Hey there, fellow adventurers! Let me tell you about my recent escapade to AlUla… brace yourselves for an epic journey!
I gotta say, AlUla is simply mind-blowing! In fact, it’s hands down one of the best desert destinations I’ve ever laid eyes on. So, let me share some insider tips to help you plan your own trip and make the most of this magical place.
I popped over to AlUla in March 2023. My main mission was to catch the F1 Race in Jeddah (which I’ll be dishing on in a separate blog post), so I planned a week-long trip to Saudi Arabia. But, let’s be real, a whole week in Jeddah felt like forever, so I dug deep into my research and settled on AlUla as the perfect spot to explore for a few days. And boy, was it the right choice!
Now, due to our tight schedule (we had to rush back to Jeddah for the race), our AlUla adventure was jam-packed. But, fear not, my fellow travelers! The itinerary I’m about to share can easily be spread out over a few extra days, or even jazzed up with more activities. Either way, you’ll get a feel for what AlUla and Saudi Arabia have to offer. So, get ready to be swept away on a wild ride!
Now for the fun part: how did we get to AlUla?
Transport
Reaching AlUla is not that straightforward, sorry to disappoint. The good part is that the effort is worth it, so bear with me.
As I was saying, the main goal of going to Saudi Arabia was for the F1 Grand Prix in Jeddah. So my arrival in Saudi Arabia was through a flight to Jeddah from Bucharest. Wizzair introduced a direct flight from Bucharest to Jeddah by late 2022, for which I paid less than 100€, with the free cancellation option included (that’s just because I booked the flight before actually getting the race ticket, but more about that in the race article).
Now, to get to AlUla, we rented a car from the Jeddah airport. You also have the option to fly, but it is much more expensive, and we also heard of some people doing a mix of train from Jeddah to Medina and some public transport from Medina to AlUla. Because we were short on time with just a few days for AlUla, we chose the cheapest and fastest option: renting a car. Renting a car was super affordable: 130€ for 3 days, full insurance included (booked the car through Rentalcars – Avis) and as you would expect, the gas in Saudi Arabia is really cheap: ~0.5€/L (wow!). In a group of a few people, this becomes even cheaper than a train + bus, splitting the car cost among many people. Prepare for a bumpy and long rider however, the trip from Jeddah to AlUla takes 7-8 hours. Most of the road is highway, but there are also many roads with reduced speed limit where you have to pay crazy attention to the bumpers on the road (trust me, you don’t want to hit those with speed).
We booked and paid for the car in advance and we had the option to cancel for free 2 days in advance from Rentalcars, however, the first challenge when arriving in Jeddah was actually finding the rental office. The flight arrived at the North terminal (a small terminal recently built), whereas the car rental offices are in the south terminal. The terminals aren’t easily connected, and you will have to take either a taxi or the bus in front of the terminal. We took the bus and paid 20SAR (~5€) per person. We were a group of 6, and the bus left directly with only us. It seems like the ride includes some negotiation with the driver as well.
One more important thing to note is related to the driving license. It was not fully fully clear everything I read on the Internet, but it seemed like in order to drive and rent a car in Saudi Arabia you need an international driving license so I obtained one in advance. When arriving at the rental office all the documentation steps were done so fast that I honestly didn’t really understand if the international license was required or not, but would recommend obtaining one in advance, better safe than sorry.
Before leaving the North Terminal, we also purchased some SIM cards from the STC network (their little office will be visible once you exit the security control at the arrivals). The internet speed was alright, and we can’t really complain about anything in regards to the sim card.
Accommodation
There are quite a few options for staying in AlUla depending on your budget and adventure appetite. You will find in AlUla resorts, camps, regular apartments or traditional accommodation options.
The option we selected was Friday Suites, a nice stay quite close to the main visit sites in AlUla, as long as you have a car it’s quite easy to go from one place to another. Our stay was pleasant and nice, the owner was incredibly friendly and open to our late check in hour and was trying his best to make sure our stay is great. We paid ~100€/person for 3 nights to stay here and I can’t say we faced any major issue while staying here, but again, that depends on your needs, budget and expectations so spend some time to look for more options (especially if you’re looking for an open-air / camp option).
Most of the times I book my accommodation through booking.com, you can find different AlUla options here.
A short moment before continuing, if you enjoy this article and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee here.
The nice thing about AlUla is that almost everything is documented on their experience AlUla website here from restaurants, activities you can do and places to visit. Every single tour we booked for AlUla was through this website (it will also be the smallest price you will probably find, as it’s the direct source).
The challenge here was actually booking the tour, as all of my cards and my friends’ cards were declined. I couldn’t pay and reserve the tours with any of my Romanian cards or Revolut; all of them were declined. Because we didn’t want to risk not finding available tickets by the time we arrived in AlUla, a friend living in Switzerland helped us pay, and that card was accepted. I heard of people facing similar issues and managing to pay directly in AlUla, but I would honestly not risk it, as I wouldn’t want to get there and miss the chance of seeing some incredible places. I would do my best to find ways to pay in advance (hopefully, in the meantime, they fixed the issues we reported for paying with Revolut/Romanian cards on the website).
Now let’s get into the actual schedule.
Day 1
Hegra / Mada’In Saleh
Hegra is the most popular site in AlUla and that is totally understable as the place is simply amazing. Hegra is an equivalent of Petra, in Saudi Arabia, a place built by the same Nabataean kingdom not many years after Petra. Because tourism has been recently open in Saudi Arabia, this place hiding thousands of years of history has been basically untouched. It is amazing to visit such a place in a completely not crowded way. I remember visiting Petra in 2019 with hundreds of people being there in the same day, while in Hegra I don’t recall being more than 30-40 people in the same time in the site.
You have two options for touring around Hegra:
- visit by bus – 95SAR (~25€) / pers (at the time of writing)
- visit by a private jeep – 1000 SAR (~240€) for a group of up to 7 people.
When you reach the Hegra meeting point, you will be waited with free water and small snacks. On your tour starting hour, you will be guided to either the bus or a private jeep. Both follow a similar route and you will stop at different key points in Hegra where a guide will tell you more about the history of each individual place.
Because we were a group of 6, we decided to get the private jeep option. Honestly it was a super nice experience, felt amazing staying in the vintage car while exploring Hegra and I would say for a group of 6-7 people it is worth paying the small difference depending on your budget. The tours are scheduled in 2 hour slots, we booked the 10:00-12:00 interval, everything alright.
It is really important to book the Hegra tour in advance, especially if you select the jeep option. The places are limited and if there’s high demand for one place, it will be for Hegra.
AlUla Old Town
Oasis Heritage Trail
The next stop for the day was a short trail in the heart of AlUla. We booked the tour here and paid 35 SAR (~9€) for an easy 3km walk around AlUla’s beautiful palm trees, gardens and green beauty. We had an amazing and friendly tour guide who shared with a lot of interesting facts about AlUla, how different things work for the community there and random discussions on traveling and tourism. At the end of the trail we were waited with free water and a super nice garden with some instagrammable swings to spend some time on. Must book for an easy walk and learning more about AlUla in general.
Harrat Viewpoint
Last on Day 1’s list was the perfect place for a sunset in AlUla: Harrat Viewpoint. Getting there will require driving quite of a steep and fun road, which takes about half an hour from the center of AlUla. The view is amazing and the pictures talk for themselves. It is free of charge to enter the viewpoint and stay at one of the tables in the area and there is also a restaurant with a view there, called OKTO. We decided to come back to the Old Town for dinner and didn’t try it unfortunately, but the view was amazing.
Day 2
AlUla Stairway
AlUla is also a great place for some adrenaline activities as well: giant ziplines, swings or stairways, but also campings, hikes and many more. Just two weeks before we arrived, the AlUla stairway experience was introduced in the options and ….. was spontaneously booked. Your climb a giant stairway to a few tens of meters then come back down by zipline. Everything is super safe and nice, I totally recommend checking it out. We paid 150SAR (~30€) for it and you can find the activity here. Because we couldn’t book this experience due to card issues, we went directly to the visitor center in AlUla you can find in the Winter Park here.
Maraya
For sure the most instagrammable place in AlUla, Maraya is actually the biggest mirror building in the World, right in the middle of the desert. I didn’t expect this, but you couldn’t really just go there and see it, as the building is part of a protected area in AlUla. While booking our Stairway experience, the lady at the Visitor Center also helped us book our tickets for Maraya as well. There were two events during that day and we were lucky to still find available tickets, the events starting at 14:00. Basically, you won’t be able to enter the area around Maraya without such a ticket, keep that in mind (the ticket was free). There’s also a restaurant at Maraya which you can book a table for in order to see Maraya, however the restaurant opens for the evening (or of course, stay at one of the hotels in the area). Since we were short on time, it was really important for us to see Maraya during the day so keep in mind that you will need to book a ticket / a table at the restaurant in order to enter the area and that it’s not accessible anytime during morning/lunch.
Elephant Rock
Another key point in AlUla that opens in the afternoon is Elephant Rock. The name speaks for itself, a super nice rock formation looking like an elephant, surrounded by a few tables, pillows and 2-3 shops where you can buy some food, ice cream or something to drink. It opens at 16:00, so plan your schedule accordingly to get here in time. We waited in the car for 5-10 minutes, the parking was open at 16:05-16:10, we super fastly parked and ran towards the rock to enjoy some time here before heading to our next tour. Free entrance, great photos potential.
Stargazing at Gharameel
One of the most expensive activities in this trip, but totally worth it, was seeing a clear sky, full of stars in the middle of the desert. We booked this tour here and we paid 380SAR (~93€). We had to drive to the meeting point provided by the organizers (10-minute drive from Elephant Rock) around 17:30. The tour started around 18:00 and we were taken one hour away from AlUla, in the middle of literally nowhere, with just a tent around. We’ve been welcomed with tea and some snacks, had some free time to walk around and after that, for one hour, an incredibly well prepared guide told us a lot of interesting facts about the sky, the stars and the solar system. It was for sure the cleanest sky I’ve every seen, with every single star strongly visible and pictures won’t really reflect the beauty of the moment. I would describe this as a “Crash course on how stars work”. After that, we had a short walk alongside the guide for 15-20 minutes, telling us a bit more about the sky and answering our questions. Dinner was served shortly after, structured as a buffet with delicious food and quite a few options. The tour ended with the hour drive back, returning to our initial point around 23:00. It’s a bit more expensive than a regular activity, but if you’re not staying at one of the remote accommodation options in the desert and you’ve never seen a clear sky, such an experience might be amazing for first timers.
Day 3
Dadan/Jabal Ikmah
Last tour in AlUla was visiting the famous “Open-air library” in the area. A huge collection of inscriptions written on the desert rocks, a lot of history and many things yet to be discovered in the place as lots of research is still performed in the area. We started the tour in the Winter Park, where a bus took us to the first point: Dadan. We had a guide waiting for us there, telling us more about the history of the place, interesting facts about the civilization living in the area and many more. The bus shortly after took us to the second point: Jabal Ikmah, the desert canyon where you can find the old inscriptions on the rocks. We selected the tour for the interval 8:00-10:00 and we were the only ones there, it’s just amazing to enjoy these places without crowds (while you still can). We booked the tour here and we paid 60SAR (~13€).
Brunch
Once the tour ended, we went for a brunch at one of the few places open during the morning: Pink Camel Pastry Boutique. Nice and diverse menu and a super super tasty Pistachio Latte. We’ve had a meal here 2 times in 3 days, really enjoyed it.
Right after the brunch, we headed directly to Jeddah as we had to return our car by 20:00. On our way we planned on entering Medina for a short break, but we were welcomed with an incredible crazy traffic that we just decided to continue our way back to Jeddah and call it a day.
Conclusions
This trip was quite packed and it is not for everybody, you may need a holiday from such a holiday to be honest. I personally don’t regret a second, especially that the trip situation forced us to limit to only these 3 days. AlUla is an amazing place and if I were to go to Saudi Arabia, I would definitely add AlUla to the list. Depending on your time and budget I would extend the stay with a few more days here, potentially do some more activities in the area and enjoy the sites in a not so fast pace.
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This article does not contain any paid promotion on hotels / rental car companies / restaurants etc., everything is documented based on my experience.
