Everyday practical information for Kuwait

The basics

• Plugs are the British three-pin type G, 240 V. UK chargers work as they are.
• Arabic is the language and English is widely spoken in business, hotels and shops. Signs are bilingual.
• UTC+3 all year, no daylight saving.
• The weekend is Friday and Saturday.

The heat shapes the day

• Summer is extreme even by Gulf standards - over 50 C is not unusual, and the country simply moves indoors.
• Malls are the public space. The Avenues is one of the largest in the world and functions as a town centre.
• Winter, November to March, is genuinely pleasant and is when Kuwaitis go to the desert camps.

Behaviour

• Modest dress, and take the tattoo warning seriously - visible imagery that could be read as religiously offensive can bring legal consequences, which is an unusual rule and a real one.
• Ramadan rules apply to visitors: no eating, drinking or smoking in public during daylight.
• No alcohol anywhere. There is no hotel bar, no restaurant list, no exception.

Small things

• Kuwait is a genuinely good place to eat, with a large Levantine, Iranian and South Asian food culture and a delivery habit to match.
• The Kuwait Towers and the Grand Mosque are the two things everyone sees; the Tareq Rajab Museum and the Al Mubarakiya souq are the two most people miss.
• The 1990 invasion is within living memory and shapes a great deal. The Kuwait House of National Memorial Museum treats it directly.
• Addresses are block, street and building, not a street number as visitors expect. Share a pin.