Has anyone been to Kuwait City?

[Brit]

If you had a day to spend there, like 12ish hours during the day, what would you do? Would it be worth it to extend the stay to a full weekend?

[jennybee1018]

I've been to Kuwait :-) 

The first time I was there for a Zumba training, so I didn't get to see much! The second time, we went back for a day trip. 

We had a few things in mind to do, but didn't quite get to everything that we wanted. 

So here was what we wanted to check out: 

-Grand Mosque
-Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Arts
-Kuwait Towers (currently closed for renovation, but you can see them from the outside still)
-Souq
-Scientific Center/ Aquarium

However, we got there late due to plane delays, so we ended up only going to Scientific Center and Aquarium, then walking down the Corniche because it was so nice out! We wanted to head to the souq, but didn't have enough time to do that and Cheesecake Factory (sad I know!), so we skipped the souq (mainly because we have them in Doha, so we weren't sure if it would be very different). 

I also had a friend who went to check out this market (I think it might be ending soon for the season): www.qoutmarket.com/

She said it was really awesome and she would go back to check it out again! 

I think 12 hours would be enough, but if you preferred to stay for the weekend, you could probably do some shopping :-P Let me know if you have other questions! 

[Brit]

Awesome! Thank you! What does one wear in Kuwait? I have no idea if it is closer to Qatar or Saudi dress code wise.

(Remember I was going to go to Saudi, then it got cancelled... I ended up going last month. I'm really happy that it worked out because I was super curious .)

[jennybee1018]

I dressed as if I was in Qatar (jeans, short sleeve shirt, etc), and didn't have any issues! We were outside and in the mall, and it seemed fine.

I saw that you went to Saudi - so cool!!

[Brit]

Thank you for the wardrobe tip. :-)

[kylerules]

brit how was Bhutan with a toddler? I saw awhile back that you went and I was just wondering how that went and what tour company (if any) that you went with?

[Brit]

Apr 22, 2015 13:42:55 GMT -5 kylerules said:

brit how was Bhutan with a toddler? I saw awhile back that you went and I was just wondering how that went and what tour company (if any) that you went with?

The trip went really well, Bhutan with a toddler is NBD. We used Bhutan and Beyond, they are an Australian company. I was really happy with them. You pretty much have to book through a company and hire a driver and guide. We hired a private driver and guide so that we a) were not stuck on a bus with a bunch of strangers all day and b) had flexibility in our itinerary.

As for Bhutan itself, I was a bit disappointed. The 'authentic culture' seemed kind of manufactured. There were laws dictating that people wear their traditional dress for certain activities, most of the 'historic' sites had been rebuilt in the past 30 years, and the ones that hadn't been rebuilt were scheduled to be knocked down and built in a more grand way than the old one.

It just felt a little Disney to me - lovely, but fake?

[GilliC]

Apr 22, 2015 21:03:26 GMT -5 Brit said:

Apr 22, 2015 13:42:55 GMT -5 kylerules said:

brit how was Bhutan with a toddler? I saw awhile back that you went and I was just wondering how that went and what tour company (if any) that you went with?

The trip went really well, Bhutan with a toddler is NBD. We used Bhutan and Beyond, they are an Australian company. I was really happy with them. You pretty much have to book through a company and hire a driver and guide. We hired a private driver and guide so that we a) were not stuck on a bus with a bunch of strangers all day and b) had flexibility in our itinerary.

As for Bhutan itself, I was a bit disappointed. The 'authentic culture' seemed kind of manufactured. There were laws dictating that people wear their traditional dress for certain activities, most of the 'historic' sites had been rebuilt in the past 30 years, and the ones that hadn't been rebuilt were scheduled to be knocked down and built in a more grand way than the old one.

It just felt a little Disney to me - lovely, but fake?

That's disappointing! A few years ago I was thinking going with a friend, but it never happened. Did you go to Paro Taktsang?

[Brit]

GilliC - Yes, we did. That was one of the things that has been completely rebuilt in the past few decades to make it much more grand than the original.

[juliabug]

It's been like 8 years since I was there, but I wore long sleeves the entire time. This is definitely a must if you visit the Grand Mosque, which you should. They will also lend you a hijab but I bought my own at a open air market since I was there for a few months.

I also enjoyed the Kuwait House of national works. It was really interesting to see their perspective.