Things to do in Manama

Landmark · Central Manama

The 1949 gateway building and the working market behind it — gold, spices, textiles, tailors and Bahraini halwa, still a functioning souq rather than a restored one.

Local tip: Go in the late afternoon when the shops reopen after the long lunch closure. The gold souq's prices are quoted per gram plus a workmanship charge, and the workmanship is the negotiable part. Ask for the shop's own scale reading before you agree anything.

Culture · Karbabad, north coast

A UNESCO World Heritage site layered over four thousand years — the capital of the Dilmun civilisation, later a Portuguese fort, on an artificial mound built by its own occupation.

Local tip: The site museum is excellent and almost always empty. Come an hour before sunset: the fort faces west across the water toward the Manama skyline, and the light on the pale stone is the reason every photograph of Bahrain looks like this one.

Nightlife · Adliya

A pedestrianised block of restaurants, galleries and bars that functions as Manama's dining and going-out centre for both residents and Saudi weekend visitors.

Local tip: Thursday and Friday evenings are heaving and parking is hopeless; Sunday to Tuesday it is calm and you can walk in anywhere. The independent galleries around the block open in the evening rather than the morning, which catches people out.

Culture · Juffair

One of the largest mosques in the world by capacity, with a fibreglass dome that was the biggest of its kind when it was built.

Local tip: It runs free guided tours for non-Muslims outside prayer times, in several languages, with abayas provided — one of the more genuinely open mosque-visit programmes in the Gulf. Check the day's timings before you go; the schedule shifts in Ramadan.

Neighborhood · North-east, off Muharraq

A reclaimed island development of marinas, apartment towers and a lagoon — one of the freehold zones where foreigners may own property outright.

Local tip: The public beach and the Lagoon boardwalk are the reason people move here, but check your building's chiller and service charges before signing: on Amwaj they vary enormously between towers and are frequently not in the advertised rent.

Culture · Muharraq

A UNESCO-listed 3.5km trail through old Muharraq linking pearl-merchant houses, oyster beds and the Bu Maher fort — the last testimony of the Gulf's pearling economy before oil.

Local tip: Almost no visitors walk it and most residents never have. Start at the Pearling Path visitor centre and go on foot in winter; several of the restored houses are free and have nobody in them. The boat to Bu Maher fort from Muharraq's waterfront is the part people miss entirely.