The UAE seems to see a major hotel open every week. And that is only a slight exaggeration.

Every luxury brand is here, sometimes several times over. I believe we have at least three Fairmonts in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. I might be missing one. A couple of Ritzes, a Kempinski … name a brand and it’s here, mostly in Dubai.

A sort of standing joke, when another place opens, is, “Oh, good; we needed another hotel.” The remarkable thing is, those in Dubai are nearly full, this time of year, and those in Abu Dhabi get about 80 percent occupancy.

The other night, we spent a few hours in one of the newer big hotels in the capital, the Jumeirah Etihad Towers. A place with the slogan: “Irresistibly comfortable. Stylishly cosmopolitan.”

And how did we find it?

In a word … confusing.

We didn’t just roll into town, and we have been inside a few of the big hotels, but we had fairly severe trouble negotiating the place.

In part, because it is so enormous. Five towers, three of which are residential, only one of which is the hotel. (The fifth is a business tower.)

Not as enormous as Emirates Palace, the Taj Mahal-inspired hotel which is across the street from the Jumeirah Etihad Towers, and, I am going to assume, the Palace retains its title as the heavyweight champion of Abu Dhabi hotels. (This is the one with the gold-dispensing ATM.)

We made the trip up to the Corniche because the National Symphony Orchestra was performing at the Jumeirah Etihad Towers.

Before this trip, the hotel was probably best known (to me) for two concepts:

1. As the place where Etihad Airways sends passengers who choose to spend some time in the UAE, after they land here to change planes.

2. As perhaps the most upscale shopping destination in the city.

It is the latter that gets the most attention.

If the UAE is a repository of upscale hotels, the Jumeirah Etihad Towers is the epicenter of Abu Dhabi’s expensive shops, an area known as The Avenue. Pick a name. Hermes, Ferragamo,Givenchy, Manolo Blahnik, Bulgari, Piaget, Cartier … and it’s there.

We were never going to do more than gawk there, but we saw it, and felt the dismissive gazes of shopkeepers sizing us up.

We also looked for the rooftop bar there, name of Ray’s, and it has great views, and the drinks are reasonably priced, but space is limited and tables are arranged in such a way that conversation is nearly impossible. A thumping Friday-night music beat didn’t help.

We were there mostly to hear the symphony, and it was fine, especially considering it has been around only since 2011.

It would be nicer for the musicians if they played in an auditorium. The Towers apparently doesn’t have one, or the symphony didn’t get it, because they played in a large ballroom, and the acoustics were less than ideal.

Eventually, we found our way out of the place, but took some work and several stops for directions.

Jumeirah Etihad Towers — opulent, shiny, glittering, all that, but not really a place for a symphony, and not a place for regular folks.