Saudi Arabia is opening fast to travellers, and its scale astonishes. The interior holds Riyadh's glittering towers beside mud-brick old quarters, while the dramatic AlUla region cradles Nabataean tombs amid sandstone canyons and desert oases. The Red Sea coast brings coral reefs and the coral-stone lanes of historic Jeddah; the south rises into the cool, misty mountains of Asir. Between them stretch endless dunes and cliff-edge desert panoramas, all increasingly linked by…
“Kandahar” (2023), with Gerard Butler, was shot in the canyons of AlUla; Saudi cinemas only reopened in 2018, after 35 years of closure.
Hegra, Petra's Nabataean cousin with 111 monumental tombs, became in 2008 the first Saudi site on the UNESCO list.
Apply for the tourist eVisa online before you leave. Distances are huge: domestic flights are frequent. An eSIM helps: Careem/Uber in the cities, Google Maps and AlUla bookings online.