Reef Island

Reef island is partially ready, however big part of it is still under construction. It resembles more of a ghost town. It's more likely to see construction workers there and maintenance workers rather than inhabitants. I have been renting an apartment there for nearly one year now. The facilities that were supposed to be ready by August this year are still no way ready. Sadly enough for the past several weeks I had to put up with the noise of drilling and construction  from 7 am till 5 pm in the building I am living ( Coral).

I have also lived on Reef Island for over a year. It is just residential at the moment, although a few restaurants are now open. I really like it, but our apartment is further away from the construction, so less noise! Probably more people our side as all the buildings are finished, but not sure it would suit someone young looking for lots of activity.

Thank you for your answers, I Will reconsider my accommodation place... Finding a flat in juffair should be the best solution.

Greetings all,

Reef island has been developed (entrance part) and I think there is the part that's close to the sea that's still under construction.i don't know for sure if this part is Reef Island.
I know as soon as you enter Reef Island, that part is fully developed and you won't see any buildings under construction.
It's a nice quite part of town thats close to City centre, Dana Mall, Seef and Ali Mall. So you are in close range of all these malls. However, I find mobile reception (Batelco) quite poor. This might be a m

On the other side of the island, Juffair is very close to Adliyha which has a lot of restaurants and bars. Juffair has quite a few bars too and nightclubs.

I wouldn't discontinue Reef just by looking at the comments. Reef has some amazing flats and there are completed areas within. It is not a small island, it has many completed buildings and many others to be completed. Juffair may be a good option if you want to be close to bars. You will get to meet mostly Americans in there.

I would say make your decision by looking at the Reef Island yourself and see a few flats.

Good luck!

jazzy851 wrote:

I find mobile reception (Batelco) quite poor.

Does anyone else find this to be the case? Does it include internet performance too?
It is actually a somewhat significant issue I think.

Thanks.

My husband had bad reception with Batelco in Porta Reef, but it's much better in the building where we are now (still Reef Island!) I am with Zain and my reception was/is fine in both places. I think internet depends a bit on the package each individual landlord has signed up for. It also seems better where we are now (on a Batelco router).

Thank you for your answers.

I will keep you updated about my choice

I use VIVA and have visited Reef Island many times before. In some areas, the coverage is great and in some areas, it is really bad. I guess the place is still under development and these issues will be fixed over time.

You might want to think about Adliya too. 
A lot of restaurants, cafes, and bars are in the area, as well as expats. It is also close to Juffair so you can easily go out there too.
I think the vibe in Adliya is better than Juffair, but then I'm biased since I live there! Lol

Just to revisit this -
I'm about to sign a lease in Reef Island. I'm seriously concerned about the internet there though. This is important, as both sets of grandparents keep in touch with their grand kids through Skype. Decent internet is important. Can anyone that has had problems with internet there clarify the areas that seem to be problems? I know the building we are considering is served with Batelco Wi-Fi, but I have no idea how good it is.
Thanks.

Ask for the speed of the internet there. If it is less than 2Mbps, ask for an increase.

Hi, we are on Reef Island and have Batelco WiFi and it is usually fine for Skype, which we also use frequently! It's much better than our old building (also on Reef Island) which used a different provider. There can be the occasional interruption in the signal, but I think that's the case for most of Bahrain!

Before you sign up for long term, ask the provider whether you can 'trial' one month or 1-2 week(s) if possible?

i know Batelco (wired connection )and viva (wireless) have been quite poor in the beginning part of reef as you pass the security barrier.. 

I don't think the mobile operators will offer a trial as an option. But you can take one of their prepaid plans so that you won't be tied into any contract.

Good luck.

Hi all,

I'd like to add my experience here as I live in Reef Island. I'll talk only about TV and Broadband.

If you live in Coral building you are lucky person as you have Batelco, not sure about TV there.

If you are in Pearl or similar building you are in the wrong place. Nue-Tel is providing TV as IPTV with their choices, they told me after a lot of investigation we have decided to stream these channels, I tried to ask for more channels but unfortunately I could not. Not sure this happens only on my flat or everywhere else, always have to restart the router to make it work, sometimes does not work from first attempt. customer service is the worst i ever dealt with.

Broadband, again it's nue-tel, really expensive compare to the rest of the market, you can not chose other provider like Batelco, Zain .... etc. the only solution is getting a 4G router.
Batelco said they do not cover Porta Reef with 4G yet.
Viva, I got a 3 days trial router to check the speed, no more than 9 MB so it's various between 3-9 MB.
Menatelcom, again no coverage in Porta Reef yet, A friend of mine has 3G and he is really happy with it but they do not provide 3G for new customers only 4G.
Zain, not sure yet, i have been told we will test it and let you know.

hope this helps.

Hi,

I just moved into Ivory on Reef Island at the beginning of this month. Nuetel service is appalling and their rates extortionate, their bandwidth isn't great either and as far as I can ascertain an 8mbps service is the highest I can get, which by today's standards is pretty slow, and, bearing in mind that will set me set me back the best part of 1000 GBP a year, I'd really like to find a faster and less expensive solution. I'm still trying to find out who actually provides or services the line into the building to see if if I can get an ADSL line established. If you've discovered a solution or a work around I'd be glad to here it.

Thanks

I live on Reef Island and use Viva Wi-Fi.
It costs BD 15/mo and has a threshold of 16 GB.
The speed isn't lighting fast, but not terrible either.
I really have no complaints with it.

They offer a truly unlimited 4G service too, but it is more expensive.

@sparkioboi
I was having the feeling just like you when i arrived here in Bahrain. I was comparing the internet to the UK. In UK we have a fantastic infrastructure and lightning speeds. Unfortunately, its not the same over here. I dont think the country is on fibre throughout. Its only recently 4G LTE is being deployed..

Two years back i tried the Viva routers in Reef island (The Viva routers were these small black boxes with decent speeds). When i used these routers in places like Juffair, Adiliya & manama they worked well. However, using them in Reef, the signal was so low and it was like using a modem! May be the situation has changed as i see Reef has developed alot more than two years back.

Also the costs for internet here is much more than UK  - its something we have to put up with..

Hope you can find something decent there - let us know. Good luck


jaz

I live in Reef, and have the internet included into my monthly rent.  It's definitely not as fast as back in the U.S., but it is fast enough to watch movies while using a VPN, albeit with the occasional pause for buffering.

The awesomeness of living above the Reef shisha joint make up for any slow internet blues

We should go and have some Shisha one day mate. It's been ages since I saw you last.

Sheesha Joint, on Reef, where please?

The cafe in the southwest corner of the island, under Citrine building.  Brightonguy, that sounds brilliant.

I'd love to get more input on this. I just moved to Ivory Building in Porta Reef last week & am still waiting for the Neu-Tel hookup. I had Menatelecom 4g at my last place (no signal at all @ my place), and while I was paying 30bd a month, I was still happy with it.

Any other 4g providers that work on Porta Reef? I'm on the road-side if that makes a difference.

ethanb wrote:

I'd love to get more input on this. I just moved to Ivory Building in Porta Reef last week & am still waiting for the Neu-Tel hookup. I had Menatelecom 4g at my last place (no signal at all @ my place), and while I was paying 30bd a month, I was still happy with it.

Any other 4g providers that work on Porta Reef? I'm on the road-side if that makes a difference.

Hi ethanb,
Menatelecom providing booster you can fit it in your balcony if you have one. I'm really struggling with Nue-Tel , I'd not recommend it at all.
you can ask Vivia for 3 days trial, i believe the signal much better than before. Batelco is getting better as well (my work's phone is Batelco and i can tell 4G signal is much better now).

good luck

I can add to this, now. I've borrowed a Zain 4g router from a colleague, and it works very well. I'm getting around 2-3MB (16-24 Mb) downloads. He's paying 12.5bd/mo for 60gb threshold. I've contacted my landlord to supply this instead of the Neutel, just hope it works.

I also second ZAIN and VIVA for Reef Island. I have friends there using both of these and they are very happy with the outcome.