When I arrived at Manama International Airport on 17th November 2016 during a shining day, I was impressed. The country looked very open to foreigners and the infrastructure seemed beautiful. However, after spending a day in Manama, the SaudisĀ came as flood at Friday night, and my perception suddenly got changed. But let’s have a look at my 3 days visit to this beautiful Island nation located on the western shores of Persian Gulf.
Visa & Flight Tickets to Bahrain
The first thing you need to do is to plan your visit to Bahrain (if you are interested), and for that you’ll need a visa to enter Bahrain and also you’ll have to book a flight. The Bahrain visa thing I’ve explained in my previous post. And for flight, I’ll recommend Qatar Airways, as it operates flights from 150 destinations worldwide, and is very cheap option to Bahrain. I also like to use Flydubai and Emirates for this destination. but Gulf Air is the national carrier of Bahrain, so you can use that as well.
As I was in Doha Qatar, so I booked my inbound flight from there which cost me $100 via Qatar Airways, and it was the shortest flight of my travel journey so far (Only 35 minutes flight duration). My outbound flight was from Bahrain to Istanbul Turkey via FlyDubai which cost me $250.
Accommodation & Transportation + Food
Hotel Rooms
Hotel room is very easy to book for Bahrain, and there are hundreds of hotels available from one star to five star. I always look for lower-priced hotels/hostels to save money during my travels. But for Bahrain, I didn’t care about that and booked a 3 star hotel for $80 bucks per night. The hotel had all the facilities including WiFi and in-house clubs. I use Agoda.com for booking hotels in advance, and I stayed at “Gulf Gate Hotel” in Manama for two days (November 2016). The last day I stayed with a friend in Manama. AirBNB also has some really nice prices for this country. do check that out.
Transportation
Transportation is easy and modern like other gulf states such as United Arab Emirates. The official licensed taxi is available outside the Bahrain International Airport which will take you to the city center, and it’ll cost you around 5 BD which is equal to $18 USD. And when you are in the city, you can find a lot of world class buses running on the roads, simply get into one and explore the city. And you can also find taxis in the city for minimal charges.
Foods & Cuisines
Frankly speaking, I’m not very interested in Chinese, Italian and Thai foods, and I rarely taste them. As I’m ethnically Central Asian and located in South Asia, so I can bear Central Asian food (Especially Afghani), Arabic Food, Turkish Cuisine, Indian Masala and Pakistani Biryani. And I like fast food too, so what I’m saying is that I found most of the food in Bahrain which I mentioned for myself here š and you can try finding what you like. The pricing is same like Dubai & Doha, not very expensive and not very cheap (Simply affordable).
The Popular Attractions in Bahrain
I stayed in Bahrain for up to 3 days, and I tried to visit as many places as I could. It’s a small country with a population of around 1.2 million from which half is expat community. The best thing is that it’s the most liberal country in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), local Arabic people in this country are very chilled and not like the other Arabic crowns. Local people can be found everywhere in the country doing jobs from driver to shopkeeper.
There are some very unique traditional markets in the Bab al BahrainĀ area which is located near City Center, you can find some very interesting and unique things to buy against a reasonable and cheaper rate. I liked that market and spend a few hours exploring it and did some shopping as well.
The city center in Manama is one of the biggest shopping malls in the whole middle east. You’ll find every brand there, the prices are again same or less than Dubai. But you’re gonna love exploring the shopping mall itself.
The Bahrain National Museum is one of the historical and nicest thing you can look for in Bahrain, that’s located on the King Faisal Highway in Manama, and you can easily reach there. You’ll find all the history of Bahrain in that Museum.
Tree of life is another historical and great place to visit, it’s located in Riffa city of Bahrain, some 30KM away from capital Manama. It took us 45 minutes to reach there, as some roads are not in good condition. This tree is 400 years old and still green. I have recorded videos of everything in Bahrain, so you can enjoy that too.
The last thing I visited in Bahrain was Amwaj Lagoon Island which is an artificially created Island located in the Muharraq area of Manama city, it’s 20 KM away from the city center, but it’s really amazing place to explore and spend some time.
When I arrived in Bahrain, it was Wednesday and the whole country looked very wide, clean, quite and simply awesome. But the next day in the evening, the Saudi People arrived for spending their holidays in Bahrain, and the whole city (Manama) looked like a rushy place, even traffic was jammed. Then I came to know from local people that Saudis come to Bahrain for spending weekend here, and enjoy the liberal environment such as clubs, alcoholĀ and discos. I looked very poor among them š
VideosĀ from my Bahrain Tour
Conclusion:Ā
The Bahrain tour was overall a nice experience, the weather was just awesome in November, the country is not very expensive and visa is accessible to almost every nationality. Remember to follow the laws of that country and don’t make unnecessary arguments with locals. I appreciate your calmness to read this tour guide š leave your comments if you have any questions. Thank You and Happy Traveling….
