Getting around Bahrain
Ride-hailing and a hire car. The island is small enough that neither costs much.
The practical options
- Careem and Uber both work and are cheap. This is what most visitors use for everything.
- Taxis are metered and plentiful; use the official ranks or call one.
- Renting a car is easy and cheap, and driving in Bahrain is straightforward by Gulf standards - the roads are good and the distances are trivial.
- Buses run a real network for very little, and are used mainly by residents rather than visitors.
The causeway, again
- Driving to Saudi Arabia needs a Saudi visa, vehicle insurance valid there, and patience. Rental companies must give permission and most charge for it.
- The bus across is simpler than driving if you just want to see Khobar.
- Traffic peaks Thursday evening in the Bahrain-bound direction and Saturday evening going back.
Protests and roads
- Demonstrations can cause traffic disruption and temporary bans on gatherings in roads and squares.
- They happen in specific places - see the safety section - and avoiding those villages avoids the issue entirely.
Apps and platforms
Ride-hailing, the official visa portal, and the government services site.
Worth having
- Careem and Uber - both operate and both are cheap.
- - the only official visa channel, for the application itself.
- Bahrain.bh - the government services portal, which is where visa extensions and cancellations are handled rather than at an office.
A word on visa resellers
- Bahrain says on its own portal that no website or company operates on its behalf. Anything that looks like an official visa service and is not is a middleman charging a markup, and some of them are worse than that.
- Payment of the application fee does not guarantee approval, and an unapproved application is not refunded - which is Bahrain's own wording and worth reading before you pay anyone.
Everyday
- Talabat and Deliveroo cover food delivery.
- Bahrain has no metro, so no transport app is needed beyond the ride-hailing ones.
Comments
No comments yet. Share the first one.
Share a tip
Sign in to continue.