Manama Travel Guide - Getting There

Many tourists from the region that come here do so by road, a seemingly impossible concept given that Bahrain is an archipelago, but thanks to the King Fahd causeway that crosses the gulf to connect to Saudi Arabia, the ‘overland’ route has become one of the simplest ways to get here.

By air: Bahrain’s ultra-modern and only international airport east of Manama is the major hub of regional operator Gulf Air connecting this little corner of the Middle East to the rest of the region as well as to major cities in the Indian sub continent, Far East, Europe, and North and East Africa. Traffic and the number of routes are increasing all the time as Manama furthers its status as a major air hub in the region.

By bus: since the opening of the King Fahd causeway linking Bahrain to Saudi Arabia in November 1986, road travel to Manama has flourished.

The Saudi bus company Saptco offers very reasonably priced fares from numerous cities in the kingdom such as Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam, the latter the nearest major city to the causeway which takes 2 hours, 30 minutes including the 26kms run across the four-lane causeway.

By car: driving from Saudi Arabia to Manama is theoretically possible along the causeway; however, the problem would be getting a car hire company to let foreigners take a vehicle out of the country.

Alternatively, travellers can head to Al Khobar, a large oil city on the outskirts of Dammam on the Saudi side, and ask a taxi to go across the bridge all the way to Manama. This is likely to take about 90 minutes.