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With its eon’s old rich culture, heritage and wonderful tourist spots, the ancient Middle East country, Bahrain attracts around two million tourists every year. It has a number of shopping malls and shopping centers which offer the visitors a unique shopping experience. Most of the high end shops and boutiques are located on the Osama Bin Zaid Road or in the luxurious, air-conditioned shopping malls in Manama.
To start your shopping in Bahrain, the Manama market or souk located just beyond Bab Al Bahrain is the perfect place with many shops ranging from tiny open-air stalls to leading department stores which offer you everything from clothes to electronics, tobacco to incense, antiques to gold and fine carpets. Bahrain is also a world class pearling centre with plenty of natural pearls available in various colours, from cream or white to ochre or green. Gold is another product in Bahrain which attracts a huge number of tourists. It has many shops selling gold with excellent craftsmanship offering at low price unlike the west. The favorite place to shop for jewelry are Gold Souk building near Bab Al Bahrain and the newly-opened Gold City, which has more than hundred jewellery shops and you will find dozens of other stores around this area too.
In short, there are many ultra- modern shopping malls and centers to quench your shopping spree. Some of the popular shopping malls are listed below:
Bahrain City Centre
Known as the shopper’s paradise with over 350 exclusive brands to choose from, Bahrain City Centre is ideally located on Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa Highway in the heart of Manama.
Introducing a world-class retail ambience and hundreds of other 'firsts' to the Kingdom, City Centre Bahrain also offers the first of its kind indoor and outdoor temperature controlled 15,000 square metre Wahooo! Waterpark, Bahrain’s biggest cinema complex Cineco 20, and a family entertainment centre for children and young adults, Magic Planet. For dining, it has more than 50 food court outlets serving you the most popular and exotic delicacies from all over the world. Bahrain City Centre is the first and biggest shopping center, which offer the best shopping, leisure and entertainment to its customers under one roof.
Seef Mall
Located in the Seef District, Seef Mall has 300 retail stores of various international brands covering 21 categories of shopping from designer jewelry to clothing and fashion accessories. The mall has around 40 restaurants, food stalls, and cafes with the anchor stores of Debenhams, Marks and Spencers, Zaina, BHS, and Toys R Us apart from fashion store perfumers such as Al Hawai, Mango and Zara.
The Magic Island spreading across 4300 square meters in the first floor of the East Wing offers family entertainment with a total of 19 various attractions, including Max Flight Simulator, The Chambor, Motion Theater, Jump Zone, and other hi-tech games. Seef Megaplex is a ten-screen multiplex in the first floor of East Wing while Seef Cineplex locates on the first floor of West Wing. Seef Mall has become very popular among the Arabs and western visitors since its opening.
Bahrain Mall
Situated in the heart of Bahrain’s retail district, Bahrain Mall has 120 or more international brand retail outlets along with 30 kiosks and stalls offering perfumes, gift items, sweets and food. The 17-outlet food court ‘Restaurama’ with traditional Arabian style café is the amazing place for dining which can accommodate up to 600 diners. The mall has on offer electronic items, dairy products, furniture, bedding and bath accessories, artistic rugs, exquisite lamps, attractive picture frames, pots, vases, candles, frames and flowers, kitchen and tableware.
Apart from an ample parking facility for up to 1600 cars, Bahrain Mall also has a post office counter at the ground floor for the shoppers to mail their letters or post cards. It is a true shopping mall for families offering the ultimate shopping experience with a great variety of choices and tastes.
Dana Mall
Spreading across 700,000 square feet of total area, Dana Mall is easily accessible from four points i.e. Budaiya Highway, the Khalifa Bin Salman Highway, the Pearl Monument and Seef Roundabout. Lulu hypermarket is the place for family shopping here.
The Children play ground ‘Chakazoolu’ entertains people from all ages with an array of activities which includes hot air balloon ride, jungle train ride, indoor thrill rides, bumper boats, safari flight, cars, balloon race, creepy crawly railroad, complemented by video and ‘The Interactive Ghost Train’ with its variety simulators. Kids can also have a haircut, and enjoy a face painting, followed by photography at the Chakazoolu store. The Dana Cineplex boasts of 12 modern screens with a capacity of 2200 seats.
The Dana Mall also offers several service outlets, including shoe repairs, car hires, optical, key cutting, photo developing studio and hair dressing. It has a variety of restaurants namely Fish World, Sahara, McDonalds, Baskin Robbins, Al Abraj, Herfy, YumYum Tree, Hardees, Herfy, Asfahani, Kudu, BAbahabbas, Donarkabab and Chillis apart from a chain of cafes which includes Costa Café, Red Lounge, La Baguette, La Maison Du Café, Koffiato and Cappuccino.
Bahrain Duty Free Shopping Complex
Located at the Bahrain International Airport, the Bahrain Duty Free Shopping Complex offers the best cosmetic products, jewellery, perfumery, fashion accessories, confectionary, liquors, and tobacco. It also has variety of luxury goods and last minute souvenirs. Here, the travellers can purchase duty free on arriving Bahrain from shop located just behind the immigration. It also offers additional services such as 24-hour duty free shopping, online car draw promotions, online pre-ordering, and customer loyalty cards and cash raffles.
Bahrain Duty Free has received several awards during the past couple of years, including the award for “Best Duty Free in Middle East & North Africa” for the year 2008. The Bahrain Duty Free has been highly successful in its operations finding its place among the elite of international airport duty free operators.
The Yateem Center
The first of its kind as a fully climate controlled shopping center, Yateem Center is a downtown shopping centre located at the Manama Suq. It offers many stylish women clothing with the shops namely Bedaya Boutique, Mondo, The Outlet, Denim Chic, Clouds, Littlewoods, Awatif, Teen Fashion and the Cave and others. For the men clothing, it has Faqihi Bros, Abdulghaffar, Centre Point and Planet Fashion to choose from. There is also a shop for sports clothing at Olympia. Gajria Showroom being the major shop for electronics goods The Yateem Center has now computers, mobile phones, software, games and other electrical gadgets scattered around.
Apart from clothing, there are shops which offer cosmetics and accessories such as the Faces, Moons Top Shop, Reda Trading and Candy Country, all of which give you variety of choice. For jewelry, Al Zain Jewellers and Al Mahmood Pearls are the shops at the ground floor along with another five jewelers, and six watch shops, all selling the classic and modern jewelry pieces and costume jewelry, apart from bargain watches, which makes jewelry shopping a pleasure here.
Marina Mall
Marina Mall located at the famous Central Market of Manama has many mega stores which include the Shoe Mart, Mothercare, Home Center, Sarah’s Secret, Splash, Lifestyle, Bossini and Lee Cooper. It offers affordable and good value shopping experience with a host of items ranging from newborn and toddler clothing, to toys, nursery products, gift ideas, home furnishings, teens and adult clothing, footwear, lingerie and more. There are also stores such as G2ooo, NineWest, Cellucom, Costa Coffee, Milano Ice Cream, Planet Charming, Hour Choice, and many more.
You needn’t go hungry in this place with food courts offering tasty Indian, Chinese, Italian and Arabic cuisine and a great lunch buffet apart from other well-known food outlets. There is also the Magic Island play zone, which is a great place for kids of their fun and entertainment.
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