Arriving to Bahrain by car - advices needed!

Hi there.

From what I have heard, it can take anything from a few minutes to about 3 hours to clear the border crossing at the Causeway. Around payday and weekends the crowds are the biggest hence waiting time can be frustratingly long. Some people try to get to the border crossing early in the morning - by dawn. But I am not sure this is a good strategy, because that would mean you drive all night. The best you can do is come prepared for a 3 hour wait - food, water, etc. if you get stuck, you are prepared. If not, you can have a picnic at the Tree of Life

There are a lots of things to do in Bahrain. I know we had a detailed discussion about the sights and sounds of Bahrain few months back. Let me see if I can dig it out for you.

How many days are you planning to spend in Bahrain and what are your interests?

Farhaz wrote:

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There are a lots of things to do in Bahrain. I know we had a detailed discussion about the sights and sounds of Bahrain few months back. Let me see if I can dig it out for you.

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Found the link!

Here it is: https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=328666

Thanks Fahraz for the reply! In the mean time I did some googling myself and learned most of the info you said. We should be arriving sometimes next week. It would definitely be a weekday and I can plan the start of the trip to arrive there at preferred time, if there is such a thing. :-/

Also, we are traveling with our 1.5 year old, but he is easy to handle.

Unfortunately due to the last minute changes here we didn't have time to do any planning yet, I guess we just want to change the scenery a bit, even though I suspect it will not be a considerable change. We are aiming to spend 4-5 days there, and as you can tell we are completely clueless about what we will be doing. Even doing nothing in Bahrain is better than staying at home.

Also, if it turns out there is a 3+ hour wait at the causeway, we may as well spend that time to continue to Qatar....

Bahrain's loss will be Qatar's gain.

And I know what you mean. Any trip out is better than staying at home.

A weekday will be good, and you could try to get to the border between 8 and 10 am. My friends from Saudi Arabia have visited Bahrain twice - on both occasions they arrived during this time slot - and they have not had too long to wait.

I am not sure of my own travel plans yet, but do reach out to me before/when you are here. I may give you a guided tour of Bahrain, with my compliments, if I am in town.

Thanks for the very generous offer, we will definitely take advantage of it if we make it! We will probably start from Kuwait around 8 AM, so we should reach the causeway around 1 or 2 PM if we take it easy.

Best wishes.
Have a great trip.

Ribosom wrote:

Thanks for the very generous offer, we will definitely take advantage of it if we make it! We will probably start from Kuwait around 8 AM, so we should reach the causeway around 1 or 2 PM if we take it easy.

Hi Ribosom
Update on my travel plans - I will be travelling out of Bahrain and will only be back on the 9th of January.

When are you planning to be here?

Hey there,

My hubby works in Saudi but we live in Bahrain, he crossed the causeway every single day. It can take long however, on average you are looking at approximately an hour from the first toll gate till the end. It is not that bad. Thursday nights are the worst though because there is a large number of Saudis coming across for the weekend so I would advise to come some time during the week. However, if you are arriving on a Thursday, try to get to the bridge in the early afternoon seeing as its most busy during the evening when everyone is off work. Reaching the causeway by 1 to 2 pm should be smooth sailing for you.

Good Luck and Enjoy the Drive! We will be doing the same drive but going to other way next month!

Unfortunately my employer #@$%$ up and I could not get any days off, so we are stuck here.

Our Saudi visas are done though, and as they are valid for a month we would like to go for a weekend trip to Bahrein so we did not do it for nothing. :-/

Problem is, going on Thursday after work is obviously not an option so we would definitely need and extra day to start on Thursday morning and at this point I am not sure my wife would be able to get that day off.

Thanks Honey Combs for the info. When are you planning to head back here, maybe we can do it together?

And all the best in 2015!

Oh that sucks. My husband and I might be coming in the middle of Jan for a friends wedding. We shall see though, I am about 8 months preggers so around that time we will see if I am up for a long drive while I am the size of a whale haha