The Avenues

The Avenues at Al Rai is among the largest shopping malls in the world, laid out not as a single box but as a sequence of districts with different characters: a glazed grand avenue, a souq quarter in traditional idiom, a prestige wing, a market district, each with its own scale and light. In a country where summer makes the outdoors impossible for months, the mall functions as the public street.

What you actually see

• The Grand Avenue - the long glazed spine running through the complex.
• The souq quarter - the section built in traditional market idiom.
• The scale - among the largest malls anywhere by floor area.
• The social role - a mall functioning as the city's public street.

When to go

Year round; it is air-conditioned and busiest in summer when outdoors is impossible. Evenings and weekends are crowded. Ramadan changes the hours considerably.

Honest expectations

It is a shopping mall, and the interest is the scale and the social function rather than anything else. It is extremely crowded at weekends. Parking, though vast, fills.

Nearby

Souq Al-Juma is nearby, and Kuwait City is northeast.