As our top Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button join forces on the McLaren team for this season, we visit Bahrain, host of the inaugural 2010 Grand Prix held this weekend, where DAVID REDMOND takes a closer look at what this small island has to offer the adventurous

YOU'VE got everything  you want here!" shouts my Bahraini taxi driver with a level of enthusiasm he probably reaches only when he's got a Brit in the back of his cab. As we scream through the streets of the historic Muharraq district, passing ancient sand-blasted buildings rising from narrow alleys, men in traditional white dress chat away on their mobile phones. "Saudi Arabia is like one big jail compared with Bahrain, " he says.

Compared with its authoritarian neighbours, Bahrain is a liberal, safe, sunny jewel but it's not on many British tourists' radar.

A six-hour flight from the UK, the country was an oil-rich outpost of the British Empire until its independence in 1971. An island the size of Surrey, it sits off the coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by a long causeway. I go as far as the border, situated on an artificial island. On the other side of the fence, customs dogs bark as the green Saudi flag flaps in the breeze.

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Every weekend Saudis arrive by the car-load. Women come here to drive (they can't in Saudi) while young men hit the nightlife.

Bahrain used to be the biggest hitter in the region, the richest and most globalised Gulf nation.

Until, that is, a quiet desert town in the nearby United Arab Emirates got its act together.
That town was Dubai and now it's a city that Brits visit in their thousands. Back in the Sixties and Seventies, Bahrain was the jetset destination.

Concorde regularly landed here and the Gulf Hotel Bahrain, where I'm staying, was the most glamorous five-star resort, with lavish bars and restaurants. It's as ostentatious today with a showy glass entrance, marble sculptures, thick-piled carpet and gargantuan flower displays, yet my bedroom looks more like one from a boutique hotel with flat-screen TVs and decorated in neutral tones.

Black and white photos adorning the walls depict its golden age, with people relaxing on the sandy beach, lapped by the waters of the Arabian Gulf.

When I look out of my window, however, all I see is high-rise flats and offices. Land-hungry Bahrain reclaimed the beach, now replaced by a pool shaded by palm trees, a lovely place to while away an afternoon.

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Hotels are the main centres of entertainment and you can freely drink in the Gulf Hotel's 12 restaurants. My favourite was the Latininspired Margarita Mexicana where I drank the said cocktail and ate tacos. Waiters even come and make bespoke guacamole for you at your table. Mexican staff oversee it all, just as Japanese staff work at the Sato sushi restaurant next door.

I book a tour of the Bahrain International Circuit, host of this weekend's Grand Prix and marvel at the thoroughly modern track, built by workers slaving in the desert heat, both day and night. I blag access to Bahrain's most coveted vista, the top deck of the circuit's viewing tower. On race day only the family of Bahrain's monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa are allowed up to enjoy the 360-degree views of the track.

The family was also in attendance at the country's first International Airshow in January, held at the neighbouring Sakhir Airbase.

Not everything is as modern as the Grand Prix track. At the height of their naval empire, the Portuguese seized Bahrain in 1521 and ruled until 1602 when the Iranians threw them out of the moated Qal'at al-Bahrain fort they built. Now a World Heritage Site, it sits cheek by jowl with the glass-fronted skyscrapers of capital city Manama.

Next door is the swish new Qal'at al-Bahrain Museum, which rams home the point that the cradle of civilisation was located just a couple of hours' drive away in Babylon, now part of Iraq.

It is this vibrant history and culture that Bahrainis keep coming back to when I ask them why people should come here rather than visit the swanky superhotels of Dubai. Abdullah, whom I befriend, takes me round the souk in old Muharraq.

We go to a sweet shop and eat sticky, delicious baklava and sip cardamom-infused coffee from tiny cups as men babble away in Arabic about horse-racing, the sport of both kings and paupers. I look down the narrow streets lined with ramshackle stalls piled high with saffron, tea and dates.

Abdullah, a former Gulf Air steward, who now offers tours of the island, shows me something that changed the Emirate for ever.

We drive through dust and scrub to an oilfield.

Oil was discovered here in 1932 and nothing was ever the same again. Bahrainis became rich, international in outlook and better educated. The country had one of the world's first free schools programmes and the Gulf's first newspaper.

We go to the house of Abdullah Al Zayed, where the paper was published and the proprietor lived.

Nearby is a new modernist arts centre, the Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture. With its clean modern lines, it has to be one of the most sumptuous concert halls outside Europe, with air conditioning and plush white leather seats for classical music lovers to sink into.

From there, we go to lunch at Abdullah's favourite joint, Al Shoala, a restaurant near the airport. It's a scruffy, charming little place with plain decor and plastic chairs and it's full of drivers and office workers. He orders a delicious banquet of hummus, aubergine, tabouleh, spicy chicken, grilled lamb and freshly baked, fluffy flat bread.

While the eyes of the world may be on Bahrain this weekend, my visit has made me realise this tolerant and fascinating country has an enduring appeal beyond its world-class race track.

GETTING THERE:

Kanoo Travel (0207 761 7905/www.kanootravel.com) offers four nights at the five-star Gulf Hotel Bahrain from £1,294pp (two sharing).

Price includes return flights with Gulf Air from London Heathrow to Bahrain.

Gulf Hotel Bahrain (dialling from the UK: 00 973 1771 3000/www.gulfhotelbahrain.com).

Bahrain Tourism: www.bahraintourism.com