A vast pink-stone hotel at the western end of the Corniche, built by the government of Abu Dhabi as a venue for state guests and now operated as a Mandarin Oriental. The architecture is meant to evoke a desert palace at heroic scale — 1.3 km from end to end, a private beach, fountains the colour of sand, gardens of imported palms.
You don't have to stay to visit. Afternoon tea in the Le Café lobby includes the famous gold-flecked Palace Cappuccino. The 24-carat-gold-leaf coffee, served in cups dusted with edible gold, is excessive in the way the building wants you to think excess is its own justification.