Kuwait City - Out and about
First and foremost, Kuwait is considered to be a good expat location, especially for those families with children under twelve. The effort that is invested by the expat community makes an assignment in Kuwait fairly easy to settle into. What Kuwait lacks in terms of culture and scenery is made up by the vivacious and active expat community activities.
In general, compared to many cities, the most dangerous aspect of life in Kuwait are the roads, the speed of cars traveling and the fact that many people are the owners, or drivers of extremely high powered and therefore potentially dangerous weapons!
The crime rate is very low, women can walk safely in shopping malls, but as in any Muslim society, sensibly conservative clothing should be worn, taxis can be hailed on the streets etc.
A great aspect of Kuwait is it's proximity to Dubai and other locations within the region. How many other places can boast the opportunity of popping to Dubai for the weekend, or slightly longer excursions to the Musandan peninsular watching dolphins or skiing in the Lebanon within a stones throw!
Unlike many cities with a high percentage of expats, people do not stick just to one area of the city to live in. Outside of the actual city centre, or downtown area, apartments and villas are occupied from Salmiya right down to Fintas and beyond to Ahmadi as well as further south to the petroleum company campuses.
The schools offer a good choice of systems, from American to International, British to French and Arabic to Bilingual.
Considering the size of the country, the majority of the population have to travel to the top point of the land mass, which naturally causes considerable congestion on the roads, however the authorities recognize these issues and are setting up initiatives (albeit only vehicular) which are constantly seeking to make city accessibility inline with other fast developing areas.
Shopping is vastly improving and considerably cheaper, especially if buying locally or regionally produced products. Imported products naturally reflect prices allowing for the transportation, but it is not phenomenally expensive. Mostly anything can be purchased and products that you cannot find one month usually arrive by the ship load a month later.
Alcohol import and consumption is strictly prohibited, but the restaurant scene, social functions and home entertainment scene are lively and feasible when you take into account the amount of home help, cleaners and babysitters to give you more quality family time than you can have elsewhere.
