Saudi Arabia holidays

Saudi Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula's newest tourist destination — visas for non-Muslim leisure tourists only became available in 2019, and the country is now opening up its previously off-limits cultural and natural sites at remarkable pace. The headline experiences: AlUla's Hegra (Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO site, the Nabatean rock-tombs that match Petra's but with virtually no other travellers); the rock-art of Jubbah and Shuwaymis (some of the world's oldest); the Red Sea coast at the new luxury developments (Six Senses, Habitas, the Red Sea Project); the historic Diriyah district outside Riyadh (the original Saudi capital, UNESCO); Jeddah's Al-Balad UNESCO old town (coral-stone merchant houses); and the seasonal flower-mountain Asir region in the south-west.

A 10-12 day Saudi Arabia trip: Riyadh (2-3 nights — the National Museum, Diriyah UNESCO district, the Edge of the World cliff, the modern skyline) → fly to AlUla (3-4 nights — Hegra Nabatean tombs, Dadan and Jabal Ikmah inscriptions, Elephant Rock, the new Banyan Tree and Habitas hotels) → fly to Jeddah (2 nights — Al-Balad UNESCO old town, the Red Sea Corniche, optional dive day-trip) → optional fly to Asir and Abha for the mountain green region (2-3 nights, especially June-September for the cooler temperatures). The country is vast — internal flights and the new high-speed rail (Riyadh-Mecca-Medina) are essential.