Category: Travel

I like how the GCC is starting to open up to each other. After Saudi opened its borders to GCC residents a few weeks ago, now Oman announced that any GCC resident could enter Oman without even needing a visa (source).

I have to embarrassingly confess I’ve never been to Oman but it is on my to-do list. I’ve actually been thinking of just driving there since it’s definitely a place I’d want to have a car and go driving around for a couple of weeks. From the pictures, it seems like such a beautiful and chill place, and it’s so close to Kuwait.

It doesn’t look like there are any conditions for entering Oman other than the fact that your Kuwaiti residency should be valid for a minimum of three months. I’m sure this is great news for a lot of people.

Starting October 30th, the ultra-low-cost airline, Wizz Air will begin operating daily flights to Kuwait from Abu Dhabi. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is partially owned by the Hungarian Wizz Air but is majority owned by ADQ (formerly called Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company) and operates out of the Abu Dhabi International Airport.

I just tried booking a weekend flight to Abu Dhabi and ended up with a $49 two-way ticket which equates to around 15.5KD, so this price is real. But, because it’s a budget airline, you pay for every single extra thing you need. So for example, the $49 doesn’t allow you to take a carry-on bag on the plane, just a backpack. If you want a carry-on, that’s an extra 9$ each way but you could fit a weekend’s worth of clothes in a backpack so it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep your ticket price under $50 .

15KD to fly to Abu Dhabi for the weekend is a really great price obviously, thats cheaper than a padel court rental. Once you’re in Abu Dhabi there are quite a lot of things to do including visiting Ferrari World or the beautiful Louvre Abu Dhabi (pictured above). You could also rent a car and split your time between Abu Dhabi and Dubai which is just an hour away. I’m sure as more demand kicks in the prices will go up but for now, if you want to take advantage of the 15KD tickets, you should get your ticket asap. wizzair.com

LPM

Since getting a visa to Saudi is so easy now I figured I’d share a list of some popular fine dining restaurants in Riyadh. Fine dining isn’t something we have a lot of in Kuwait so turning a trip to Riyadh into a dining experience is really easy.

AOK Kitchen

When I’m driving to Riyadh I tend to get there around lunch and Cipriani is usually my first stop. I actually think about lunch during the drive since it’s like a reward at the end of the long journey. Anyway, check out the list below of some of the popular fine dining spots in Riyadh:

Beefbar

Amazonico
AOK Kitchen
Beefbar
Billionaire
Cipriani
Coya
LPM
Myazu
Nobu
Nusret
Zuma

If there is anything else you think should be on the list let me know:

The Skytrax World Airline Awards 2022 was announced and although Kuwait Airways was nowhere near the top of the list, they did make it as one of the top 10 most improved airlines for 2022. Kuwait Airways moved up from 179th place to 76th place which is 103 places in just a year. This year’s best airline on the other hand award went to Qatar Airways while Emirates came in third place.

Here is a link to the top 10 most improved airlines list.
and Here is a link to the “World’s Top 100 Airlines in 2022” list.

On Thursday morning I headed to Dubai in my car for the weekend and just got back last night. I had a few things I needed to do on this trip, first thing was to stop at Abu Dhabi since I have a car being restored there and I needed to check on it and take it out for a test drive. Then I needed to head to Dubai because I had some things I needed to install on my car at Arctic Trucks (Mountain Top roll cover and sports bar, and Rival4X4 skid plates). Finally, on my way back I also needed to stop over in Khobar for work.

Kuwait to Dubai is a very doable trip. Its long, and it’s not something I’d do often, but it would be something I’d be willing to do if I needed to get something from Dubai which we don’t have in Kuwait. Like a couch or something, I don’t know, I just like the idea that if I found something in Dubai that I can’t ship to Kuwait or bring back on a plane with me, then I can just drive there pick it up and come back.

So here is everything you need to know in case you want to do the same trip. This also applies to driving to Qatar since you drive by the Qatari border on the way to the UAE one.

Trip Duration
I left my place in Salmiya at around 6AM, and got to my hotel in Abu Dhabi by 6PM Dubai time (5PM Kuwait time). The trip took exactly 11 hours including stopping for breakfast, a few photoshoot stops, and all the border crossings. If you’re heading to Dubai directly just add another hour on to the trip.

Google Maps
Trusting Google Maps will take you on the best route is not the best idea in the world but it’s something we do. At one part of the trip it made me exit the main highway and go through a tiny road where I swear I read a sign that said for use by ARAMCO contractors only. I wasn’t sure if 30 minutes later I’d end up at a security gate and have to turn back, I just hoped I’d end up back on the main road eventually. It did take me back to the main road but this brings up an important thing which is my trip could be different from yours. Yesterday coming back from Khobar Google sent me on a different and nicer road than my last trip back so just be aware of that.

Kuwait to the UAE Borders
I’ve already covered driving through Saudi in my previous post and the same rules apply here again. The Saudi leg of the journey although long actually passed by really quickly. The thing about driving in Saudi is the roads and scenery change very frequently. There isn’t just one straight highway from here to UAE and so the journey feels a lot more interesting since you drive through a variety of terrain and road types. You could be on a highway for 30 minutes, then a back road for 30 minutes, then driving through a coastal town for an hour, then through sand dunes for another hour, etc. The only issue I faced on this trip was the lack of fuel stations.

I think I counted 8 fuel stations that were open from Kuwait to the UAE borders, and that’s including both sides of the highway. This was the only thing that made me anxious on the way because I didn’t know if I’d find a gas station on the road ahead or not. Google Maps isn’t helpful and at one point when I needed fuel I used Google Maps to find one in a village I was driving by and Google Maps took me to a gas station under construction, and then another gas station that turned out to be a garage. So in case you need them, here are some fuel stations where I filled up at:

First stop after the Saudi borders. There is a McDonalds there so you can also have breakfast: https://goo.gl/maps/LFhKgeHkmmekjxUi8

Second station I filled at. This was in a village when I wasn’t sure if I’d find another station on the highway ahead (turns out there was): https://goo.gl/maps/CUh3oL2nteFyhfNx7

This is to where you should fill up instead of the village station I mentioned above: https://goo.gl/maps/k6zDv9PrLGMvf3FL9

For my third stop I used this station. It’s located on the other side of the road but it’s easy to U-turn to and get to. It’s located in a beach town called Salwa and it’s near the Qatar border: https://goo.gl/maps/dbY3HRz4dr7bv9Hq9

Last station before UAE border. You should fill up here before crossing into the UAE. https://goo.gl/maps/U7sdkoJRGd868hMD6

So basically there were around 4 fuel stations on the way to the UAE with the rest all closed down, abandoned or located in villages and towns out of your way.

Qatar
As I mentioned at the start of this post, you need to drive by the Qatar border to get to UAE. At one point you’ll get to a roundabout where if you go straight you get to the Qatar border, or if you turn right you head towards UAE. Because I didn’t cross into Qatar and experience the trip to Doha, I didn’t make this a Qatar guide as well.

UAE Border
Once I got to the UAE border the process was fairly easy at the Saudi side. It was just me and another car crossing at that time. The guy at the window didn’t even take my passport, I had opened my passport to the visa number page and held it out of the window to give it to him and he just looked at the number and typed it out on the computer and handed me a slip. The UAE side of the border was super nice, multiple lanes and looks like a proper border. I had to drive through an X-ray machine first before arriving to passport control. Even though I usually use the eGate when I arrive to Dubai, after giving the border guy my passport he told me I needed to drive around to the immigration building and get my passport stamped there. It wasn’t busy so the process there was also fast, I filled up a paper and had my iris scanned and then got the passport stamped. I got back into my car and then drove through the border. I had to get car insurance before leaving the border, the minimum duration was 2 weeks and it cost 210AED.

UAE Border to Abu Dhabi
As soon as you get into UAE you’re suddenly on a proper 3 lane highway with a speed limit of 160KM/h. The fuel stations on this road are also a lot nicer than Saudi, and the convenience stores and bathrooms at the stations are proper. I stopped at the first one to fill up and get a sandwich and coffee for the remaining leg of the trip. This was actually my least favorite part of the whole trip. It was around 3 hours of driving in a straight line going 160km/h with the exact same scenery. It was super boring.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai Toll Gates
So this is something I was hoping to work out but couldn’t really do it properly. So Abu Dhabi has toll gates on the road called DARB. I couldn’t figure out how to get it working with my Kuwaiti license plates and I need to check and see if I have any tolls so I can pay them before I get at fine. In Dubai they use Salik and I picked up a Salik tag with 100aed on it from a gas station on my way to Dubai. I couldn’t get it set up. Firstly I couldn’t access the Salik website using my phone data (you can’t use the App btw if foreign plates). Then when I did access the website using a shops wifi, it wouldn’t send me the OTP to my phone to verify. Luckily Google Maps has an option to avoid roads with tolls and I used that. Next day I set up Salik with my friends phone number who lives in Dubai and it worked. But it also told him that it would take up to 5 days to activate. They then called him this morning because they needed my car chassis number, he gave them my number and they spoke to me while I was typing this post up. My Salik is now active and any toll gates I passed under while I was in Dubai will now be deducted from my Salik account.

The best option to keep things simple is tell Google Maps not to use roads with tolls.

UAE to Kuwait
On the trip back to Kuwait I stopped in Khobar. I was meant to spend the night there but I ended up arriving quicker than I expected and once my meeting finished I realized I could make it to the Kuwait borders by 6PM (when there would still be some light). On the way back I left Dubai at 6:20AM (so 5:20AM Kuwait time). I headed to Khobar first, took the scenic route and stopped a few times for photos. I got to Khobar at 1:40PM (so 2:40PM Dubai Time). I was done with my meeting by 2:50 and figured if I skipped lunch and stopped for fuel only once I could make it to the Kuwait borders by 6PM. You do not want to drive on Saudi roads in the dark. I crossed the borders by 5:53PM. What sucked was that Google this time took me through a very scenic seaside road back to Kuwait and I couldn’t stop to take pictures because of my schedule.

Cost Breakdown
Here is the cost for the journey that includes my fuel stops and car insurance:

Saudi
138SAR – Saudi car Insurance
78SAR first fuel stop
95SAR second fuel stop
50SAR third fuel stop
53SAR forth fuel stop

UAE
210AED – UAE car Insurance
155AED – fuel stop

on the way back:

UAE
190AED first fuel stop
113AED second fuel stop
145AED third fuel stop
37AED forth fuel stop

Saudi
61SAR first fuel stop
111SAR second fuel stop
65SAR last fuel stop

Conclusion
I liked the trip and I didn’t find it really that exhausting. I’m not sure how many speeding tickets I got on this trip. On the UAE road where the speed limit was 160KM/h, I got flashed twice going 155KM/h. I was on cruise control and Waze was saying 155, and my car speedometer was saying 155 and I still got flashed, but only on by two cameras. I’m hoping those were just average-speed cameras that take photos of every car, I hope. Then in Saudi, the speed limit is mostly 120 so I would drive under 140. I’d pass by 20 cameras with no issues and then one would randomly flash me. No idea whats going on there. But, I did get flashed at one point for going over 140 but that was my mistake since I didn’t have it on cruise control and didn’t notice my speed.

Hopefully this guide is helpful in case you want to make this trip. I might have missed something or not covered a subject so if you have a specific question, let me know in the comments.

Last week Saudi Arabia announced that any GCC resident can now apply for an tourism eVisa as long as you meet some basic requirements. I got in touch with their eVisa team for more information and here is everything you need to know.

To apply for an E-Visa you need to do it through the following website: ⁦‪visa.mofa.gov.sa/Account/Loginindividuals

Once you visit that link click on the letter “E” on the top left to go to the English page. Then on the right column under “Login Of Individual Visitors To Saudi Arabia” click on Register to create an account.

After creating an account log in and then click on “Add A New Application” on the right side. Click Agree a couple of time and you’ll eventually reach the Visa application form. Make sure for “Visa Type” you select Tourism and then under “Saudi Mission in” you select “Kuwait”.

Other than that it should be fairly simple. There are some requirements which are:

• Your residency visa has to be valid of at least 3 months
• Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months
• Resident’s occupation should be among the eligible occupations listed on the portal (more on that below)
• For those under the age of 18, one of the parents must apply first and must be present with them
• First-degree relatives (Parents, husband, wife, and children) can get the visa online, as long as they are coming together with the one holding the residency

‎Regarding the resident’s occupation, it’s too long a list to share but everything I thought of seems to be listed including salesman, waiter or call center operator. So it’s not just managerial positions. The only occupation I couldn’t find was “Driver” but even that might possibly be listed under a different name.

Here are some visa details they also shared with me:

• Cost is 300SAR along with health insurance fees
• Multiple or single entry, this is not an option for the applicant, authorities (MOFA) will decide on a case by case basis
• Validity of 1 year for the multiple entries, and 3 months for the single entry
• Length of stay is 90 days for the multiple entry, and 30 days for the single entry
• The new regulation took effect from the 1st of September 2022
• You will receive the visa within 48 hours at the registered email
• You can use the tourist visa to perform Umrah, but not during the Hajj season

This visa is also valid for land, port or air entry.

Finally, they also shared the below requirements for entering Saudi as a tourist:

• The tourist visa includes medical insurance covering infection with the Coronavirus
• If you are going to drive, you must hold a valid international driving license or a license issued from a GCC country, and the car must have insurance. Insurance can be done at the border on the Saudi side. For more information on traveling by car check out my previous guide here.

And that’s pretty much it. If you have any questions let me know in the comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Josh Cahill is a German-Czech aviation vlogger and airline critic who is considered to be the most-watched flight reviewer on YouTube. Yesterday he posted a video review of his flight with Kuwait Airways and spoiler alert, he had a wonderful experience. He liked a lot of things including surprisingly, the Chicken Kiev which he described as one of the best meals he’s had on any flight. Now I feel like I have to try it. Check out his review above.

Thanks Nidal

A few days ago Saudi Arabia announced that any GCC resident can now apply for a tourism eVisa. Previously you could only apply for an eVisa if you were from specific countries, while everyone else had to go through a more complicated process that included getting bank statements and visiting the embassy.

With the new announcement, there are still some requirements like your passport being valid for 6+ months, your residency valid for 3+ months and your occupation should be listed as eligible, but these are just minor things.

Once you get your visa online, you can choose to fly to Saudi or just drive there. Al Khobar and Bahrain are around 3-4 hours after crossing the border while Riyadh is around 5. If you missed my guide to driving to Saudi check it here, or apply for a Saudi visa by going to visitsaudi.com/visa

Monday I headed to Saudi for the first time in my new Hilux. I wasn’t sure if I had all the correct paperwork to make it past border control since I’m an expat driving a pickup truck that isn’t mine and I so heard I needed a lot of different papers and permissions. But, I made it!

As I previously mentioned, as an expat I can’t own a pickup truck so I had to get the car under a friend’s name. The only paperwork I needed to travel with the car was a power of attorney stating that I was allowed to drive and travel with the car. Getting a POA is a super easy process which I posted about. So that was great.

What wasn’t so great is on my way back yesterday there was a major dust storm. Once I got to Kuwait I realized the dust had sandblasted my windshield and the car’s forward-facing camera. I had PPF on the front of the car but not on the camera and not on the windshield. So now I got to figure out how to get this shit sorted out and how to stop it from happening again (if you have any ideas let me know, especially about the windshield!). I now need to see if both the camera and windshield can be polished or if I need to get them replaced. Not something I wanted to do on a brand new car…

I posted an update to my T1 to T4 shuttle bus post, in summary, there is no airport shuttle bus once you leave the terminal but you can take the public bus. Read the update here.

So I flew out of the Kuwait Airways terminal on Friday and parked my car in the long-term parking there, but then had to change my return date and now flying back to Kuwait on Emirates which lands at terminal 1.

Does anyone know if there is a shuttle bus between the two terminals? I checked the T4 website which I didn’t know existed till a few moments ago and there isn’t any info there.

Update: Yesterday I landed at terminal 1 and ended up taking a public bus to terminal 4. There is no shuttle bus once you exit the airport (there is one for transit passengers inside the airport but before immigration). Once you pass immigration and exit the airport your only option is a cab to terminal 4 or a public bus. The public bus station is located off to the side of the airport (Google Maps) and when I got there I found five buses parked.

A KPTC bus was about to leave but I yelled and waved to the bus driver and he stopped. I wasn’t sure if he was gonna pass by T4 but it was one of their new buses so I wanted to try it out. When I got on the bus I asked the driver if he was passing by the Kuwait Airways terminal and he said yes. The cost of the ride was the regular 250fils bus fee. 2 minutes later he dropped me off at the bus station outside T4. Fast and easy.

Back in March, I posted about my trip to Khobar and Bahrain along with a detailed step by step guide of the requirements and the journey. This morning I drove to Saudi again but this time I headed to Riyadh. I left my apartment in Salmiya around 6:20 AM and made it to our office in Riyadh by 12:40 PM. This included a bunch of tops along the way for treats, fuel, bathroom breaks and photography. Not too bad.

The most surprising thing was the fact that 95% of the trip was on a two-lane two-way road. Right after I entered Saudi, Google Maps made me exit the main road onto a small side road. I thought it must have mixed up or that this small road would lead to the large highway but it didn’t. The road stayed that way till I got to Riyadh. It was pretty freaky at first since cars would be speeding toward me going over 120km/h and I’m just hoping they don’t hit me head on. But after an hour into the trip, there were no more cars on the road. It was very serene.

It was such a nice drive and the scenery was pretty nice in some parts. There was one long strip of road that lasted maybe two hours where there was nothing around except for red sand dunes. No people, no gas stations, no buildings, nothing. It felt great being out there alone.

The trip didn’t feel like it was 6 hours long and I would definitely recommend it if you like to drive.

I’m back from my trip to Lebanon and while there I realized I should post about the financial situation in Lebanon at the moment. It’s a bit of a mess but if you do it right then it could be a pretty affordable trip. If you’re planning a trip to Lebanon this summer or looking for an affordable place to travel to, this post is for you.

You might have been to Lebanon before and think you don’t need this guide, but a lot of things have changed over the past couple of years because of the financial system collapse, the pandemic, and the massive Beirut explosion. The currency has devalued considerably and the cost of living there has skyrocketed for the residents, but to our advantage, has become cheaper for tourists.

I’m going to try and keep this as simple as possible so as not to confuse you or scare you off.

Previously, 1 US Dollar equaled 1,500LL. Now it’s around 1 USD = 30,000LL, it varies slightly from day to day but this was the rate as I was typing this post. This rate is what Lebanese call the “market rate” or “black-market rate”. The banking sector in Lebanon on the other hand has a different rate which as I’m writing this post is 1 USD = 25,000LL. The banking sector rate is the conversion rate if you use your credit cards in Lebanon. To make matters more complicated, all the online currency conversion apps are inaccurate because they still use the old 1$ = 1,500LL rate.

So tip #1, don’t use currency apps to convert the currency, use a calculator. A friend who used a currency convertor thought she was quoted 350KD for a haircut when in reality it was just 18KD.

Tip #2, take all the money you want to spend on your trip with you in dollars. If you use your credit card there you are going to technically be paying more and in some cases, you could be paying the a much much higher price (more on that below). The only thing you should use your card for is paying for your airline ticket and hotel, for everything else you should be paying cash in Lebanese Lira. Once you check in to your hotel ask them where the closest money exchange place is. I personally use Western Union / OMT stores or Whish ones and they’re both easy to spot. You should find them scattered around Lebanon but your hotel can point you to one near you. Go there and exchange enough money you need for a day or two. The reason I wouldn’t recommend exchanging more is that the currency has devalued so much, that you’ll be walking around with a huge wad of cash. 300$ exchanged to LL is going to give you ninety 100,000LL notes, the image above is how that looks like. Here is a money exchange shop in Gemeyze.

Tip #3, figure out how you are going to carry the wads of cash around because they won’t fit in your wallet. Most guys carry fanny packs in Lebanon, I just exchange for a day or two and so the wad is small enough to fit into my front pocket.

Tip #4, don’t leave Lebanon with Lebanese Lira. I don’t think anyone outside Lebanon will exchange them back to KD or Dollars, and by the time you come back to Lebanon next time, the money might not be worth anything. So make sure you exchange them back to Dollars at the exchange shops. If you’re leaving on a Sunday and need an exchange shop that opens on Sundays, here is one.

Tip #5, as I mentioned earlier, currency apps are not accurate since they still think 1$ is 1,500LL. Some websites and apps do not display the correct USD prices because they convert them from LL. For example, if you try to book a car with Avis Lebanon, the pay now price is the correct amount, but the pay later price is not. That’s because Avis has to list the LL rate for the pay-on-collection option since you would be paying for it when in Lebanon and the law says they have to list the LL rate. But, the Avis website uses an online currency exchange software that thinks 1,500LL is 1$ and so the pay-on collection price ends up being ridiculously high. You can see what I mean in the screenshot above. I have a friend on this trip who used a food delivery app and paid with his credit card in USD even though we had told him not to use his credit card in Lebanon. The app converted the LL to USD using the wrong rate and he ended up paying $200 for a chicken sandwich. He spoke to customer support and they’re thankfully refunding him the money back.

Tip #6, if you want to know the latest market rate and bank rate for the LL, use the lirarate.org website.

I think that’s all of it. So the gist of it is don’t use currency apps, don’t use your credit card in Lebanon, and bring all the dollars with you to Lebanon and exchange them to LL as you need them.

If you have any questions let me know in the comments.

Since I’m traveling today I realized I never posted about the best backpack ever. Earlier this year I was looking for a replacement for my Herschel backpack and ended up ordering the Sandqvist Ilon from the Sandqvist website. It looked cool, it had all the features I wanted and it wasn’t too expensive. But, it turned out to be the worst backpack I’ve ever owned. The bags canvas material was too rough and scratchy, the bag had no give, and the shoulder straps kept losing their set length every time I picked up the bag. After using it on one trip I decided never to use it again. I really really hated it.

In April while in London I decided to pass by the Sandqvist store. I don’t know why, I think I was hoping an employee would come up to me and ask me if I’ve owned a bag so I could then tell them yes and vent to them about how much I hated it and it was the worst purchase ever. The Sandqvist store small, I walked in, looked around and nobody asked me if I had a bag so that plan failed. But, while there, a guy walked in with a pretty cool looking Sandqvist backpack. I don’t remember how, I think I might have asked the employee there what bag that was and then the guy with the bag heard me and struck up a conversation about the bag. He couldn’t stop talking about how great the backpack was. He cycles a lot and told me how the bag was weather resistant and his stuff never got wet, and how the bag can hold a lot of stuff and was very comfortable to wear. He was really passionate about the bag, maybe as much as I was passionate in hating the bag I had gotten it. So he sold me on it and I ended up buying it, the Ruben 2.0.

He wasn’t wrong, this is by far the best backpack I’ve ever owned and I’ve owned a lot. The bag’s material is soft to the touch, has give so very usable when full, it’s light, fits a ton of stuff, looks great and has all the pockets I want (front pouch, pouch inside, laptop sleeve, and two side pockets on the outside to hold my water bottles). I ended up wearing it everyday while in London to carry my stuff and all the shopping I did. I then used it to travel with a few times and so far it’s been amazing. The material also seems pretty durable since I throw the bag around without care and there are no scratches or any blemishes at all. It’s also really easy to clean so I don’t worry about spilling anything on it. The one and only negative comment I have about it and I’m being really picky is that I wish the inside pouch was located a bit higher up the bag since I use it to put my passport in. Right now I have to dig down into the bag to get to it but that really is the only negative thing I have to say about it.

If you’re looking for a great backpack get this! I paid 62KD for it in London (£165) but it’s available for slightly less (58KD) on the Sandqvist website. Here is the Link.

I can’t be alone in thinking how great Kuwait Airways has become right? I just got to the airport because I’m traveling today and once I got there it was pretty busy. I thought to myself it’s going to be such a disaster inside even though I didn’t have any bags to check in. I printed my boarding pass from one of the machines, got to immigration and breezed through it and then the same with security. I’m now sitting down near one of the gates just 30 minutes after arriving to the airport. That was really fast for a busy airport.

I try to fly Kuwait Airways as much as possible because of how good the overall experience has become. The planes are comfortable, the airport terminal better than the other ones we have and so far I’ve never had issues finding parking in the long term lot. It’s not Qatar Airways but it’s much more convenient when flying direct than to stop in Doha or Dubai first. I really like Kuwait Airways.