Season Guide - Bahrain - Hilton Racing

Jumping in the car, I speed through the centre of Manama, a bizarre capital city of gleaming high rise hotels, office buildings, ancient mosques, shuttered houses and sprawling souks, which are now all bathed in a fine coating of sand. My first stop is the Veranda Gallery, a shisha smoke-filled coffee house, where I sit for a while, knocking back ghawas (mud-like Arabian Coffee) and wait for a break in the storm.

When eventually it calms, I move on to La Fontaine and settle in for the evening. A restaurant, contemporary art gallery and Pilates studio rolled into one, La Fontaine is housed in an beautifully restored mansion and run by the affable Fatima, who inherited the place from her father. It is just one of many crumbling villas-turned-commercial ventures in Manama, and a place where Bahrainis actually go. Other fine examples include Mezzaluna, whose glass-covered courtyard is ideal for stargazing, and the regularly packed Upstairs Downstairs.

For many people, it comes as a surprise that Bahrain feels so different from the rest of the Gulf. A kingdom of thirty-three islands sandwiched between Saudi Arabia’s east coast and the Qatar Peninsula, it is the smallest of the independent Persian Gulf states.

Bahraini people are famously hospitable and the country offers a more liberal, sophisticated and real version of the Middle East than many of its neighbours.

Where in other parts of the region, there are only very rich and very poor, but in Bahrain, there is a fairly substantial middle class. Perhaps that’s because it was the first country in the Gulf to exploit its ‘liquid gold’ so has been doing business with the outside world for years.

During even the briefest of visits, it is worth searching out a truly local experience. You might begin by joining up to five thousand others at a horse race at the Sakhir Race Course. Arabian horses are among the world’s most prized and the nail-biting races are held every Friday from October to March.

Continue on to the ornate Al-Fatih Mosque, or the Great Mosque for a free tour – women will be expected to don full-length gowns and headscarves for the duration - which culminates in a Q&A session.

Don’t miss the Manama Souk, a network of winding alleys packed with everything from tiny, open-air stalls to big department stores, selling electronics to spices and antiques. For gold and pearls head to the Gold Souk, where eighteen karats is the norm.

When Bahrain announced it would be hosting the first ever Middle Eastern leg of the Grand Prix, the world raised a giant collective eyebrow of surprise - for once, Dubai hadn’t bagged the opportunity. But by the time it had built its architecturally magnificent $150 million circuit, Formula One fanatics in the know were already flocking to the country.