Category: Travel

Similar to Kuwait, speciality coffee places are starting to pick up in Beirut as well. On my latest trip I passed by two which I’d recommend checking out if you’re planning to visit Lebanon over the holidays. Check them out below:

The Backburner
This speciality coffee place opened up a couple of months ago in Saifi Village. It’s located on a quiet street next to the Trunk concept store and around the corner from Meat the Fish. It’s a small place with mostly indoor seating and a small bench right outside. They’re walking distance from downtown so they’re pretty convenient, here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account is @thebackburner

Kalei Coffee Co.
Kalei has also just been open for a couple of months now and is currently my new favorite spot in Beirut. They’re located in the popular Mar Mikhael area, walking distance from all the popular pubs, but they’re also tucked away in a quiet hidden alleyway, isolated from all the hustle and bustle. They’ve got an extremely cozy outdoor area and a spacious beautiful interior. Their desserts are pretty good with the carrot cake and flourless chocolate cake being the two I’d highly recommend. Here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account is @kaleicoffee.co

The new Kuwait Airways 777-300ER plane arrived to Kuwait over the weekend and will start operating on the Kuwait – London route soon.

You can get a peek at the interior of the new plane by watching the video above which was taken by Kuwait Airwyas pilot @capt_feras. According to information I found online the new plane has four classes, First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class. Below is more detailed information on all the classes along with photos taken by @eng_burezq:

Economy Class Cabin
236 seats
3-3-3 seat layout
32 inch seat pitch
18.5 inch seat width
In-flight Wi-Fi
Audio Video on demand Touchscreen monitor
USB port & laptop power

Premium Economy Cabin
54 seats
3-3-3 seat layout
35 inch seat pitch
18.5 inch seat width
In-flight Wi-Fi
Audio Video on demand Touchscreen monitor
USB port & laptop power

Business Class Cabin
36 seats
2-2-2 seat layout
62 inch seat pitch
21 inch seat width
In-flight Wi-Fi
180° Full Flat Bed
Audio Video on demand Touchscreen monitor
USB port & laptop power

First Class Cabin
8 seats
1-2-1 seat layout
84 inch seat pitch
22 inch seat width
In-flight Wi-Fi
180° Full Flat Bed
Audio Video on demand Touchscreen monitor
USB port & laptop power

Update: Below is another video the shows the interior pretty well

A reader just let me know there is a huge new parking lot that was recently constructed very close to the airport. Could this be our new long term parking lot where they shuttle passengers to the main terminal and back? I can’t imagine it being anything else since there is no building next to it and the lot seems huge, more than double the size of our current long term parking lot.

My theory is they’ll most likely convert the current long term parking lot into a short term lot since the current short term lot isn’t big enough. They would then completely move the long term parking lot away to this new location if it is in fact the new long term parking lot.

Does anybody have any information on this?
Here is the location of the new lot on [Google Maps]

Ever wondered where the airport valet park you car? I never did but a friend of mine with a dashcam recently gave his car to their valet, and the dashcam recorded the journey to the airport valet parking spot. It took around 7 minutes to get to the parking spot without any traffic, which explains why the wait to get the car back can easily exceed 20 minutes.

One thing this video made me realize is that the airport can build a large long term parking away from the airport and shuttle people back and forth. This would solve the current problem with not enough long term parking spots. I found the location of the valet parking on google maps and as you can see in the picture above, there is a large plot of land thats currently empty right next to it. That could easily be turned into a long term parking spot if they wanted to.

Just an FYI in case you’re curious, valet parking at the airport costs KD2 a day.

Back in August the MOI added the ability for tourists visiting Kuwait to apply for a visa online (eVisa). Yesterday a friend of mine tried it for the first time and she got her visa in 50 minutes. I thought that was pretty impressive. If you know someone visiting, have them apply for the visa online since it will speed up their entry at the airport. Here is the link for the eVisa online application [Website]

On the other hand my post about the Dubai eVisa dating back to last year has turned into a Dubai eVisa support page for some reason. I guess people who are having trouble getting their eVisa are googling and ending up on my post. It has over 400 comments now and I think a Dubai eVisa employee keeps checking the page since there is this one guy who keeps answering everybody’s questions. You can check that post [Here]

Back in August I posted that a Wataniya Airways representative contacted me to let me know they were planning to make a comeback sometime around December/January and it looks like they’re on track. Although no official announcement has been made, the Wataniya Airways website is now up and they’ve listed their flight destinations which are the following:

Bahrain
Egypt
India
Jordan
Lebanon
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
UAE

Sadly, no European destinations which is what I think was their issue the first time around. Instead of competing with Kuwait Airways with direct flights to European destinations, they were flying regional and competing with a bunch of low cost airlines. I’m sure it has to do with the fact their current planes can’t do long haul flight but if they did fly to London for example, they would only be competing with Kuwait Airways and British Airways with direct flights. On the other hand, by flying to Dubai they’re competing with Kuwait Airways, FlyDubai, Jazeera Airways, Air Arabia and Emirates.

But I’ve never run an airline so I’m probably wrong. Here is a link to their [Website]

For those of you who don’t know Wataniya Airways, they’re a local carrier that launched back in 2009 as a premium airline but ended up losing money and shutting down. Wikipedia have a good summary of the airlines history which you can read [Here]

Jazeera Airways finally launched their remote check-in facility and it’s located around 2 minutes from the main airport terminal. From what I can see there are two big advantages to this new facility.

The first advantage is the fact you won’t get stuck in the insane traffic at the main terminal. Sometimes the traffic at the main terminal reaches the roundabout and not just during Eid. So being able to bypass all that to check-in is a huge plus.

The second advantage is long term parking. The long term parking at the main terminal is a hit and miss, if you’re traveling on the weekend you won’t find a spot for sure and if you’re traveling mid week it depends on your luck. The new Jazeera Airways check-in facility has it’s own parking. They have valet and you could also park your car yourself and the cost is KD2.5 a day. It’s 500 fils more expensive than the main terminal long term parking lot but at least you’ll find a spot to park.

I still prefer FlyDubai when flying out to Dubai but I might start using Jazeera Airways to Beirut. I hope they fix up the interior of their planes since the last few times I flew with them I found the interiors to be old and dirty looking.

For more info on their Park & Fly service click [Here]

I “conveniently” just got back today, right before Eid.

[poll id=”7″]

If yes, let me know where in the comments below.

The local Korean Embassy along with HanKut Diwaniya are organizing a cultural tourist trip to South Korea during the cherry blossom season. The trip is taking place from March 31st to April 15th 2but the last day to register is this coming September the 17th.

This is not a free trip. If you’re interested to get more details including the cost then send an email to [email protected]

Whenever I fly to Dubai I tend to take FlyDubai and land at the main Dubai International Airport (DXB) like most people. But on my last trip I decided to fly out to the less popular Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) instead. The timings worked better for me compared to the DXB route and since I was staying in Dubai Marina, the distance from DWC to Dubai Marina was practically the same as DXB to Marina so that worked out in my favor.

The Al Maktoum International Airport isn’t anything close in size and amenities when compared to DXB Terminal 3 where Emirates flies in and out from, but compared to Terminal 2 which FlyDubai uses, Al Maktoum is pretty much the same. The biggest difference between the two is the amount of traffic inside and outside the airport since Al Maktoum doesn’t have anywhere near as much crowds as Terminal 2 does, or at least when I was there. On arrival we were the only plane that had landed and on departure I think there was one or two other planes leaving besides mine. The airport was pretty much empty the whole time and even once I walked out of the airport it was the same story there, no need to wait in line for a taxi and the highway to Dubai Marina was barren with barely any other cars on the road. On departure there was plenty of seating surrounding a pretty large sized duty free area and you also had your usual suspects like Starbucks, Costa and McDonalds in the food court.

Depending on where you’re staying in Dubai though it might or might not make sense to fly out to Al Maktoum International Airport. In my case staying in Dubai Marina allowed me to choose between the DXB or DWC airports since both were similar distance apart. But if you’re staying in downtown, the distance from DWC to downtown by car would be considerably longer than DXB to downtown (40 mins vs 15 mins). Personally, I’ll be using Al Maktoum again the next time I’m staying in Dubai Marina, it was just a chill experience without all the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded terminal 2.

Whoever they put in charge of the Jazeera Airways lounge design should have been put in charge of the Pearl Lounge revamp. The new lounge is located next to gate B3 and I’m trying to find out if you can get access to it using certain credit cards but I doubt it.

Jazeera Airways has been granted approval by the Kuwait Council of Ministers for land to build a dedicated passenger terminal and car park buildings at Kuwait International Airport.

The terminal is a solution proposed by the airline to help ease the congestion at Kuwait International Airport, the country’s only primary airport, which is currently operating over capacity.

The project’s investment value is KD14 million ($46.232), and its total construction time frame is 15 months, including the permits acquisitions phase.

The terminal is part of the airline’s ‘Next Big Thing’ series of value boosting projects and initiatives tasked with creating a better travel experience on ground and in the air. Other initiatives include a remote check-in facility, in-flight broadband internet, a business class lounge, and long-haul flights. [Source]

Rumors of a dedicated Jazeera Airways terminal had been floating around for years and it looks like they finally got the approval from the government. Until the new terminal is built, Jazeera Airways are setting up a remote check-in station for the current airport:

Remote Check-in
Jazeera are building a check-in facility two minutes away from the main airport terminal. You arrive at the facility where parking valets will meet you, unload your baggage and then park your car for you. You then check in your baggage at this facility and get your boarding pass before being shuttled to the main terminal where you can head straight to immigration. The idea here is that you’ll bypass the airports congestion by skipping the whole parking and check-in process at the main terminal. They’ve already started construction on this facility and it should be operational by the end of this year. [Source]

So if I am to understand this correctly, we will end up having a total of 4 different terminals. We have the current main terminal at the Kuwait International Airport, the Sheikh Saad terminal, the huge new terminal that will start construction soon and now the Jazeera terminal. Nice.

According to a source of mine, the Ministry of Public Works announced that the consortium of Al Kharafi and the Turkish firm Limak will begin construction on the new airport from September 1st. The project contract states that construction would take six years but Limak have stated they would have it completed in just four and half years. So if everything goes according to plan, the new airport should be ready in 2021.

[YouTube]

Thanks KB

Make sure you get to the airport super early and email me photos from the airport if it looks insanely overpacked like the picture above which was taken this past weekend.

Update: A reader @BoozAzzouz took the photo below earlier today, I’m guessing you’re going to have to get to the airport at least 3-4 hours earlier to make sure you don’t miss your flight.

According to a recent news report on Al Rai, the Kuwait Airport have updated the security screening stations on departure. The airport increased the security stations from a previous total of four to a new total of six. One station for first/business class passengers as well as flight crew, two for GCC residents and three machines now for expats.

On a related note, Kuwait Airways no longer flies direct to New York but instead has to stop in Ireland for a security check before continuing to the States. I understood that it’s due to the poor security checks at the Kuwait Airport. United Airlines stopped their Kuwait – Washington route earlier this year and one of the rumored reasons was because of poor airport security and it makes sense now. Last year there were also rumors that British Airways would halt all flights from Kuwait unless security at the airport was improved.