Kuwait travel guide: the bay, the desert and Failaka

Quick answer · where to go in Kuwait

Base yourself in Kuwait City and you are within an hour of everything. Give the first day to Souq Al-Mubarakiya and the museums behind the waterfront, the second to Failaka by ferry, and a third to either the southern coast at Fahaheel and Al Ahmadi or Jahra and the desert behind it. Come between November and March. That is camping season, the weather is the reason to be outdoors, and the summer is not.

All regions Kuwait City & the bay The southern coast Jahra & the desert The islands & the north

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Kuwait City

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Fun fact

One number worth knowing

The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway crosses Kuwait Bay in a single 36-kilometre run, and 34.1 kilometres of it stands above open water, the longest offshore section of any bridge built anywhere. It opened on 1 May 2019 after five and a half years of construction, at a cost of about 3.6 billion dollars, and it replaced a long loop inland around the head of the bay.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to behave once you land.

"Kuwait is Dubai with less to do."

The realityThey are not the same kind of place, and the comparison sets the wrong expectation. Kuwait never built an economy on tourism, so there is no manufactured attraction circuit, no nightlife and no resort strip. What there is instead is a working Gulf city with a two-hundred-year-old market, a serious museum habit and a coastline people actually use. Come for the country, not for a holiday product.

"There is nothing here older than the oil."

The realityFailaka has a Bronze Age Dilmun settlement underneath a Hellenistic garrison town, and a joint Kuwaiti-Danish team was still uncovering a temple from around 1900 BC there in the 2020s. Alexander's officers named the island Ikaros and left an inscription recording the fact. The oil arrived four thousand years into the story.

"It is too hot to visit."

The realityIt is, for four months. June to September sits in the mid-forties and the day moves indoors. From November to March the average high runs between about 19C and 27C, which is precisely why the entire country decamps to the desert then. Pick the season and the objection disappears.

"The 1990 invasion flattened it and it never came back."

The realityKuwait rebuilt, and quickly. Mubarakiya was restored after the damage and trades every evening. What was deliberately left standing was left as memorial rather than neglect, and the museums behind the waterfront treat the occupation as history to be documented rather than a subject to avoid.

That Kuwait is a stopover with nothing in it, when three days barely covers the capital.That a dry country means a dull evening, when the souq, the coffee houses and the karak stalls are open until very late.That the whole place is air-conditioned mall, when winter here is spent in a tent in the desert by choice.That the Gulf states are interchangeable, when Kuwait has an elected parliament, a diwaniya culture and almost no tourism industry, none of which its neighbours share.That the desert is empty, when from November to March it is a temporary city of family camps with generators, carpets and satellite dishes.That everything closes on Friday, when what happens is an hour around midday prayers and then a very busy afternoon.

Cultural notes that actually help

Cover shoulders and knees in public. Malls, souqs and government buildings take it seriously, and swimwear belongs at a hotel pool or a beach club.
Take alcohol out of your thinking entirely, including at the airport. There is no grey area and no hotel exception here.
During Ramadan, do not eat, drink or smoke in public between sunrise and sunset. It is an offence under a 1968 law rather than a matter of manners, and it applies to visitors.
The weekend is Friday and Saturday, and the working week runs Sunday to Thursday. Book anything official for a Sunday.
Coffee and dates are offered on arrival almost everywhere. Take them, and take a second cup before shaking the cup to signal you are done.
Ask before photographing people, and do not photograph anything military, government or oil-related. That last one is enforced.
The diwaniya, an evening sitting room where men gather to talk, is the centre of Kuwaiti social life. An invitation to one is a real one, and worth accepting.

Famous Kuwaiti faces

The names behind Kuwaiti writing, television, sport, music and art. Pick a field.

Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

Emir from 2006 to 2020 and foreign minister for four decades before that, known across the region as a mediator between Arab states

Suad Al-Sabah

Poet and economist. She read economics and politics at Cairo University and took a doctorate in economics at Surrey, and her publishing house has backed Arab writers for decades

Ismail Fahd Ismail

Novelist, and the man usually called the father of the Kuwaiti novel. His first short-story collection appeared in 1965 and his first novel in 1970, followed by more than twenty others

Fehaid Al-Deehani

Sport shooter and the first Kuwaiti to win an Olympic gold, taking the double trap at Rio 2016

Bader Al-Mutawa

Footballer with 202 caps for Kuwait, which puts him among the most-capped international players in the history of the game

Hayat Al-Fahad

Actress, broadcaster, writer and producer, and one of the defining names of Gulf television for half a century

Naif Al-Mutawa

Clinical psychologist who created The 99, a comic series whose heroes each draw a power from one of the ninety-nine attributes of God

Nawal El Kuwaitia

Singer, and one of the biggest names in Khaleeji music since the 1980s

Mubarak Al-Sabah

The ruler known as Mubarak the Great, who set modern Kuwait's course at the turn of the twentieth century and built the Red Fort at Jahra in 1897

Monira Al Qadiri

Contemporary artist working in sculpture, installation and video, whose work turns the oil economy into iridescent objects. Born in Senegal, raised in Kuwait, trained in Japan

Abdullah Al Rowaished

Singer and oud player, a fixture of Gulf pop since the 1980s and still filling halls across the region

Fawzi Al-Shammari

Sprinter, and Kuwait's best-known name on an athletics track through the 2000s

Must-try Kuwaiti food

Loomi, cracked wheat and a lot of rice. Pick a category.

Machboos

The national dish: spiced rice cooked with lamb, chicken or fish, defined by loomi (dried lime) and served with daqoos, a thin tomato sauce poured over the top.

Harees

Cracked wheat and meat cooked down for hours into a smooth, savoury mash. One of the oldest dishes here and a fixture of Ramadan tables.

Jireesh

Coarsely milled wheat simmered with chicken or lamb and tomato. Home cooking rather than restaurant cooking, and better for it.

Gabout

Stuffed dumplings dropped into a rich meat stew. The comfort dish of a cold desert night.

Murabyan

Shrimp and rice cooked together with cardamom, cloves and bay, often with mung beans or lentils. The clearest surviving trace of Kuwait's sea-trading kitchen.

Mutabbaq zubaidi

Zubaidi, the silver pomfret Kuwait treats as its national fish, fried and served over rice simmered in its own stock with caramelised onion.

Balaleet

Sweet vermicelli with cardamom, rose water and saffron, laid under a plain omelette. Breakfast, and the sweet-and-savoury combination that divides visitors.

Luqaimat

Yeasted dough balls fried until they crack, then drenched in date syrup or saffron sugar syrup. Sold everywhere in Ramadan and eaten hot.

Gers ogaily

A saffron and cardamom sponge baked in a ring tin, cut into wedges and served with tea. The cake Kuwaiti households make for visitors.

Khabees

Flour roasted in ghee until it turns nutty, then sweetened and spiced into a dense, warm pudding.

Darabeel

Wafer-thin rolled layers of flour, egg, milk and sugar, scented with cardamom or cinnamon. Brittle, and best with coffee.

Rangeena

Dates under a topping of roasted flour and nuts. Three ingredients, and the one dessert that tastes most like the desert it comes from.

Karak chai

Strong black tea boiled with evaporated milk, sugar and cardamom, sold from hatches along the Gulf Road and drunk at every hour. In a country with no bars, this is the evening.

Kuwait travel FAQ

Do you need a visa for Kuwait?+

Most Western visitors do not arrange one far ahead. Nationals of the EU and Schengen states, the UK, the US and Canada among others can apply for an eVisa or take a visa on arrival at Kuwait International Airport for a short tourist stay, and GCC nationals need neither. Your passport needs six months of validity and a free page. Check your own nationality against the Ministry of Interior's current list before booking, because the eligible list changes.

Can you drink alcohol in Kuwait?+

No. Kuwait is a dry country in the strict sense: buying, selling, importing, carrying and drinking alcohol are all illegal, and unlike Qatar or the UAE there are no licensed hotel bars or restaurants at all. Penalties run to fines, imprisonment and deportation, and the ban is enforced at the airport, so leave duty free behind. Plan evenings around food, coffee houses and karak instead, which is what Kuwait does.

When is the best time to visit Kuwait?+

November to March, without much argument. Daytime highs run from the high teens to the mid-twenties, the desert camping season is on, and March can bring a flowering desert after a wet winter. June to September sits in the mid-forties and moves the entire day indoors. Late February is the busiest window of the year because National Day and Liberation Day fall on the 25th and 26th.

How many days do you need in Kuwait?+

Three days is enough for the capital: the souq, the museums behind the waterfront, the Kuwait Towers and an evening on the Gulf Road. Give it five and you can add a full day on Failaka, a run south to Fahaheel and Al Ahmadi, and an afternoon at Jahra and the desert behind it. Kuwait rewards a stopover better than it rewards a fortnight.

What should you wear in Kuwait?+

Cover shoulders and knees in public, and expect that to be taken seriously in the souq, in malls and in any government building. Swimwear is for a hotel pool or a beach club, not the corniche. Visiting women are not required to cover their hair, though a scarf is needed to enter a mosque. In summer, loose long sleeves are more comfortable than less clothing anyway.

Is Kuwait walkable, or do you need a car?+

You need wheels. The buses are built for commuters rather than visitors, and the distances between the capital, the southern coast and Jahra are short by car and impossible on foot in the heat. Ride-hailing apps work well and cover most of a trip; a hire car is worth it if you want the desert or the causeway north. Two stretches genuinely walk well in winter: the old centre around Mubarakiya, and the Salmiya waterfront.

Kuwait, the bay, the desert and Failaka