Category: Travel

Here is an updated list of all the restaurant and cafes now open at the Kuwait Airways terminal (T4):

Al Refai
Cafe Coco
Caribou
Del Monte
Le Pain Quotidien
McCafe
McDonald’s
Pizza Express
Raising Canes
Shake Shack
Starbucks
WH Smith (munchies/drinks)

While prepping for this post I realized that I hadn’t written a hotel review since 2015. I think that’s because I don’t travel as much as I used to and when I do, they’re usually quick weekend trips over to Dubai. I usually stay at the Vida Downtown Hotel in Dubai but this past weekend the room prices were more expensive than usual at KD67 a night which is more than what I wanted to pay. Hotel rooms are still one thing I’m not comfortable with paying a lot for, I only tend to sleep there and not really hang out in the room so can’t see myself paying so much money for it. So while looking for alternative places to stay I stumbled upon the Rove Downtown Hotel. The reviews online were all pretty great, the hotel was a 5-minute walk from Dubai Mall, a 10-minute walk to my best friend’s apartment, the rooms looked nice and clean, and most importantly, it was only around KD35 a night. So I booked and hoped for the best.

When I first arrived to the hotel check-in was pretty quick even though they were a bit busy. While checking in I noticed what looked like an entrance to a cinema on the far end of the lobby so I asked the receptionist if that was an actual cinema and he was like yes it was. Turns out the hotel had a small Reel Cinema movie theater that played current movies and was free for hotel guests. I was already impressed. After getting the room key I headed towards the elevators when I spotted a Zoom brand convenience store connected to the lobby. I decided to check it out and they had a ton of munchies as well as things you might need like deodorant and toothpaste. So far it seemed like the perfect hotel and I started hoping the rooms would be good because I knew it had the potential to be my new favorite hotel in Dubai.

As soon as I walked into the room I was relieved. The room looked like what I had seen in the photos, it was clean, modern, cozy and not that small. When booking a room they had only two options really to choose from, either a room overlooking Burj Khalifa, or not. I didn’t care about the view so I booked a regular room and so my view was of some random towers further down the road and it wasn’t that bad. My overall first impression was really great at that point.

Over the next two days, I really couldn’t find anything negative about the hotel. Even if I’m trying to be super picky the worst thing I could come up with is the lack of decent TV channels or the lack of Apple TV. At Vida, I could connect to my Netflix account on the room’s TV and also stream YouTube videos from my phone to it. But that’s really the only negative thing I have to say about Rove. Dubai Mall was really easy to get to with the closest entrance being the new Fashion Avenue extension and if you want to Uber somewhere, the cabs are all super close and never take more than a couple of minutes to get to the hotel.

If you’re looking for a great budget hotel to stay in the next time you’re in Dubai then I really recommend you check out Rove. I was so impressed it made me go back to writing hotel reviews again. Here is a link to their website.

Deputy Minister of Public Works Ismail Al-Failakawi announced that the new airport project will open in August 2022, according to the schedule, indicating that the second package project for the airport has been recommended for award at the lowest prices, and we are awaiting the final approval of the agency reports Al Rai.

Al-Failakawi said, on the sidelines of the inspection tour organized by the Ministry yesterday in the presence of Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development Khaled Mahdi, “There are no obstacles facing the project, as work is currently being done in cooperation and coordination with the contractor, consultant and the Supreme Council for Planning to remove any obstacles.” He explained that the project is going According to the schedule, there is no delay, as the completion rate was 26.9 percent. Source

I’m not trying to be pessimistic here but I passed by the new airport this past weekend (picture above) and I can’t see how it will be completed by August 2022. That’s just two years away which seems crazy but then again, it’s a Diwan Amiri project so maybe 2 more years of construction doesn’t seem too far reached.

Last week I went to Saudi for the first time ever and I spent a couple of days in Riyadh. I’ve got mixed feelings about the city, well not really mixed feelings but more like I don’t understand it. On one hand, you had MDL Beast, the largest electronic music festival in the region take place there, but on the other hand, from what I saw it still looks and feels like such a conservative city. It’s like both extremes are living side by side together and it’s very hard to process.

Getting a visa for Saudi is super simple right now. I actually totally forgot to apply for a visa and only remembered the evening before my flight but they now have an evisa website and even though I applied at 8PM, I got an approval less than an hour later for a 1-year multi-entry visa. I was relieved but also shocked since last year when I wanted to get a visa I had to get an invitation from someone in Saudi, and then was told I had to visit the embassy in Kuwait to apply for it and even then there was no guarantee I’d get a visa due to some political drama that was happening between Saudi and Canada.

The process of entering Saudi was also super easy. Once I landed in Riyadh and got out of the plane I followed a floor sticker towards a visa on arrival desk right outside the gate. There I handed my passport over to a lady behind the desk who finished up my visa process and stamped my passport. I then headed to passport control and I guess this whole process is super new because they were trying to re-enter me into the system again not knowing I was already in the system. They kept getting an error and then they noticed my passport was already stamped and were surprised since they didn’t know that they were stamping passports at the visa desks next to the gates. After multiple apologies for the delay (they were super friendly and apologizing the whole time throughout the process) I was let through.

Visually Riyadh isn’t a very beautiful city, well, most of it at least. The city is very beige and looks pretty old from what I saw. I can’t remember seeing any greenery in the city unless it was in the park and the only area the looked modern with beautiful skyscrapers was the King Abdullah Financial District that’s still under construction (pictured above). But, you still had some really beautiful buildings or projects in between all this which created a stark contrast. The way I was describing Riyadh to my friends was it either looked like Mahboula, or it looked like Dubai. Their roads are also in a worse state than ours but that’s mostly because the whole city is one large construction site right now because of the metro expansion and all the various large projects.

Because it’s Riyadh Season right now, they have some incredible things going on in the city. I went for dinner in Al Murabba (square) which is a huge historical area with old buildings and a large park that is temporarily occupied by some of the world’s finest restaurants like New York’s Dirty French and Carbone, and London’s Dinings SW3. All pop-ups but built to look like permanent structures. Once you pull up to the main gate of Al Murabba you are greeted by an army of Saudi hosts and hostesses standing on both sides of a long walkway into the park. Super fancy, incredible service and everyone is just extremely friendly. It felt like I was attending a fancy one-night affair but this is how it is every night. Actually everywhere I went the service was really great, customer service is something they take very seriously over there.

So yeah, right now Saudi is a very odd place with a mixture of two extreme lifestyles. While there I didn’t hear anybody complain about what’s going on even though I heard mumblings about alcohol being legalized soon. I think the conservatives might be fine with it all of it for now as long as it doesn’t affect them. Or maybe because things are happening so fast they haven’t had time to react. Whatever the case, it’s all gotten me very curious and interested in Saudi and now that I have a multi-entry visa, I’m going to be heading there more often, maybe even do a road trip. A friend who lives in Dubai messaged me last night telling me to meet him in Saudi this coming weekend for the Jamiroquai concert. Saudi in less than a year has become a regional destination.

Kuwaiti budget carrier Jazeera Airways has revealed plans to move to an all-economy fleet configuration with the launch of three new fare categories from January 8.

The move to economy will apply to all routes, except flights to Cairo, while the three categories include Economy Class: Light, Value and Extra. Source

Business class on Jazeera Airways never made sense anyway since they were the exact same seats as economy, just sold at double the price.

Spotted this in Dubai over the weekend. It’s an autonomous vehicle that just drives around until someone waves at it and then it stops. Once it stops you can then buy water and snacks from it.

Back in 2014, the Pearl Lounge at the main airport terminal got redesigned and I hated it. The lounge looked cheap and dated while the seats were pretty uncomfortable to sit in. But, a couple of weeks back the lounge finally got a makeover and it now looks better than it ever did.

The new color scheme, the style of seating and the choice of floor tiles give the space a much-needed facelift. The lounge now looks more premium and stylish than before, and by moving the food into the middle of the lounge they were able to break the large space without having to put up any dividers.

Accessing the lounge is the same as before which is either by flying business class on certain airlines or with a credit card. I used Priority Pass to gain access but for a list of other cards accepted click here.

Last year when self check-in kiosks started appearing at the airport they were only working with Turkish Airlines. This past weekend though I noticed the check-in machines have started working with more airlines including:

Emirates
Middle East Airlines
Qatar Airways
Saudia

So now if you’re heading to Dubai or Beirut for the weekend with just a carry-on, you don’t have to wait in line at the check-in counters, you can just print your own boarding pass yourself at the kiosks.

Kuwait’s first official Rimowa store opened a couple of weeks ago at the Avenues and I was curious to check out their prices. I bought a Rimowa bag from the Dubai store a couple of months back and so was curious to know the price difference between the two stores. Surprisingly, Kuwait is cheaper!

The Kuwait store is 5% cheaper than the Dubai store and the reason for that is the new 5% taxes you pay on items in Dubai. So a Rimowa Original Cabin size bag in silver aluminum costs KD325 in Dubai after-tax, but KD310 in Kuwait. Not that much of a difference but still a saving. So if you were trying to figure out if you should buy a Rimowa bag locally or abroad, you now know.

Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) took feedback from the popular TripIt app and determined the results of the Passenger Choice Awards and the Official Airline Rating. Kuwait Airways ended up getting an5-star airline rating which sounds like a big thing, but technically, the lowest it could have scored on this list was a 4. Still, a 5-star rating puts it ahead of airlines like British Airways and Etihad Airways which both scored a rating of 4. It’s a small victory but still an important one since it shows how quickly Kuwait Airways has changed for the better now that they’ve got the newer planes and a dedicated terminal.

Here are the results of the Passenger Choice Awards:

Best Seat Comfort – Qatar Airways
Best Entertainment – Emirates
Best Wi-Fi – Delta Air Lines
Best Cabin Service – Qatar Airways
Best Food and Beverage – Qatar Airways

On a side note, Kuwait Airways also came ninth in flights timing accuracy between 175 airlines according to the UK’s Official Aviation Guide (OAG).

For the full APEX results click here.

I recently joined the Rimowa world by purchasing my first Rimowa suitcase last month and I loved it so much I ended up buying a second bag when I visited the Rimowa store in Dubai. Their stores are pretty cool (for a suitcase store) with lots of different accessories you can buy from limited edition stickers to customizable parts. Now Kuwait is getting it’s first store and it will be opening up in Avenues Phase 4, right next to the VOX Cinema escalators.

My main travel suitcase for the last decade has been my indestructible black Tumi. I’ve traveled with it all over the world and loved it so much I even posted about it on the blog a few years ago. But, around five years ago I spotted a beautiful aluminum Rimowa bag with another traveler at the airport, it was dented, scratched up and I just fell in love with the look. I decided once my Tumi fell apart I’d buy one but that day didn’t seem like it was ever going to come since my Tumi just wouldn’t die on me. So last week, I decided to forcefully retire my Tumi.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a Rimowa polycarbonate bag so I tagged along with her to the dealer. While at the store I found out that they had just gotten a new shipment of silver range of aluminum bags. The dealer tends to get a limited number of them (in this case it was 2 of each size) and the silver ones tend to sell out quickly. I was already tempted as is but they also had a silent sale going on so the bag I wanted was selling for slightly less than it did online AND to top it off, the dealer had gotten last years model (the Topas) with the now discontinued “Electronic Tag” feature which I’ve been fascinated with ever since they launched it. So I decided to take the plunge and get the bag (yes I used the word plunge here for buying a bag, but you’ll understand why later when I talk about the price).

I really think this is the hottest looking bag you can buy period. I haven’t packed it away in my cupboard yet and so every time I pass by it I can’t help but admire the design. The bag is made of aluminum and is held together by rivets. It’s a thin sheet of metal so the suitcase tends to dent which although sounds like a negative, is actually one of the reasons people are attracted to it. Bags will get worn out and scratched up with travel, but the more worn out and scratched up the Rimowa bags get, the more interesting and personalized they start looking. It’s why other manufacturers have also started introducing aluminum suitcases as well.

Then you have the “Electronic Tag” feature. This was Rimowa’s innovative idea where they wanted to replace the paper barcode tags they stick on luggage with digital versions. The idea was you’d check-in your suitcase and the airline would wirelessly transmit the tag to your luggage and it would be displayed on the screen. Only 4 airlines ever signed up to it and the idea never took off so Rimowa discontinued it last year. But, what I was interested in was the ability to customize that screen. You see Rimowa also allowed you to upload whatever personal information and image you wanted to that screen using their app. That’s why I wanted the “Electronic Tag” and that’s the first thing I did when I got the bag. The screen now has my name, email and phone number, with an image of my previous car which I had taken.

The screen magically doesn’t require any batteries to display the image. It uses two AAA batteries to power the Bluetooth connection, but once you transfer over the image and data, you can just remove the batteries and the screen will stay on indefinitely. No idea how that works, I still need to read up on the screen technology but I love it. But, although the screen is one way of customizing my bag, I still need to put a few stickers on it and I have a lot saved up to choose from.

The reason why it’s taken me so long to buy this bag isn’t only because my Tumi was refusing to die, but also because these bags are so freakin’ expensive. The bag I got isn’t really big, I think it’s their smallest check-in size and with the 10% discount they had, the bag cost me KD280. That’s really expensive and even when I made up some random maths in my head to try and convince myself that it made sense (280 spread over 10 years is just 28 a year!), it still didn’t make any sense. But, it’s something I’ve wanted for some time now and since I didn’t travel over Eid I figured at least I could buy a new suitcase.

One interesting thing I found out is that Jashanmal will no longer be the dealers for Rimowa in Kuwait which is why they currently have the bags discounted. This was the last shipment of Rimowa bags the dealer will be getting and that’s because last year the company LVMH (they own Louis Vuitton and a gazillion other premium brands) purchased Rimowa. So the dealership in Kuwait is now changing hands and my guess is that Habchi & Chalhoub, the company that has LV in Kuwait will be taking over the brand. They also have the rights for the Tumi brand in Kuwait, so no idea how that’s gonna work out for them.

If you’re interested in a Rimowa suitcase then this might be a good time to get one with their discounts. They’re available at the Jashanmal store in Kuwait City as well as their store in Avenues “Around the World”.

Yesterday Jazeera Airways announced they are going to start flying to London starting October 27th. There will be daily flights and the trip to London will take 6 hours and 20 minutes while the journey back will take 7 hours and 5 minutes.

Jazeera Airways will fly their Airbus A320 neo to London which isn’t a big plane and they fly in and out of Gatwick not Heathrow. I picked out a random date to check out the price (November 1 going, November 4 return) and compared it with BA and Kuwait airways and this is what I got:

Jazeera Airways: KD 99.050
British Airways: KD 132.800
Kuwait Airways: KD 135.600

So you’re saving around KD 30 in this case although I’ve seen Kuwait Airways flights as low as KD 113. Too soon to tell if this will be a good option to fly to London, I’d be curious to read peoples reviews once they’ve started the route.

When Kuwait Airways introduced their new fleet back in 2016 my initial impression of their business class was that it didn’t look premium and it felt overcrowded with their 2-2-2 seat configuration. My favorite business class configuration has always been the Qatar Airways 1-2-1 arrangement on their 787 Dreamliners and it looks like Kuwait Airways will be adopting a similar setup on their new planes.

According to a recent press release, Kuwait Airways will be installing B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats on their upcoming A330-800neo which are the seats used on airlines like Qatar Airways and Virgin. The current seats in comparison are the regular B/E Aerospace Diamond seats so it’s going to be a really good upgrade.

Kuwait Airways is expecting to enter 8 A330-800neo aircraft into service in 2020.

One of the contributing writers at the aviation news website SimplyFlying.com recently passed through the Kuwait Airport. While passing through he visited 3 of the 4 lounges in the airport and did a quick review. He missed the Emirates Derwaza Lounge but I’m guessing thats because he wasn’t aware of it since it’s fairly hidden.

If you’ve never been inside the lounges or just curious to read what he thought of them, here is the link to his article.