Weekend Break Hotels

Kuwait offers some interesting opportunities to chill out from city life and get away from it all for a weekend. The Khiran area, 75km south of Messila, (where the 6th Ring Road meets Road 30), offers a number of resorts where rooms and beach chalets can be booked for KD 60-150 per night. Slightly closer to Kuwait City (55km from Messila) is the Kempinski Hotel that offers a popular Friday brunch, and has rooms available for those that do not fancy the drive home. Just 25km south of the city is the Hilton Beach Resort in Mangaf that offers facilities for those special occasions – rooms cost around KD 70-80 per night and it’s quite popular, and is often full of military personnel. Beachfront chalets that can host whole families are available, costing up to KD 300. The resorts further south are popular with inter-GCC traffic. Watch for the special summer rates normally available in July and August. If you prefer the outdoor life, during spring and autumn a number of desert camps operate. Facilities are fairly basic but a few days of ‘roughing it’ can be quite refreshing, although the desert landscape is remarkably flat. There may be opportunities to spot a little wildlife, and many camps provide distractions such as quad bikes to keep children (and adults) amused. The government is planning to develop Failaka Island as a major tourist attraction, catering to GCC citizens, residents and visitors alike. Khiran Map Ref 2-D4 Located 80km south of Kuwait City, Khiran is a popular weekend retreat for locals and expats. The area boasts golden beaches and the Khiran Resort (see p.124) was built by the Touristic Enterprise Company, a government-funded organisation, in the early 1980s. The resort includes a marina, amusement complex, restaurants, and pleasant gardens that are a real rarity in Kuwait. The resort is frequently fully booked so it’s better to phone in advance (562 8493 or 395 1122). To rival the resort a new development is under construction, The Pearl, which will be based around a series of man-made inland waterways. Weekend Breaks Outside Kuwait If you fancy getting away from Kuwait for a few days there are many interesting and varied opportunities just a short hop away in neighbouring GCC countries. The local operators, including Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, Gulf Air, Emirates, and Air Arabia, offer regular flights throughout the region, plus you may find a flight with one of the international carriers who often make stopovers. Depending on your nationality you may be eligible for a visa on arrival in certain GCC countries. Just remember, if you are in Kuwait on a visit visa and you leave, you will need another one to get back in. However, access is a little easier now the government allows 33 nationalities to obtain visas on arrival. Bahrain Bahrain is a popular jaunt for a quick break from Kuwait. There should be a little something for everyone, from the wide selection of fine dining (and drinking!) to a spot of shopping and sightseeing. You could visit a fort or two, take in a museum, have a spin around the new grand prix circuit or hop on a boat to one of Bahrain’s many islands. If you have a Kuwait residency visa you may be able to get a transit visa for Saudi, allowing you to drive to Bahrain. The drive takes about four hours but some delays may be experienced at the border, and women, who should be covered, are not allowed to travel alone or with a man to whom they are not related. You may therefore prefer to fly. For more information and inspiration, check out the Bahrain Explorer from Explorer Publishing. UAE Often described as the city of gold, a shopper’s paradise, and one of the best nights out in the Middle East, Dubai is by far the favourite destination in the Emirates. There’s so much to see and do you’re unlikely to fit everything into one weekend, but some visitor ‘musts’ include exploring the creek and the historic souks, enjoying the thrill of a desert safari, doing some serious shopping, and then treating yourself to some hard-earned pampering at one of Dubai’s luxury spas. The range of eating, drinking, and dancing options is also worth the airfare alone! Don’t forget the other emirates though, including Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Fujairah. There’s bags of culture and heritage to discover, no end of golden sandy beaches, and the east coast has some great snorkelling and diving sites. To help you make the most of any trip to the Emirates, don’t miss the Dubai Explorer, the Abu Dhabi Explorer, the UAE Off-Road Explorer, and the UAE Underwater Explorer – all from Explorer Publishing. Qatar Qatar once had something of a sleepy reputation, but things are changing fast and the amount of development and investment in the country means it is becoming increasingly popular with visitors. With an attractive corniche, world-class museums and cultural centres, and plenty of hotels with leisure and entertainment facilities, the capital Doha makes a perfect weekend retreat from Kuwait. The inland sea, or Khor Al Udaid, in the south of the country also makes a great day trip, usually as part of an organised tour. The Qatar Explorer from Explorer Publishing has details of all these activities and many more. Oman There are countless reasons to visit Oman, and with frequent flights from Kuwait there’s really no excuse not to. The Gulf of Oman’s rich sea life, the historic buildings, the wildlife, and the variety of unspoilt landscapes including vast dramatic deserts, rugged mountains and lush green wadis and valleys, are all things that you will remember fondly. The fascinating sights and sounds of the capital Muscat will provide more than enough to keep any weekend visitor busy, but Oman has much more. You should also consider exploring the Mussandam Peninsula with its amazing dive sites, the historic mountain towns and villages with stunning scenery, the turtle beaches in the east, and the blissful summer rain in the southern Dhofar region. For more information on all these areas, and details of all there is to see and do, see the Oman Explorer and the Oman Off-Road Explorer, both from Explorer Publishing.