Need Some Guidance Please - Moving to Kuwait

dear Alia,

welcome to Expat.com kindly make use of the numerous other posts regarding cost of living to get an exact idea of the rent, local, car rental etc. that you are inquiring about as it has been answered previously.

personally when it comes to taxis, i find they are plentiful when not needed and scarce when needed. as far as expensive, it depends on where u are going, where u live etc. and u can always haggle with the driver regarding fare.

yes you are allowed to drive with an international licence up to the time your residency is stamped, after that you will need to get a local licence.

easy/affordable to rent a car - again it depends on your budget and preference. are u a flashy person who wants to rent a porche? or a practical person who wants to rent a Mitsubishi Lancer? maybe you prefer 4X4s? what you can do is check the forum for sites pertaining to lease companies and check their rates.

but in general, renting is easy on the purse strings - provided you know what u are getting. always opt for insurance.

Thank you very much for your kind reply ...i have been through some websites and within the blog to check the rentals; i guess the AVG is KWD 300 for a decent flat depending on the area; thats why i wanted to know what are the nearby areas to the Avenue Mall, since the google map doesnt help much:-(

hi contact me on flyingaway499 [at] yahoo  and i will be able to help you in that matter,, ru going to work in harvey nicoles in avvenues?

your best bet would be الرقعي which is not that far from the avenues, although i would go with different areas so ur not constricted to living and working in the same area, that would be boring.

if somebody wants to help you, they can do so on the forum, and not necessarily through e-mails, as your questions are pretty general.

Riqqae is on the 4th ring road, salmiya is on the 4th ring road, as are Hawally and Jabriya. Kuwait is so small every road leads everywhere. hence, consider more options when thinking where to live other than proximity to work.

just in case you are wondering, there is no place in kuwait that you can live that is within walking distance of the avenues. unless you rent a house in a villa in a kuwaiti livng area, i think the one opposite the avenues on the 5th ring road is Omariya.

Thank you very much Legacy for your kind help; i appreciate it a lot ..and your point regarding the help on forum rather than emails is noted ;-)

you are most welcome, should u have any more questions, please feel free to ask

[Moderated: No free ad on the forum]

hola,
legacy is a pretty mature guy so he covered up eveything generally , just to make sure no loose ends . I on the other hand am kinda ammature and would like to take a risk of listing some details (and implant some ideas of my own )
Salmiya is a pretty nice place to live with options to walk down to reach some malls and other necessary places like gorcessry stores ( & coffe shops:P) - A taxi guy usually ask around 1.5 - 2 KD for a one way ride , there however are some options for a pick and drop service which costs about 30-40 KD from Salmiya to avenues  - Driving time in peak hours (9am - 1pm - 6pm) would be between 15-25 minutes door to door , and depending upon how crazy ur driver is the shortest can only be imagined .
Salmiya offers accomodations in various ranges ;
1-br non sharing --> 150KD - 200 KD
1-br sharing (3 persons) --> 70- 80 KD
1-br Sharing (4) --> 45-60 KD
2- br non sharing --> 250 -- 700 KD
2 - br sharing (2) --> 150ish --- ??
so i beleive above figures will give u a fair idea.

regarding the food - it could be a 100 fils falafel sandwich ,a quarter KD shawarma , or a under 2 KD MCDonalds/Hardees/Burger King sandwich or may be a resturant like  Fridays / Ruby tuesday / Diva's  for between 4.5 for main course to upto 10 KD for full meal and with this 10-15 KD you have SEVEREALLLLl options , like Pfchang ,Carinos  , Makai , Gucio grill and God knows what , labaneese / Arabic food places are something between 5-10 KD. and then there are some fancy burger joints where it woudl cost u liek 4-7 KD for a meal (living colors for instance)

I will end my post here so that i'll join my freinds for the xmass fun - in case you need something else, just ask.

hope it helped.

Thank you very much Uzair for your kind reply and round figures :-) it definetly helped me a lot ...appreciate it

most welcome - glad i could help

Hi,
Myself kiran from India.
I am Engineering Graduate and working as Technical Consultant.
Now offered a job in Kuwait for 430 KD-/p.m(Inclusive of all) ,Need to know whether i can survive there in such a salary.
What would be the Pros and cons.
I would like to know about the safety and all those things.
Need a valid suggestion from you about kuwait city.
Awaiting for the reply.....!!!!
Thanks in advance.

what websites do you visit for flat hunting?