Moving to jubail

Hello all,

We are a young couple from Belgium and we are considering to move and work in Jubail after a short period (1.5 year) in Bangkok as my current employer is offering me this opportunity.
As we do not have any experience with the expat life (especially life in Jubail) we are trying to find some info.

The main questions are:
-do you have to be covered everywhere(compound,city mall,airport)
-are you free to do as you want as a woman alone ( go to mall...)
-is it a safe country for woman alone to do things
-how can she fill her day? work,expat events....

We are hoping someone can give some more insight in day to day life for the partner.
All additional info you can give is very welcome!

Kind regards!

Hello GMSSLV, Welcome to Jubail.

Regarding woman in Jubail, yes she should wear Abaya to cover her body and I don't think it's necessary to wear Hijab (covering her hair) as I saw lot of expats doing that. The woman are not allowed to drive and they are free to do anything alone ( hanging out with friends, going to malls ...). It's totally safe for women but it's not recommended to go out late at night (like any other city in the world).

I don't think there are lot of things to do in Jubail as it's small and industrial city, but she can join gyms/health clubs for women, going to malls ( there is no big malls in Jubail but you can go to Khobar ( 80km from Jubail)), walking in corniche, fishing, Horsing, diving ( i'm not sure if it's allowed for woman but if you're interested i can make sure of that). Anyway, during the weekends Khobar or Bahrain is a good choice.

Hope this informations satisfy you and feel free to ask if you need more details.


- Muhannad

Hello Muhannad,

Thank you for responding!

I have read a lot about people going to Bahrain.
Do people have an apartment in Jubail and one in Bahrain?
Or do you just go for the weekend in a hotel? And what would this cost?

Kind regards!

I will take it from your last questions.

Some friends i know they own 2 apartments one in Khober or Jubail and one in Bahrain.

I rather go and come back at the same day but sometimes the parties goes wide ;) and i have to spend a night there so i go to Hotel instead.

That was about 7 years ago when i was in Saudi before i left to US.

Actually, having an apartment in Bahrain is very expensive comparing to the apartments in Jubail. So, it's better to go for hotels. I think not all the weekends you'll go to Bahrain so it doesn't worth to have an apartment there.