Last year I bought a vintage map of Kuwait and although there is no date on it, I think it’s from the early 70s because there is a Hilton ad on it and Hilton opened in 1969. You can view a photo of the map on my twitter and right now I’m trying to scan it so I can make a proper copy available online. The only issue is it’s taking too long to scan one section at a time with my small scanner and then stitch it together in Photoshop.
Anyway, one thing that caught my attention was an ad for Golden Beach Hotel. Not to be confused with the Golden Beach Casino that was located in Salmiya, Golden Beach Hotel was located where the National Assembly building is today. I hadn’t heard of the hotel and couldn’t find any information online so I left it at that. But then yesterday, while trying to dig up information in one of my books on the Spring Continental Hotel that was located in the Dalal Complex in Salmiya (where Video Club used to be), I found a photo and information on the Golden Beach Hotel. So here is the obscure info that nobody requested:
Golden Beach Hotel
Telephone: 39521
Location: Arabian Gulf Street, Kuwait
Rooms: 44
Baths: 44
Single Occupancy Prices
R/Bfst K.D. 5.000
Half K.D. 6.000
Full K.D. 7.000
Double Occupancy
R/Bfst K.D. 9.000
Half K.D. 11.000
Full K.D. 12.000
Breakfast K.D. 0.350 / 0.450
Lunch or Dinner K.D. 0.900
If you want to check out higher-res versions of the images here, they’re also on my twitter account.
Update: So my mum just saw the post and messaged me to tell me she spent a night at the Golden Beach Hotel in December 1972. She was heading to Abadan in Iran from Lebanon to see her aunt and she took the Kuwait Airways flight which transits through Kuwait. When she got to Iran turns out her aunt hadn’t gotten her a visa so they sent her back to Kuwait. Her flight back to Lebanon was the day after so she spent the night at the Golden Beach Hotel.
Once she was back in Lebanon her aunt got her the Iran visa and she headed back again. This time on her way back to Lebanon during her stop over in Kuwait she saw an ad to become a flight attendant for Kuwait Airways and she applied. And that’s how she became a flight attendant. So because of this random post I found out how my mum became a flight attendant.
9 replies on “Golden Beach Hotel – Kuwait 1963”
I love those prices, and that 5 digit phone number.
There’s an ad for Danish Kuwait Dairy Co. (bottom middle of the map). I never new KDD used to be DKD at one point.
kd7 full board a night . simple times
7KD is 22$.
22$ in 1963 is worth 212$ today.
So 7KD in 1963 is the equivalent of 65KD a night today.
Not really simple times.
Agreed. Few would’ve been able to afford this hotel back then given the salaries.
It seems some things were always expensive in Kuwait. I remember seeing your post about a 1980s ad for some gaming consoles like the Commodore and such, and the shop was asking 400+ for it!! In the mid 80s!!
Anyway, that pic of ur mum warms my heart every time I see it. God bless 🙂
“Books that sell for $4.50 in New York cost $19 in Kuwait shops. Television sets are triple what they cost in London.”
Snippet from a newspaper article from back in 1972. Same issues people complain about today lol.
https://twitter.com/mark248am/status/1572170416655052801
I always wonder do you only think about Kuwait history when free lol they should get you complimentary citizenship and place you head of history
Beautiful story about your mum
May sound personal, but why did your mom give up the flight attendant job after the 70s? Did she join some other airlines?
Also, does she have any anecdotes to share about the passengers back then.. considering flying may still be a luxury all those years ago
I think she left kuwait airways mid 70s, didn’t join another airline.