Hi. well a few things straight away. there are a few uk users on this site who give good advice. You will find very quickly though that there are many many users who are totally ill prepared to give advice and will just give total rubbish. Maybe to build up so called q points or just to see their own name on the page.
Rearding where to live... this is totally dependent on your budget. Do you want luxury, save money or use yoru total allowance on an apartment.
Moreover where are you working. I am sure you will have realised the traffic is an issue here.
If you work in west bay, rent an apartment there.Yes it is more expensive but when your family come out they will have something to do and somewhere to eat if you are working.
The Pearl is nice but for example on the Friday, nothing really opens until 10am. Whereas if you lived in westbay, they could do the city centre or the W cafe or ...you get my drift.
Cracking apartments around with swimming pool, gym and cafe and near the shops for those family trips. Hope thsi helps. PM me if I can do more