The first Meliá hotel in Bahrain will open on the Amwaj Islands in 2027 with 150 rooms and five pools

Meliá is preparing its first address in Bahrain: a 150-room hotel with 106 branded residences on the man-made Amwaj Islands. On 1 November 2026, the project, due in 2027, was granted a Golden License, the preferential status the kingdom reserves for major investments. First announced a year ago, the future Meliá hotel on Amwaj promises five pools and a Beso Beach club.

A Golden License granted on 1 November

The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), the body tasked with attracting investors to the kingdom, granted a Golden License on 1 November 2026 to the waterfront development led by Meliá and developer Infracorp on Amwaj. The announcement came at the Gateway Gulf forum, held on 1 and 2 November at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay.

Introduced in 2023, the licence targets projects worth more than 50 million dollars or creating more than 500 jobs. It grants priority access to land and infrastructure and fast-tracks administrative procedures. The Meliá project was one of the day’s four recipients, alongside DHL, Capital A (AirAsia’s parent company) and Digital City Bahrain, which together account for 3.89 billion dollars of investment, with no separate figure for the hotel.

Bahrain’s first Meliá, on the Amwaj Islands

It will be Meliá Hotels International’s first hotel in Bahrain, under the Meliá Hotels & Resorts brand. It will rise at the main entrance to the Amwaj Islands, in Muharraq Governorate, around 15 minutes from Bahrain International Airport.

The project is not new: Meliá announced it at the end of October 2025. Its chief executive, Gabriel Escarrer, then described it as a unique opportunity to strengthen the group’s presence in the Middle East. The Golden License now gives it a faster route forward.

150 rooms and 106 residences run by Meliá

The future Meliá hotel on Amwaj will have 256 units managed by Meliá: 150 hotel rooms and 106 branded residences, in other words private apartments that enjoy the hotel’s services. Infracorp markets the whole scheme under the project name Meliá Beachfront Bahrain: hotel rooms, beachfront townhouses and these residences.

Across the whole development, the scheme’s official website lists 600 luxury apartments and 100 townhouses on the beach, excluding the hotel. The hotel’s final trading name has not yet been released.

Five pools: what will the new Meliá offer?

Meliá’s press release announces five pools, restaurants and shops, wellness areas, gardens and large rooms for meetings and events. No restaurant has been named yet, and no spa as such has been announced.

The project will have a private sandy beach and a Beso Beach club, with private cabanas and members-only areas.

Residences on sale since May 2026

Amwaj Beachfront, an Infracorp subsidiary, launched sales of the Meliá Residences Bahrain in May 2026. Owners will have access to hotel services and to Meliá’s rental platform.

All the images released so far are renderings. The interiors show residence apartments in the west tower, not hotel rooms: no visuals of the hotel rooms or the beach club have been released yet.

Opening slated for 2027, still unconfirmed

The opening is scheduled for 2027, according to Meliá’s October 2025 release; the date has not been reconfirmed since. Bahrain joins the group’s far-flung projects, such as the Meliá Roatán resort, due in 2029 in Honduras.

In the Gulf, branded residences are also multiplying in the Emirates, from Aman’s 73 Janu residences in Ras Al Khaimah to the Anantara Siniya Island resort in Umm Al Quwain.