busybee2

yep 'the beach' hahaha

tdd

Hi
I am moving soon to AD and my son has a place at Al Yasmina Year 2. It does not look as if it will be finished in time - I am here at the mo, does anyone have any info on it! I have read about whee to live etc, all v difficult, apartment in town or townhouse in Al Raha???? If there are any available! Are there any pools in the Al Raha complex?

britchick35

Hi there im no sure i can help you much yet ther are many others with more experience than me , but we are now sending our kids to al raha school , and ithink it depedns on which part of al raha you are but i was there at the weekend and although there are little kind of water features at the end of the garden or fountains in the middle of the court yards im unaware of pools there , I think im going to opt to rent a private villa as oppose to on a complex there are some being advertised i officers city and khalifa city A as having private pools or a pool shared between 4 villas if its a pool your looking for.

arbroath_abroad

No pools in al raha. There will be a gym club pool thing with a membership in about 2 years. Mangrove and seashores have pools. Avoid villas in kca as pretty much you are at the mercy of greedy landlords and will prob get evicted sooner than later. My opinion is that yasmina will get finished. Al raha school is completely different and it makes no difference what end of al raha gardens one resides at. They have nothing to do with the houses

britchick35

with regard to the position of raha i was referring to the postions of fountains and water features in regard to houses themselves not schools or living position as such,and trying to indicate the fact that since were are not involved with al yasmina i dont know where it is in relation to that area.onlyu al raha!

busybee2

yasmina will open it does still look like a building site, last i heard that they were on track, but even if they dont manage to open all the facilites for the first week they should open ontime or fairly soon afterwards.

friendly bear

....so what is considered to be 'large' in terms of living space....we live with 355m2 and think this is a bit small for us as family of 4....also why do you 'love it'....linked townhouse,near a building site,no pool etc........we are just not seeing the big picture with abu dhabi.....schools and accomm seem huge issue's and so what is there in abu dhabi to make it this 'great place to be'....would love to know what keeps you there...cheers.

Grace O Malley

Either you love it or hate it. It does take a while to settle in, to get used to all the rules and red tape. We all have a moan now and again but i guess thats the same wherever you live

I would say its a fab place to raise kids!

People come here for different reasons. I would say now people come for the lifestyle rather than the money as the cost of living here has shot up dramatically in the last 2 years. The only real cheap things here are fags and petrol, new cars are cheaper, eating out and drinks are on par with UK-Europe, clothes pretty much the same also.

You can only but try and see if its for you!

friendly bear

.....why is it such a great place to raise kids ? i agree,we only want lifestyle...i think my husband has been offered 65-70,000 dirham a month which does not seem great..so not in it for the money....but kids are the main concern..

Grace O Malley

Your kids will love it

What exactly are u worried about and i will be happy to give you my feedback having raised my son here from the age of 6, he is now 17

Squirty Cream

Special Care Centre is a special needs centre also in Abu Dhabi. They are in the process of building a huge purpose built centre and have a 'Donate A Brick' campaign going on. The plans are fantastic and HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed will match all funds raised. It will be self sustaining an d built in phases. Can get you details if you want.

Squirty Cream

My kids have grown up here - the girls are able to go out and have more freedom than if they lived in England. All of them have loads and loads of friends (often found round my kitchen table on Thursday night when they get home from their hectic social activities, in my fridge on Friday mornings and draped on my sofas on Saturdays watching tv). They go to concerts and parties and have a lovely life. When they were younger the girls did ballet, jazz and modern dance, my son played basketball, football and they all loved swimming, ice skating, visiting Dubai, having sleepovers (that bit never changed), Brownies, etc.

They are older now, have all done well at school and are pretty rounded individuals despite the usual teenage angst - so yes, it's a good place for kids to grow up . They learn about and respect other cultures and are pretty switched on about what's going on in the world much more than if they lived in England.

friendly bear

i guess...housing...living in such confined space,tiny garden,indoor living..even in a townhouse it all seems like apartment type living...kids are good swimmers,train 4-5 days a week and can't see anything like this in abu dhabi.....big part of thier lives,schooling looks tricky...with some schools being full are people looking at second best etc...also issue's with so many teachers being unregistered....how does this work and does it mean 'any old teacher' can get out to UAE.....lack of choice of housing...khalifa city looks quite far out from the centre.....having said all this we still haven't turned the job offers down in favour of vancover & sydney etc...so still intrigues us,but in our position we want to get it right...we want to stay for some years while the kids finish school....they are 7&10 and need to get through high school in one place,so we are looking at it all long term and so the overall lifestyle etc is v important......many thanks.

Grace O Malley

Hi

Lots of people with kiddie live in appts and do just fine. Not everyone lives in sprawling villas.

I know BSAK do lots of sports and have swim squads etc and i am sure yasmina will go the same way as BSAK in terms of after school clubs etc

Yes schools are over subscribed and have waiting lists, unfortunately the infrastructure for schools and housing was not planned well at all for the massive projects underway and for the huge influx of new people and unfortunately this is not going to level out till 2010, well thats what they say

At BSAK teachers must be cert ed of PGCE so not any old teachers and again i am sure Yasmina will have the same recruitment policy. Yasmina school is operated by Aldar Academies part of Aldar Properties and the Director of the Academies is the ex head teacher of BSAK, he was there 10 years, so he will prob run Yasmina on the same principle as BSAK which has has been here for 40 plus years

Yes khalifa is a bit of a journey to AD city and there is not much happening out that way just now but give it a couple of years and Khalifa will have malls etc and more things to do for everyone

Have i missed anything

anna

Lolapops

I also live in n Al Raha and would recommend it. We have a dog and act and there are lots of green areas to walk the dog on and it is very quiet and peaceful. As suggested it is also a good place for meeting people and close to the school.

There are some small shops about 5-10 minutes drive away in KC - with laundry, groceries, take out etc..

The Mall as stated is further away until the overpass is completed. Al Raha is still a bit desert like but i have seen a lot of progress in just a few months so it will soon be all greened up and with easy access to the Mall.

It is preferable to doing a lethal commute from town everyday with your children - or putting them on a bus and preferable to a large KCA villa as you are more likely to meet people and there is outside space. Most of the large villas have very little garden. And as mentioned the 5 beds in Al Raha have small pools.

Last i heard the 5 bed villas with pool had gone up to 460K!!!