Filming locations in Abu Dhabi

Visiting Abu Dhabi: a set-jetting guide. The Emirati capital opens onto the vast dunes of the Empty Quarter at Liwa, whose towering sands stood in for the desert planet Arrakis in Denis Villeneuve's Dune. Those colossal dunes, some among the tallest on earth, lent the film its sense of an alien, spice-blown world, and they sit a few hours inland from the coast, a genuine expedition rather than a quick photo stop.

The single location here is the Liwa Desert, the remote stretch of the Empty Quarter that doubles for the sands of Arrakis. Reaching it means a long drive from the city of Abu Dhabi, deep into a landscape of rolling, wind-sculpted dunes that swallow the horizon. This is not a place to wander into unprepared, the scale is enormous and the emptiness total, which is precisely what made it such a convincing other world on screen.

Go with a desert-tour operator who knows the terrain, both for the dune drives that get you out among the big sands and for safety in such a remote place. Tal Moreeb, one of the tallest dunes anywhere, is the headline feature, and the dramatic Qasr Al Sarab resort set among the dunes makes a striking base if you want to stay out overnight rather than make it a single long day.

The crucial practical note is the season: summers in the Empty Quarter are punishingly hot, so the cooler months are far kinder for any time spent on the sand. Treat Liwa as the centrepiece of a wider Emirati trip, pairing the silence of the desert with the city of Abu Dhabi on the coast, and let the contrast between gleaming capital and endless dunes carry the journey, just as the film leaned on that same emptiness.