Abu Dhabi, I expected, would be a kingdom of kitsch, an empire of excess. It is, after all, one of the richest cities in the world. But at first sight, and compared with its neighbour Dubai, it seems tasteful, quiet and almost modest.

Comparisons with Dubai are inevitable, though not very useful. There is a different ethic driving Abu Dhabi’s sudden desire to be a hot tourist destination, another set of needs and desires. Dubai, 90 miles along the coast, hopes tourism will be a comfort when oil revenues dry up, which might be sometime soon. But Abu Dhabi is sitting on almost 10% of the world’s proven oil reserves and 4% of its gas: more than enough for at least another century.

What’s more, it has managed its spare change so successfully over the past couple of decades that oil revenue pales alongside returns from its squillion-dollar foreign investments. Now it is about to blow a cool £100 billion turning itself into a place we will all long to visit. As much as £15 billion of that will transform Saadiyat, currently a mangrove-ringed island wasteland, into one of the world’s most-talked-about cultural spaces. Alongside 29 new hotels and two golf courses, Saadiyat will also be home to the emirate’s cultural district, which will boast a Louvre museum, a gigantic performing-arts space designed by Zaha Hadid, and the world’s largest Guggenheim museum, for which Frank Gehry has been commissioned.

In Abu Dhabi? Critics have been savage in their condemnation. French opponents protest at the idea of their national treasures being sold for petro-dollars. They weren’t too happy about the Sorbonne moving even faster, for it has already opened a campus in Abu Dhabi. Some Americans have been equally vehement in their opposition to the planned Guggenheim and a possible Yale University Abu Dhabi, currently being discussed. Critics point to the lack of democracy, the crass nature of much Middle Eastern tourism. Even Egyptians have pointed to the impossibility of buying culture. But why not, asked Gehry, who explained that here, “You can do things that would be unthinkable anywhere else.” It is the sort of line one might have heard in Hellenic Alexandria, Haroun al-Rachid’s Baghdad or Renaissance Florence.

This is a far cry from the scene that greeted one of Abu Dhabi’s earlier tourists, the late explorer Wilfred Thesiger. When Thesiger reached the fishing harbour in 1948, after his epic crossing of the Empty Quarter, few people had so much as heard of Abu Dhabi. And why would they? Even to Thesiger’s desert-tuned eyes, it was “quite a small port” of dhows and pearl divers.

While he was there, Thesiger might have stumbled on Qasr al Hosn. Built in 1793, this humble, whitewashed fort was home to the ruler until 40 years ago. Now part of the Cultural Foundation, and increasingly overlooked by concrete-and-glass towers, its paved courtyards are open to the public, but the palace interior is not. There are vague plans for a museum here, but for the moment there is an air of abandonment about the place. “Our ruler, Sheikh Khalifa,” explained one Emirati I met at the fort, “has many things on his mind. He will come to this later.” But turning the city into the regional capital of culture has been handed to Sheikh Khalifa’s half-brother Sheikh Mohammed. Statistics fail to convey the scale of changes that can be accomplished with £100 billion, but help was on hand when I checked into the Emirates Palace hotel.

The hotel, like Etihad, the airline I flew on from London, is proof that the sheikhs’ dreams are not mere sand castles. The airline was launched only three years ago (Emirates, rather confusingly, belongs to Dubai and not to Abu Dhabi), but despite stiff competition and public cynicism, Etihad now runs an award-winning service to more than 40 destinations.

The Emirates Palace hotel is even newer. Costing a rumoured $3 billion, decked out with a galaxy of Swarovski crystal chandeliers, run by an international army of staff, and managed with Kempinski’s mix of luxury and efficiency, it offers a plethora of fine restaurants, a Thai-run spa, several pools and a long private beach. It is, in other words, exactly the sort of place one might expect to find in a boom town, and proof that, while the crowds will go to Dubai, some top-end tourists will come here.

There is another reason why the Emirates Palace hotel is a good place to gauge the sheikh’s cultural aspirations: it houses an exhibition of the planned Saadiyat Island cultural district. Here, in drawings, computer-generated images and architects’ maquettes, the sheikh’s ambitions have been given form by some of the world’s most talented architects. But for all the wonder of the show (the museum designs are staggering), my revelation about Abu Dhabi’s cultural claims happened elsewhere.

The place is alive with poetry. I heard it at breakfast and had it recited to me over dinner. But perhaps the biggest surprise was to find it on television. An Arabian version of Big Brother closed before the end of its run, but Millions Poet, a Pop Idol-style knockout competition, drew a huge audience. The show, in which the pick of 6,000 poets slugged it out in rhyming couplets, was so successful that a sequel, Prince of Poets, is being filmed. And if that weren’t enough of a surprise, the last winner gave away most of his 1m dirham prize (about £130,000) and just kept the fame. It’s not what you’d expect of a boom town, but fits just fine in the emirate of culture.

Anthony Sattin travelled as a guest of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and Etihad Airways

Travel brief

Getting there: fly from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester or Dublin with Etihad (0870 241 7121, www.etihad airways.com) or from Heathrow with British Airways (0870 850 9850, www. ba.com). Returns start from £300.

Where to stay: the Emirates Palace (00 971 2 690 9000, www.emiratespalace.com; doubles from £226) lives up to its name: even the more modest rooms are royally kitted out. The Hilton International Abu Dhabi (0870 590 9090, www.hilton.com; doubles from £113) has a lively bar and restaurants, and is well located. The popular Beach Rotana Hotel (00 971 2 644 3000, www.rotana.com; doubles from £148) has a good range of food outlets and a busy beach.

Tour operators: Kuoni Travel (01306 747008, www.kuoni.co.uk) has five nights, B&B, at the Emirates Palace from £1,017pp, including Etihad flights from Heathrow and transfers. Five nights, B&B, at the Hilton Abu Dhabi costs from £759pp. Or try Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasons instyle.co.uk) or ITC Classics (01244 355550, www.itcclassics.co.uk). More information: Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (020 7201 6400, www.exploreabudhabi.ae).

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