 mins to get in touch with the operator, 5 mins waiting, 15 mins drive back

The funny thing was that the taxi driver insisted it was impossible to visit the mosque after 11 p.m. The security guard at the gate said the same. He looked confused when I showed him our tickets, made a quick phone call, and then informed us that we could in fact enter and someone was waiting for us at the Tourist Centre dome. It was pretty clear that everyone was surprised by our visit — some looked like they didn’t even know a night tour existed! We had to wait about 15 minutes for someone to arrive and take us inside, but OMG... it was totally worth it. We were the only people visiting the mosque!

After a short introduction, we went through the security gate, left our bags, and were taken to a golf cart by our guide. The mosque grounds are huge, so we used the golf cart to move from one part of the mosque to another. We had audio guides, but our guide was more than happy to share extra insights along the way.

I'm sure the mosque looks absolutely stunning in daylight, both inside and out, but our night visit was truly special. I’d definitely recommend going at night for a VIP-like experience — having the mosque almost entirely to yourself! (At least for now, before the night tours become more popular.)

The visitores entrance Gate 6 and the glass entry to the tourist centre .