Data for Makkah and Madinah, Jeddah, Riyadh and AlUla, installed before you fly. Saudi Arabia is on the Middle East plan, so a layover in Istanbul, Doha or Dubai runs on the same eSIM. Umrah or AlUla, the phone should be the easy part of the trip.
The Saudi Arabia plan covers Saudi Arabia only.
The same 10 GB in a package that keeps working past Saudi Arabia.
10 other countries share the package with Saudi Arabia. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
Most pilgrims land in Jeddah or Madinah after a long night, with a group to keep together and permits to hand. The first hours are calmer when Nusuk is set up at home and the phone works before the bags arrive.
Install your onesim eSIM over Wi-Fi and leave the line switched off. A tourist e-visa covers Umrah outside the Hajj season: Albanian, Kosovar, Montenegrin and Turkish passports qualify online, while Bosnian, North Macedonian and Serbian ones apply through the KSA Visa portal unless they hold a US, UK or Schengen visa already used. Once the visa is issued, set up Nusuk and book your Umrah permit.
Once the plane has landed, open Settings → Mobile Data, choose the onesim line for mobile data and turn data roaming on for that line only. Your home SIM stays in the phone with its own data roaming off, so your number still receives texts while Nusuk, maps and ride-hailing run on the package.
The Haramain high-speed railway links its own station at King Abdulaziz International Airport and Jeddah’s Al-Sulaymaniyah station with Makkah and Madinah, at up to 300 km/h; Makkah to Madinah takes a little over two hours. Book on the official app, at a station ticket office or through Nusuk, and book early around Ramadan and the Friday–Saturday weekend.
When the mosques fill for Friday prayers and the last ten nights of Ramadan, plan as if the phone might be slow. Agree a meeting point with your group that does not depend on it, keep permits as screenshots and the hotel pinned offline, and save the video calls home for the hotel. A visit to the Rawdah in Madinah needs its own Nusuk booking.
Six lines and 85 stations opened between December 2024 and January 2025, and Guinness now lists the 176 km network as the longest driverless metro anywhere. The Yellow Line runs to King Khalid International Airport, and a two-hour ticket is SAR 4 from the Darb app or a machine. Everywhere else, cities run on Uber, Careem, Bolt and Jeeny.
Al Baik has been frying broasted chicken in Jeddah since 1974, and its fans are devoted: when it opened an eight-lane drive-through in Tabuk, the line of cars stretched for more than four kilometres. Its branches cluster in Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah, and the queue is part of the experience. Nobody leaves without an opinion.
Falcons Flight opened at Six Flags Qiddiya City on the last day of 2025 with three world records at once: 250 km/h, 163 metres high and more than four kilometres of track, launched up the Tuwaiq cliffs. Riyadh Season, the capital’s winter programme of concerts, boxing nights and food halls, usually runs from October to March.
Maraya, a 500-seat hall in the desert near Hegra, is wrapped in mirrors that reflect the canyon so completely that the building almost disappears into it. Guinness has listed it as the world’s largest mirrored building since 2019. Go late in the afternoon, when the cliffs turn orange on the glass, and expect company with cameras.
Visitors do not need an abaya, but the official advice is long trousers and shirts with sleeves for men, and long sleeves with full-length skirts or trousers for women: nothing tight or revealing. The weekend is Friday and Saturday. Saudi coffee, golden and spiced with cardamom, comes with dates and keeps coming until you gently shake the empty cup.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for Saudi Arabia.
Yes. Both cities are covered by the local networks, and for Hajj 2025 the regulator reported full mobile coverage across Makkah, Madinah and the holy sites. What changes at peak moments is the crowd: when the mosques fill for Friday prayers or the last ten nights of Ramadan, data can slow for everyone. Save permits as screenshots, keep your hotel pinned on an offline map and send the videos home over its Wi-Fi.
Yes. Türkiye, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are on the Middle East plan with Saudi Arabia, as are Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain, so the connection stays on one allowance. One thing to know: the package starts the first time the phone connects in a country on its list, so switching the line on during the layover starts it there. Leave it off until Jeddah or Madinah if every day should count in Saudi Arabia.
No. Nusuk’s visitor account asks for your visa and passport numbers, an email address and your own mobile number, and sends a one-time code by SMS. Register at home once the visa is issued, where that text arrives without fuss, and book the Umrah permit for your dates. After that the app runs on data, and your home SIM stays in the phone, data roaming off, for any codes that follow.
