Originally Posted by
STBCypriot
I just transitted through Abu Dhabi on 20 and 29 December 2013 and Etihad put me up in a hotel on Yas Island both nights instead of the airport transit hotel. I hold a US passport. No visa was required.
From a practical perspective you are correct, but I believe from a technical perspective a visa is required to enter the UAE. The passport stamp you received leaving the Abu Dhabi airport was a visa good for usually 30 days.
One of the long time ME posters will soon correct me if I am the one technically wrong.