Destination Abu Dhabi

[Sharmin Sultana]

 Inside its grounds, the Qasr Al Sarab hotel has all you'd expect from a high-class UAE resort -- luxury villas, private pools, top-notch restaurants and a fully equipped spa.
Beyond the walls, it's got one feature that few others can match -- sheer beautiful nothingness.
That's because the Qasr sits perched on the edge of the world. Or at least on the edge of the Empty Quarter -- Rub' al Khali in Arabic -- the planet's largest uninterrupted sand desert.
Stroll out past the hotel's Royal Pavilion and travel south: It's just mile after mile of shifting dunes, right up until the dusty highway and fence that marks the Saudi Arabian border.
That remoteness, and the staggering allure of this sun-scorched wilderness, are what make the Qasr one of the best hotels in Abu Dhabi, an emirate not short of five-star contenders.
For the folks running this distant outpost of civilization, it presents a very specific set of problems -- chiefly, how to stop the place being swallowed whole by the desert.
And how not to hurt the very environment that makes it so special.

-CNN