Search: “kuwait”

Here’s my 2025 list of pools in Kuwait that offer day passes. This list is strictly “singles friendly,” except for two pools that have ladies-only days or families-only access on weekends.

Arabella Beach Hotel
Telephone: 22277744
Timings: 10am to 7pm
Weekdays 25KD
Weekends Not Available

Argan Al Bida’a Club
Telephone: 22263115
Timings: 8am to 8pm
Weekdays 30KD
Weekends 35KD (Families Only)

Copthorne Al Jahra Hotel & Resort
Telephone: 24590000
Timings: 9am to 7pm
Weekdays/Weekends 10KD

Crowne Plaza
Telephone: 1848111
Timings: 6am to 10pm
Weekdays/Weekends 20KD

Four Seasons Hotel
Telephone: 22006000
Timings: 8am to 6pm
Weekdays/Weekends 40KD (70KD Couple)

Holiday Inn & Suites
Telephone: 25760000
Timings: 6:30am to Midnight
Weekdays 20KD
Weekend 29KD

Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall
Telephone: 23931234
Timings: 8am to 8pm
Weekdays/Weekends 25KD
(Ladies only days on Mondays and Wednesdays)

Marina Hotel
Telephone: 22230030
Timings: 9am to 6pm
Weekdays 35KD
Weekends 40KD

Millennium Hotel
Telephone: 22050505
Timings: 9am to 6pm
Weekdays/Weekends 25KD

Mövenpick Hotel Resort AlBidaa
Telephone: 22253100
Timings: 8am to 8pm
Weekdays 25KD
Weekends 30KD

Park Inn by Radisson
Telephone: 22068500
Timings: 8am to 8pm
Weekdays/Weekends 15KD

Radisson Blu (member invite required)
Telephone: 25673000
Timings: 6am to 11pm
Weekdays 20KD
Weekends 30KD

SVN Club (member invite required)
Telephone: 1876777
Timings: 6am to Midnight
Weekdays 30KD
Weekends 40KD

Symphony Style Hotel
Telephone: 25770000
Timings: 9am to 5pm
Weekdays 20KD
Weekends 25KD

Waldorf Astoria
Telephone: 24774444
Timings: 10am to 6pm
Weekdays/Weekends 45KD (includes 15KD food voucher)

OLE Coffee, the local independent coffee roasters, just opened their 45th branch at Kuwait Airport’s Terminal 4.

The terminal was long overdue for a specialty coffee spot, so I’m glad that OLE Coffee stepped in. They’re known for using high-grade beans that are freshly roasted in Kuwait and ethically sourced directly from farmers. They’re also committed to sustainability. On top of that, they also serve exceptional ceremonial-grade matcha imported from Japan.

The new OLE Coffee branch is located near the arrivals area at T4, so you can grab a coffee before checking in or while waiting for someone to land. Find out more over at @theolecoffee.

I didn’t think much would be happening this weekend, but turns out there’s quite a bit going on. As always, double-check the details with the event organizers.

Thursday, May 29
Matilda the Musical
Kuwait Int Outdoor Expo
The Avenues Summer Edition
Movie Night at Barba
965 Outlet Expo
Literary Open Mic

Friday, May 30
Matilda the Musical
Kuwait Int Outdoor Expo
The Avenues Summer Edition
965 Outlet Expo
Bawa Incubator: Altersal
Gulf Universities Championship

Saturday, May 31
Matilda the Musical
Kuwait Int Outdoor Expo
The Avenues Summer Edition
A Women’s Circle
965 Outlet Expo
Gulf Universities Championship

I came across these images of the Kuwait National Assembly by accident. I had recommended a friend buy a book called “Jørn Utzon Logbook Vol. IV: Kuwait National Assembly“, which covers its construction but she told me it was sold out. I started searching for a copy for her online when I stumbled across images of the National Assembly I hadn’t seen before, not even in his book on the project.

If you aren’t familiar, the Kuwait National Assembly was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the same architect behind the iconic Sydney Opera House. His design was well thought out. He organized the main building complex in a way inspired by traditional Arabian bazaars. All the departments (offices, meeting rooms, reception areas, the library, Assembly Hall, and more) are arranged along a central street, similar to the layout of a bazaar. Each department is made up of modules of varying sizes built around small patios or courtyards, all connected to the central street by side alleys. The complex was designed to be expandable at any time by adding new modules, allowing it to grow outward continuously similar to bazaars.

The canopy, or tent-like shade at the entrance that gives the building its distinctive look, came to him after seeing a photo of two Arabs fishing on the shore under a small sail from their boat. The sail was stretched between two poles with a beam across the top, creating a simple shaded area. He loved the way the shadow looked and thought it would be a beautiful idea to use in the building.

Jørn’s Logbook Vol. IV focuses on the Kuwait National Assembly project and includes behind-the-scenes documents, original drawings, stories, and photos of the construction. It was published in 2008, and copies were still available as recently as 2019, but they seem to have sold out since then.

Majority of the photos I’ve shared in this post were taken from the Utzon Archive, the rest are from my copy of the book. If you want to check them all out and get access to the hi-res images, click here.

The photo above is the one I think inspired him since it was included inside his book.

The video above is also from their archive, I like it because if you forward around 2 minutes in you get to see a full 360 of the city from above. I think the video was shot from the old Kuwait Airways building.

© Utzon Archives / Aalborg University & Utzon Center.

This news is a few weeks old but it just popped up on my Linkedin feed now and it bothered me.

Emirates and Kuwait Airways have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to progress with an interline agreement, enabling more flight choices for customers travelling to Dubai and beyond.

Can someone tell me what the benefit of this is? Emirates already flies to Kuwait so I can just book flights with them instead of going through Kuwait Airways. Couldn’t Kuwait Airways sign a deal with Lufthansa, or British Airways, or maybe even United Airlines. Imagine being able to fly to Kuwait – New York – LA…

I just read that the legendary Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado has sadly passed away. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest documentary photographers of our time.

In 1991, just after the Gulf War, Salgado documented one of the most devastating environmental disasters of the 20th century, the oil fires. His powerful black-and-white photographs of firefighters battling huge flames and smoke-filled skies. became iconic and captured the true cost of the war.

The images he captured in Kuwait continue to define how the world remembers the impact of the Gulf War. He published a book featuring those photos titled Kuwait: A Desert on Fire. To explore more of his work, visit his Instagram @sebastiaosalgadooficial.

Found this driving license from 1961 for sale. It’s number 2061, I wonder if that means there were only 2000 drivers on the roads back then?

I just read a review about the first class lounge where the guy called it the least beautiful in the world. The funny part is, I was looking at the photos thinking, wow, that actually looks like a nice lounge. Probably because I recently experienced the Kuwait Airways business class lounge at T4, which has to be the worst lounge I’ve ever been to.

The lounge was so bad I actually went and sat outside near my gate because I found that more comfortable. The lounge was dark with no daylight, it was long and narrow with most of the seats just facing the wall. It was a claustrophobic and uncomfortable place to be in.

If you want to check out his review of the first class lounge, click here.

Below are my favorite events happening this weekend. Always double-check the details by visiting the organizer’s account.

Thursday, May 22
Matilda the Musical
23rd Gold & Jewelry Exhibition
Sadu Immersive Experience
Mozart & Vivaldi Live Orchestra

Friday, May 23
Matilda the Musical
23rd Gold & Jewelry Exhibition
Mozart & Vivaldi Live Orchestra
Qaroh Island Cleanup
Cocktail Non-imported Music

Saturday, May 24
Matilda the Musical
23rd Gold & Jewelry Exhibition
Tango of the Heart
DAI Story Time at Amricani

For those wondering, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is not banned in Kuwait. I checked with Cinescape earlier and they confirmed to me it was not banned and that it would be released soon.

Update: Mission Impossible is now out in Kuwait, 2 days before the US release

This is the last batch of photos from Ian Caldwell’s family collection.

If you missed the previous two posts, Ian was born in Ahmadi in 1955 and lived in Kuwait until 1975. He’s scanned over 300 Kuwait-related photos from his family’s archive, which he’s kindly given me permission to share.

This final batch of photos isn’t categorized, other than being random scenes from around Kuwait taken in the 70s.

I really like the shot of the phone booth in the middle of the nowhere, it’s really weird, which is why I had Ian send me the original scan so I could print it out and frame it. Another favorite is the main image I used of the baqala, which looks like a scene straight out of a Western movie.

You’ll also find a couple of photos of the Kuwait Towers and Gulf Road while they were still under construction, and one of Seif Palace with the original telecommunications building going up in the background.

There are also some really odd ones I’ll let you discover for yourself. Link

If you were at the chalet this past weekend, or if you were in the city looking out the window a few hours ago, you might have noticed a plane flying near the shore with an advertising banner behind it. Turns out it’s a new service being offered by Kuwait Skydive. I got in touch with them and managed to get all the details.

They have two different aerial advertising options:

Aerial Banners: This is when the plane tows your logo, campaign, or a picture along the coast, from Khairan to Kuwait Towers.

Aerial Messages: This is similar to what you’ve seen in movies and TV shows where the plane tows a message that are up to 30 characters long. (I think people are going to use this the most)

The minimum flight time they offer is 1 hour and the maximum is 4 hours. They fly around 150-300m above sea level and have three flight time slots:

7AM to 10AM
11AM to 2PM
3PM to 6PM

The plane flies from Al-Kout Mall to Kuwait Towers, and on weekends they also fly in Bnaider, Julai’a and Khairan.

They offer various pricing options based on flight duration and banner size. To give you a general idea, flight prices start at KD 750 for one hour, while the cost of manufacturing the banner starts at KD 400.

If you’re interested or want to find out more you can reach out to Nathalie on 60657462 or Ibraheem on 66118822. They don’t have an Instagram account yet since they’ve just soft launched but you could also reach out to them on @kuwaitskydive

Muhra, the local luxury fashion brand, recently unveiled their handcrafted traditional thoub designed for the Kuwait Airways crew. The thoub incorporates elements from the airline’s branding and will be worn by welcoming stewardesses on select flights.

Muhra was founded in 2004 by Farah Al Babtain and got a lot of attention last year when they designed the official attire for the female Kuwaiti athletes at the Paris Summer Olympics. They also created the official outfits for the Asian Games the year before, but my personal favorite project of theirs is the 30 Moons Campaign.

The 30 Moons Campaign ran during Ramadan this year and was an ode to the strength and beauty of women. I loved the art direction and found it visually stunning, especially the short reels.

You can view more photos of the new Kuwait Airways thoub on their instagram account @muhraofficial. If you want to check out the beautiful 30 Moons Campaign, scroll down in their reels till you see the visuals I’ve posted above.

This is the second batch of photos from Ian Caldwell’s collection, and there is one more batch I’ll be sharing after this post.

Ian was born in Magwa Hospital in Ahmadi in 1955 and lived in Kuwait until 1975. He’s scanned over 300 Kuwait-related photos from his family’s collection, which he’s kindly given me permission to share. Last month I posted photos of Souk Mubarakiya and Fahaheel Market from his archive, this time, I’m sharing photos taken over various weekends and holidays between the late 60s and early 70s.

The photos were taken by Ian, his father Arthur, and his younger brother Tom.

I could only share 20 photos on my Instagram account, but since you guys check the blog you get to see all the photos which amount to 121. To check them out, click here.

A short while ago, Alshaya revealed the hoarding for the first Primark store opening in the Middle East. The store will be located at The Avenues, where Debenhams used to be, and is expected to open on October 23. This will be followed by three stores in Dubai in 2026, opening at Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, and City Centre Mirdif.

The next big reveal should be Ulta Beauty, which is expected to open before the end of the year in place of Dean & Deluca, also at The Avenues.