The Persian Gulf provides ample opportunities for swimming, windsurfing, sailing, snorkelling and scuba diving almost year round, though in Kuwait waterlovers better check first on the presence of mines and other explosive devices around beaches and in the water.

Just about everything that can close will close on a Muslim holiday, so it's important to know when they fall. Kuwait's religious holidays follow the Muslim lunar calendar, so the corresponding dates of the western calendar vary each year. Major events include Ramadan, the month of dawn-to-dusk fasting (which ends in January or December through 2002); Eid Al-Fitr, the three day festival of feasting that marks the end of Ramadan; Ghadir-é Khom, which commemorates the day that the Prophet Mohammed appointed Emam Ali his successor; and Rabi-ol-Avval, the birthday of Mohammed. Liberation Day on 26 February is not an official holiday but everyone seems to treat it as one.