Saudi Arabia is open: AlUla, Jeddah and what the rules actually are

Getting in

Most visitors apply for a tourist e-visa online, usually issued within days, typically multiple-entry with a one-year validity and stays of up to 90 days. Nationals of several countries get a visa on arrival. Apply through the official government portal rather than an agency.

No sponsor, no invitation, no male guardian requirement for women. Women may travel independently, drive, and stay in hotels alone.

AlUla

This is the reason to come. Hegra — Mada'in Salih — is the southern city of the same Nabataean civilisation that built Petra: more than a hundred monumental tombs cut into freestanding sandstone outcrops in open desert. It became Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.

The difference from Petra is the crowd. Access is by booked tour with a rawi, a local guide, in small groups on a timed permit. You will frequently have a tomb complex to yourself, which at Petra is not a thing that happens.

Around it: Dadan and the Lion Tombs, the Jabal Ikmah canyon of inscriptions, AlUla Old Town, and the concert hall carved into a mirrored cube in the desert. Give it three nights.

Jeddah

The Red Sea city, and the human one. Al-Balad, the old town, is a UNESCO site of coral-stone merchant houses with latticed wooden balconies, restored and lived in again. It is best in the two hours before sunset.

Jeddah is also the diving. The Red Sea reefs here are the same system as Egypt's with a fraction of the boats.

Riyadh is the capital and the least touristic of the three; Diriyah, the mud-brick birthplace of the Saudi state on its edge, is being restored on an enormous scale and is worth a half-day if you are passing through.

Getting around

The distances decide the shape of the trip. Riyadh to Jeddah is about 950 km; AlUla is another 300 km north of Medina. Nobody drives this as a loop on a two-week holiday.

Fly between the three. Saudia and flynas run frequent domestic services and fares are reasonable booked a few weeks out. AlUla has its own airport with direct flights from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dubai, and a seasonal schedule that thins in summer.

Ride-hailing is how cities work. Uber and the regional Careem both operate in Riyadh, Jeddah and the larger towns, and are the normal way to move around. Public transport is limited outside the Riyadh metro, which opened recently and is clean and cheap but does not yet go everywhere a visitor wants.

A hire car makes sense in AlUla, where the sites are spread along a valley and the roads are new and empty. Driving standards on the intercity highways are a different matter, and the long desert stretches have their own risks — do not drive them at night.

Women may drive, and have been able to since 2018.

The rules, plainly

Alcohol is prohibited nationwide. There is no tourist exemption, no hotel bar, no duty-free allowance. Possession brings fines, detention or deportation. Do not test this.

Dress. Women are no longer legally required to wear an abaya or cover their hair. What is required of everyone is modest dress in public: shoulders and knees covered, nothing sheer or tight. In practice most visiting women wear loose trousers and a long-sleeved top, and carry a scarf for mosques and conservative areas. Men: no shorts in public outside beach resorts.

Behaviour. Public displays of affection, drugs, and anything that reads as proselytising are all treated far more seriously than visitors expect. Do not photograph people, especially women, without clear permission.

Prayer. Many shops and some restaurants still close briefly for each of the five daily prayers. It is less universal than it was, but plan around it rather than being surprised by it.

Unmarried couples may now share a hotel room; the rule changed with the tourist visa scheme.

When, and how it feels

November to March is the season. AlUla in winter is 20–25°C by day and cold at night; summer there passes 45°C and the sites become unviable in the middle of the day. Jeddah is humid year-round and mildest in winter.

Visitors consistently report the same two things: it is expensive — closer to Gulf prices than to Egypt or Jordan — and the hospitality is disarming. Very few tourists means you are a novelty rather than a mark, which is a rare thing in this part of the world.