Life in Yanbu?

Hi afs,

There are 3 main areas to Yanbu - Yanbu Al Bahr (the old downtown), the Royal Commission and the industrial area. Most Aramcons here are located in the Royal Commission area which is about a 10 minute drive to work. RC is very well laid out with all the facilities that you'll need - gyms, restaurants, shops, hotels etc. You can get by without a car as there's plenty of Aramco buses (to work, shops, Jeddah etc) but it certainly makes life easier.

Hyperpanda is the main supermarket, SACO is like Homebase and we've now got a Jarrir bookstore (Google them if you like, they're all online).
There's 3 big hotels - Movenpick, Radisson & Holiday Inn where you can use the restaurants. There's plenty of other places to eat and there's more takeaway shops than you can imagine. Plenty of local stuff but also Al Baik (like KFC), Macdonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominoes etc

Aramco White Sands private beach around 45km away. Jeddah is the nearest major city and contains all the brands you'll recognise from home and there's at least a dozen shopping malls.You'll get most stuff you need in Yanbu now (building works all the time) but if you really can't live without the likes of Ikea you'll need to go to Jeddah. There's numerous gaes to buy new and used cars as well.

There's local beaches, a small corniche (promenade) and an ongoing project for a new marina & leisure area.

There are 2 compounds here but I would suggest taking the Aramco housing first and having a look at them when you're here.

The west coast is a scuba diver's paradise and there's plenty of small sheltered beaches up and down the coast. There's quite a few old buildings around and Mada'in Saleh (like Petra in Jordan) is around 400k away.

The weather's between 20 and 40 most of the year but it has been known to get a wee bit higher in summer!!

Cheers
Buster