If you’re new to Abu Dhabi the bright lights of the big city can be a little mesmerising but help is at hand thanks to the heap of meet-up groups just for newbies.
These fabulously friendly communities offer anything from tips on how to find yourself a home, online Arabic classes to footy fans arranging a kickabout in the park.
We all know Abu Dhabi is a hugely cosmopolitan city with about 80 percent of its population made up of expats from all over the globe. This fact is also reflected in its meet-up groups, with seemingly one for every nationality on the planet.
We’ve all been new to the capital or needed a hand or wanted to make friends at some point so we know where you’re coming from. Looking to make friends in Abu Dhabi? Here’s our pick of the most useful meet-up groups available in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi Irish Society
As we said, so many nationalities have a group in the capital but we can’t think of many better places to start than with one for arguably the most sociable of folk, the Irish. This society was founded way back in 1975 and has been promoting Irish culture and providing support for the constantly growing number of expats from the Emerald Isle ever since. As you can imagine, the social side of the group provides a packed calendar of entertaining events from brunches to Gaelic sports, live music nights to the hotly anticipated annual St Patrick’s Day Gala Ball. Membership also offers you some cracking discounts on food and beverages, beauty treatments, spa services, gyms and leisure via its sizeable number of partners around the capital. If you’re of an entrepreneurial persuasion, the Abu Dhabi Irish Society can hook you up with some great contacts at its networking events.
Membership from Dhs200 a year. Visit www.irishsocietyabudhabi.com/ for more.
Abu Dhabi Q&A
Founded by businesswoman Freya Jaffar back in 2012, this is a hugely popular forum where you can ask any question you like (well, within reason of course) about the capital and have it answered by one of the group’s savvy insiders. With more than 63,000 members, Abu Dhabi Q&A’s knowledge base is as wide as the Arabian Gulf so no matter how random, obscure or banal you think your question might be, just go ahead and ask it. They won’t judge you here, and Ms Jaffar and her team painstakingly vet every single member that requests to join the group with only about a third of the 3,500 monthly applications being rubber-stamped. Abu Dhabi Q&A is a buzzing hive of activity with posts being made at a rate of roughly 100 a day. All the moderators ask is that you be kind and courteous (and don’t post adverts, which will lead to an instant ban). All we ask is that you don’t keep asking ‘What’s the meaning of life?’ Especially as everyone knows the answer to that is 42.
Visit www.facebook.com/groups/449319088469710/ for more.
Expat Arrivals
A spin-off from the very popular World Travels information site, Expat Arrivals is a type of one-stop shop for anyone embarking on a new life in foreign climes. Its scope is pretty comprehensive, with six main sections to help take all the worry out of the next step on your journey: Moving, Working, Accommodation, Schools, Lifestyle and Country Info. Expat Arrivals contains a whole host of articles written by local experts that are regularly revised so the guides and advice is bang up to date. A particular section we and other newcomers have been intrigued by is the one given over to expats from around the world offering first-hand accounts of their experiences of setting up home in Abu Dhabi. It also has a forum akin to Abu Dhabi Q&A where you can ask the locals about all manner of burning issues that might needlessly be consuming you. We find Expat Arrivals’ to be both informative and intuitive, with a general tone that is thankfully far from patronising. Oh, and it is also available in a whole host of different languages just to make its guidance even easier for you to follow.
Visit www.expatarrivals.com/middle-east/united-arab-emirates/abu-dhabi/ for more.
InterNations
With a global network of 4.2million members in some 420 cities, InterNations is a massive community made up of both expats and natives. The site provides a number of resources including some very handy guides to life in Abu Dhabi. It also has a forum where problems are solved and issues keenly debated. But what makes it stand out from the crowd is the strength it has to connect like-minded expats with each other whose paths may never have crossed otherwise. You can tend to fall into a familiar and safe work/social life bubble here in the capital but InterNations enables you to expand your horizons a little. We also like its Marketplace forum through which you can pick up some well-priced goods from those mad souls who have decided to leave this great city, or from those who are staying but have no need for such things as buggies and travel cots now that their offspring are all grown up. The social side of its Abu Dhabi community is at the heart of everything InterNations does and it even arranges events for you and your connections (and potential new ones) to get together in person. The addition of a handy InterNations app in recent years has also made it even easier to feel a sense of belonging among the Abu Dhabi community.
Visit www.internations.org/abu-dhabi-expats for more.
Krews
There’s absolutely no reason to feel alone here in Abu Dhabi, especially when there are such things as the free Krews app to help you make friends and influence people. Bored of climbing the corporate ladder and inspired by an idea conjured up by his late brother, Abdulla, Krews founder Ahmed Alqubaisi set about ‘changing the social contract’. And so the self-confessed Facebook-hater created the tech-enabled social networking platform where users can book, organise and pay for sports and social events via a registered network. As Ahmed says: ‘Whether it’s looking for a fun chill-out session or wanting to partner with buddies to play a game of football, Krews is the platform that will get you the company you’re in the mood for.’ We at Time Out love a good home-grown start-up and Krews is one of the most exciting we’ve discovered in a while. It is particularly useful for Abu Dhabi newbies as it will help introduce you to a whole host of like-minded people. So what if your workmates don’t want to shoot some hoops with you at the weekend – find yourself a new Krew.
Free. Visit www.krews.com/ for more.
MeetUp
This tried and tested website and app has been on our radar for many years now and has provided we Abu Dhabians the opportunity to join myriad groups for people who share our hobbies. And if you can’t find people who are into the same things as you then you can always create your own Meetup community and you’ll have new bingo buddies (or whatever else floats your boat) in no time. Here in Abu Dhabi there is a group for pretty much every pastime you could think of. If you want to learn hypnosis, have your CV checked or fancy a getaway in Georgia, Meetup will constantly surprise you as to just how wide-ranging its scope is. And if you can’t commit the time to fully joining a group, you can always just sign up for one of the numerous weekly one-off events being posted all the time. As its founders say: ‘People use Meetup to meet new people, learn new things, find support, get out of their comfort zones, and pursue their passions, together.’ It gets the thumbs up from us…
Visit www.meetup.com/ for more.
