Getting around Kuwait: transport and apps

The options

• There is no rail and no metro in Kuwait. The car is the only real transport.
• Careem and Uber are what visitors and most residents use. Cheap and reliable.
• Taxis are unmetered in practice - agree the fare first. Orange taxis are the traditional ones; call-taxi companies are more predictable.
• Buses exist and are used almost entirely by expatriate workers; they are cheap and slow.

Driving yourself

• Fuel costs almost nothing and the roads are wide and fast.
• Driving standards are poor and the FCDO says so directly. Speeding, tailgating and lane discipline are all worse than a visitor expects.
• Traffic violations carry heavy penalties, up to imprisonment or deportation. Fines are automatic and attach to the vehicle.
• Never drive after any alcohol - alcohol is illegal in the first place, so the offence compounds.

Where not to go

• Jahra and Jleeb Al Shuyoukh are named by the FCDO for robbery and petty theft. Neither is a place a visitor has reason to go.
• The Iraqi border zone is restricted and photographing it is illegal.

Out of the city

• Failaka Island is reached by ferry and is worth the day - the ruins of a Greek settlement and a village abandoned since 1990.
• The desert camps in winter are a Kuwaiti institution, and you need to be invited or to book with an operator.

Worth having

• Careem and Uber - both operate and are the default.
• The Kuwait Ministry of Interior visa portal for the visa itself and for anything official afterwards. It is a JavaScript application and does not work well on a poor connection, so use it on hotel wi-fi rather than at the airport.
• Talabat and Deliveroo - Kuwait is one of the most delivery-saturated countries anywhere; almost everything comes to the door.

Before you fly, not an app

• The prescription-medicine permission is the one piece of admin that has to happen in advance. There is no app for it and no counter at the airport that will fix it. Contact the Kuwaiti embassy or check the Ministry of Health requirements with your prescription in hand.

What does not exist

• No transport app for public transport, because there is effectively no public transport worth planning around.
• Google Maps works but addresses in Kuwait are block-and-street based rather than numbered in the way visitors expect; a pin is more useful than an address.