Looking for advice on living in Bahrain

Hi Oliver,

Thank you for your insight, I guess you are preparing the New Years to-do plans (as we all do).

I read trough the forum posts and from your info it seems most of the expats live in Adliya, Juffair and Amwaj island and working in Manama.
I will be working in Isa Town and from what you mentioned there is much of a traffic jam in the rush hours...any suggestions on where would be a good place(close to work) to find an apartment? or maybe this is not an option? I had a look on google-map and it seem I will need 30-45min from any of the Adliya, Juffair and Amwaj island just to get to work.

Cheers!

Hey... plans are going quite well you're right

Actually you might have a distorted picture about "where the expat are living"... I'll try to make it clearer.
When we talk about "expats" here we'll talk about westerns for this matter.

Adliya ==> This is the place where a lot of nice restaurants are. Mostly houses or 2-3 storey buildings. Pretty old constructions. (South - South East of Manama)
Pros : Close to the nightlife
Cons : Close to the nightlife (+ nightmare to park !)

Juffair ==> This area is very close to the Navy base. A lot of tall buildings and a few compounds. Old and recent mixed. You have to like the "big city" look (East - South - East Manama)
Pros : Close to Adliya and Manama. Huge choice of accomodations available
Cons : A lot of people live here

Amwaj Island ==> This district is built on a land reclaimed from the sea. It's totally man made and brand new. Most of the flat & houses are more of the European size than the local ones. There are floating cities, marinas etc.
Pros : Brand new, very nice, very restricted area
Cons : Still under construction in many parts, on 30-40% are occupied at the moment, everything looks too artificial for me (this is a personal advice !), only expats live there.

A lot of expats are also living on the western side of the Island towards Budaiya. This includes area like Saar, Barbar, Budaiya etc.
Towards the South, A'ali is an option as well.
In those areas, you'll find mostly private villas or compound villas. The price scale is as huge as the choice available. These are definitely the best choice if you're working in Isa Town.
From Amwaj, it will take you much more than 1/2 an hour to get to Isa Town at peak hours!!!
I think the best to do is to go with a serious real estate agent and tell him what you want, your budget, where you will work and what is the maximum amount of time you are ready to spend in your car per day

I wish you the best... Enjoy your last day of 2010...

Friendly yours

Olivier

Hi Oliver,
Happy New Year!!
Thanks a lot for the insight!! I really appreciate it!
One of my must do things when I arrive in Bahrain, will be to arrange that meeting and the Perrier!!

Cheers!!

Hey Andy,

hope you're settling in well to Bahrain.

How long have you been here?

I am fairly new to Bahrain myself, having recently moved from the UK.

Let me know if you want to catch up any time.

Ryan

Hi Andy Happy new year to you too !
And hi to Ryan also (even if I'm not Brittish... sorry for that :p)

Looking forward to my perrier andy

Cheers

Olivier