Congratulations! You are in the minority of travelers considering a visit to Bahrain for more than a day trip. Here’s where we stayed for 10 nights in the capital city Manama, alternative hotels under €100 per night, and what to expect of accommodation in Bahrain as a digital nomad

Al Fateh: Airbnb Close to Food Truck Heaven

Duration: 11 nights (12 paid) at about €60 per night

Our final choice was a spacious Airbnb in the Al-Fateh neighborhood of Manama in Bahrain. Bahrain had far more suitable Airbnb options than Kuwait. So we chose this one based on its good reviews, plenty of space, dedicated desk, and pool.

Upon arrival from Kuwait a few hours later than planned, we took a Careem taxi from the airport. Compared to Kuwait, our arrival in Bahrain was incredibly streamlined, showing which country is better at handling tourist. Our arrival at the Sukoon Towers – which houses the Hilton as well as our Airbnb and a bunch of other businesses – was simple. It’s one hotel/residential tower among a forest of them in the Al Fateh and Juffair neighborhoods. Our taxi was let in through the boom gate. The receptionist gave Jonas a keycard after he gave a passport copy and mentioned the apartment number. The elevator up works only for the public floors and the floor the keycard works with. The front door itself opens with a code on a keypad.

On the 19th floor, we found our Airbnb. Inside, everything looked great at first. But the appliances in the kitchen and some lights didn’t work. So we contacted one of the many co-hosts on Airbnb and two guys from the building came up after 10 minutes to find the problem and solved it. We also only had two big towels and zero small towels, which they gave to us the following day.

One thing I didn’t like is that there are six co-hosts in the chat. Many of them are just employees of the building (one of them helped fix the electric problem), so that’s not per se weird. But in the context that the front door with the keypad can’t be locked from the inside, everyone has this access code, and that there’s no safe in the apartment or a room to lock with a physical key when leaving, it is a safety concern. The bedroom door can lock from the inside, so that’s fine. Bahrain has a low crime rate and high consequences for doing crime.

The entryway leads straight into the kitchen/living room area. There’s a small bathroom next to the main door with a toilet, sink, and shower, which we barely used. There’s another door to the one and only bedroom with a spacious ensuite bathroom. Inside the bedroom is a large bed with two nightstands, a chair with a coffee table, a big wardrobe, a desk with wheelie chair that Jonas used for working, and a TV we never used. The wardrobe had a cool feature of a motion-sensor to illuminate the clothes. There was an ironing board with a small drying rack attachment we used for laundry and plenty of hangers.

The bathroom has a lot of space to store toiletries, a sink mirror, charging spot for an electric toothbrush, a toilet with a bum gun and a trash bin, a shower, and a bathtub. While it was great, there was no ventilation button and the bathtub was quite shallow. Also, there was this weird matting on the floor to let through water but keep your feet elevated that didn’t work super well.

The kitchen has quite some pots, pans, and appliances such as an electric kettle, fridge-freezer, and microwave. We drank the cold tap water from the sink without issues. As per our request, there was provided dish soap and sponges (as opposed to our experience in Kuwait). The dinner table was made upon our arrival and the golden-colored cutlery looks fancy but isn’t always practical. We ate some meze or ordered food from Talabat (restaurants or supermarket), Keeta, or directly from our favorite Ethiopian restaurant (in the world) called Abyssinia. The trash chute is in the hallway outside the apartment.

There’s also a washing machine in the kitchen that’s also a dryer. We prefer to air dry our clothes and it’s a warm and dry country, so we didn’t test that function. There’s no full-size drying rack in the Airbnb, so hanging all our clothes on hangers and the ironing board thing was a bit of improvisation, but it worked.

The rest of the living room features a comfortable-enough couch and one of the world’s biggest TVs. It’s hard to unsee the one dead pixel. As I was still recovering from a cold, we spent many hours here drinking tea, soothing with lozenges, and watching Stranger Things. I sometimes worked from the dining table, but mostly from the bed. A nice touch was the massive multi plug provided by the hosts. As Bahrain has UK plugs everywhere, this adapter that fits UK, EU, and US plugs as well as USB-A and USB-C more than doubled our charging capacity. Both the bedroom and the living room have a spectacular light fixture with the power of a thousand suns, but in a kind of cold killer hue. I wasn’t a big fan.

Lastly, there’s a very spacious balcony. From this dizzying height, you can see a lot of Muharraq across the bay of the same name. We often had morning coffee here in the gentle January sunshine. There’s no chairs, so you have to take some from inside to bring them out. Looking down, you can see one of the building’s pools (the one that’s part of the Hilton, I think), some of the restaurants like Lebanese Station across the big avenue, and the food truck area at something mapped as Juffair Beach.

This food truck area is a 700-meter walk and most businesses area really open at 19:00 after darkness. It’s very safe. Here you can have little bites from all of Bahrain’s cuisines, from pani puri to pad Thai and koshary. It’s not super vegetarian-friendly (especially the Kerala places were surprisingly carnivorous), but there are a few alternatives to the many trucks that only do grilled fish and meat. Bring cash. At some places you can pay by card. We particularly liked the people (and food) from Roti Shoti, Salud, Chaat Bazaar, and Blue Corner for its karak tea.

The seventh floor hosts the pool, squash court, male gym, female gym, gendered jacuzzis, and such areas. There’s sunshine on the pool in the afternoon, but the water is very cold in January. The pool is open from 6:00–22:00.

While I enjoyed the recovery from my cold in this comfy apartment, I wouldn’t stay in the Al Fateh/Juffair area again—even though that’s the area with the most value for money. However, the location isn’t great for visiting tourist attractions on a budget, as the bus doesn’t stop nearby.

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Where to Stay Next in Bahrain: Central Manama + Muharraq

I wouldn’t exclude revisiting Bahrain in the future, especially with the possibility of the Unified GCC Tourist Visa becoming a reality. Imagine if you could just take a Bahraini side quest from Saudi Arabia and hitchhike across the King Fahd Causeway and back without paying for a multiple-entry visa.

Bahrain doesn’t have a law where unmarried couples can’t stay together in one room, unlike Kuwait. So that makes everything a lot easier logistically and without buddy travelers having to lie about things. However, some places have added taxes in the fine print, so read the descriptions well.

Keeping it under €100 per night (including added taxes) and with a desk to work from, these are some interesting places to stay in Central Manama, the Diplomatic Area, and Bahrain Marina:

• Delmon International Hotel (pros: very central, comfortable, electric kettle, there’s a small pool. Cons: added taxes, dated interior, WiFi not great)
• Ibis Styles Diplomatic Area (pros: central, breakfast included, well-designed rooms, small fridge, fitness center. Cons: added taxes, barely within the budget, small rooms, no pool)
• City Point Hotel (pros: very central, quite affordable at <€50 per night with discounts applied, pool, fitness center, generally low-key, and cost-effective to upgrade to a bigger suite. Cons: not all budget rooms have a desk, on Booking they messed up the room sizes, not the best ratings, added taxes)
• Meshal Hotel (pros: quite budget friendly at <€45 per night, indoor + outdoor pool, positive reviews. Cons: rooms appear quite small, not as close to walkable areas as some other hotels, added taxes)

In Seef, close to the Bahrain Fort, Nordic Palace and Spa is a great option for a couple that also needs to get some work done and have some space. They have nice-looking rooms for under €70 in the high season and atop the building is a pool. It’s even cheaper when you can apply some discounts but maintains a high rating.

Another good option in Seef is the Loumage S Suites and Spa, pushing the budget. Here in most rooms you get a full-sized table and couch, and often a kitchenette. You could have the apartment features but still hotel services within the same building. Also, it has a pool, gym, and convenience store in the building.

For Muharraq, I only found one suitable accommodation that’s close enough to the pearling path and the Arad Fort and fits the budget: Majestic Arjaan. The cheapest studio has a nice desk to work from, a kitchenette, and there’s a pool. It’s highly rated and the interiors look modern. Muharraq itself is quite a nice neighborhood that has cute narrow streets and walkable parts.

Day Trips in Bahrain + Tourist Season

Though I’d seen services for day trippers at Bahrain International Airport for people to sightsee and still make their flight out the same day, I hadn’t thought of cruise tourism at all. Only when our Al-Fateh Grand Mosque tour guide Marwa said something like “On Monday when the cruise ship arrives…” I realized that’s an option. This led me down a wormhole about same-day tourism in Bahrain and to figure out what days of the week are too cursed for sightseeing.

Don’t get me wrong—if a cruise is the only way you can visit Bahrain, by all means. It can be a very efficient and reduced-mobility friendly way to visit a country. I just prefer to stay a bunch of nights to relax and work while we’re at it. And to avoid the crowds, of course.

Most people visit Bahrain in winter when the temperatures are pleasant and not scorching. The tourist season is between November and April. That’s also when the cruise season happens. In 2026, 5000 cruise tourists to Bahrain get dropped on shore on Mondays and Fridays. You can check the schedule online with that link. Most cruise tourists visit Bahrain on a seven-day round trip tour starting and ending in the United Arab Emirates, visiting Qatar as well. I wondered if they’d go all the way to Kuwait, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

In 2023, the majority of tourists (56%) to Bahrain were same-day visitors. They arrive by cruise/connecting plane, hop on a city tour, and then fly/sail out. Such city tours can be arranged by the cruise company or by the the travelers themselves, visiting highlights such as Bahrain Souq, the Fort of Bahrain, and Al Fateh Mosque.

While in Europe they’re trying to curb cruise tourism because of its devastating impacts on picturesque towns, Bahrain seems to encourage it. I don’t think it’s sustainable to drop 5000 people on shore in one go who need to get their quick fix. But this is part of what makes Bahrain one of the few post-oil countries in the Gulf.

Anyway, I hope people will visit Bahrain for longer in the future and spend a few nights. For that, there needs to be some more budget-friendly accommodation (such as youth hostels), cheaper eSIMS, and the Unified GCC Visa (a sort of Schengen area for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman for 30 to 90 days).

Note that as of writing (January 2026) the Unified GCC Visa (aka GCC Grand Tours Visa) is not real (yet), though there are niche websites with real-sounding domain names already claiming space and writing about it as if it’s real. There’s also no info yet about which ports of entry (land borders! Ferries!) you will be able to use this tourist visa at. The launch date is expected in 2026 (after saying it will launch in 2025…) and the cost is expected to be US$90–130. 

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