6 Nature Spots Near Manama, Bahrain
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Travel advisory: Bahrain is currently a participant in the 2026 regional conflict involving Iran, and Manama has sustained direct strikes, including a drone strike on a hotel in the city. Governments including the US State Department and the UK FCDO currently advise extra caution or against travel to Bahrain. Check your government’s current advisory before booking anything. This is for planning ahead, not a trip right now.
Let’s be honest about what Bahrain actually offers: it’s a flat, low desert island, roughly 92% desert, with a high point of just 134 metres. There are no mountains, forests, or waterfalls here. What it does have is a handful of genuine wildlife and wetland spots, worth visiting on their own terms rather than as a substitute for something they’re not.
1. Al Areen Wildlife Park
Established in 1976 and covering roughly 7 square kilometers near Sakhir, this reserve runs as a safari-style, tour-bus drive rather than a walking park. It holds the Arabian oryx, a genuine conservation success story, alongside dozens of other mammal and bird species. About 40 minutes from central Manama.
2. Hawar Islands
A 16-island archipelago about 25km from Manama by ferry, awarded to Bahrain by the International Court of Justice in 2001. Hawar Island itself hosts Arabian oryx and sand gazelle, plus sea turtles, a large dugong population, and reportedly one of the world’s largest Socotra cormorant breeding colonies. Access is restricted and logistically involved (mainly via the main Hawar Island and its hotel), so this is a genuine excursion, not a casual add-on. Verify current ferry schedules before planning around it.
3. Tubli Bay
The most honest urban-nature stop close to the city: surviving mangroves around Ras Sanad and Ras Tubli, and a Ramsar-listed wetland (since 1997) that’s a real BirdLife-recognized site for migratory waders. It’s a working, partly reclaimed bay, having shrunk from roughly 25 to 11 square kilometers, so don’t expect pristine wilderness. What’s left is still worth a look for birders.
4. The Manama Corniche
A reclaimed waterfront promenade rather than a nature reserve in any strict sense, but it’s the easiest walk-or-jog option in the city with sea views on one side and the glass towers of Bahrain Bay on the other.
5. Desert Drives Near the Tree of Life
The open desert around the Tree of Life and Jebel Dukhan gives a sense of Bahrain’s actual landscape: flat, dry, and quiet, with the 400-year-old lone mesquite tree as the main landmark. Not a park or trail, just open desert reached by car.
6. Beaches
Be aware before you plan around this one: most decent beach access in Bahrain is behind resort or private-club gates (Al Jazayer, Marassi), and genuinely public beaches are limited, with reclamation having affected much of the coastline. Frame any beach plan as “resort day,” not “public strand.”
Getting There
Public transport doesn’t reach most of these. A rental car through discovercars.com covers Al Areen and the Tree of Life desert drive easily in a day; Hawar Islands and Tubli Bay birding are worth booking through a specialist tour search on Viator . Check the current official travel advisory before booking anything.
For the equally honest picture on hiking (there isn’t much), see the hiking areas guide .