A dry holiday to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

[Mattg]

I’ve been curious about visiting Saudi Arabia ever since the Middle Eastern nation first introduced tourist visas in 2019. They didn’t have such a visa prior to this, meaning as a non-Muslim without a business purpose for visiting, it basically wasn’t possible to go there.

Saudi Arabia has changed a lot over the past decade. Its reputation in the Western world is not always a positive one, and the country wants to change its image. It realises that it can’t rely on oil money forever, and wants to become a mecca for tourists. And not just religious tourists who are literally travelling to Mecca, but non-Muslim tourists as well.

The country has set ambitious targets to increase tourism as part of its Vision 2030, and it seems pretty well on track to welcoming more than 150 million tourists by that year. To do this, it’s investing heavily in infrastructure, opening new entertainment venues, hosting major sporting events and will host the World Expo in 2030.

It's also in the process of launching Riyadh Air, a new mega-airline based in the Saudi capital that wants to rival Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.

Famously, it’s even building new cities including “The Line”, which will be literally a really long line enclosed in a single building that’s 200m wide, 500m high and 170km long. What a fascinating project. The Line will eventually house 9 million people.

The Line, Saudi Arabia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The country still has a long way to go. Based on the reactions I got from many friends about my trip there, a big part of the challenge will be convincing Western tourists to go there. Nonetheless, at least by Saudi standards, the recent progress has been drastic.

So, onto my recent trip…

I had actually booked a trip Saudi Arabia for May 2020, the year after it launched tourist visas. I had to cancel that trip for obvious reasons. It was finally time for me to try again!

My plan was to fly into Riyadh, spend two nights there, and then fly to Jeddah where I would stay four nights.

I applied for an e-Visa a few weeks before I went. This was a bit expensive at around AUD150, but at least at was approved within a few minutes. The only option was a multiple-entry visa that’s valid for a year, for stays of up to 90 days. The price included mandatory Saudi health insurance.

You can also get a visa on arrival from one of the kiosks in the airport arrivals hall, for the same price.

I went in late January, which is about the best time of the year to travel to the Arabian Peninsula weather-wise. The temperatures were mild and actually quite pleasant, unlike in the summer.

A few weeks before my visit, I spotted this Traveller Letter in the Sydney Morning Herald travel section:

Traveller Letters: We won’t be returning to this stopover destination​

My wife and I recently visited Saudi Arabia independently as a stopover on the way back from Europe. Although the people are mostly friendly, and it’s an interesting country, this is one of the few places we wouldn’t revisit.

We found that many tourist attractions in the capital, Riyadh, were not open during the day, despite information to the contrary. Optus didn’t offer any mobile coverage, even though I provided my pre-trip itinerary to them before changing my phone plan, meaning there was no Google Maps to navigate a homogenous cityscape. No alcohol anywhere, though a quenching beverage would have taken the edge off the day. Our Jeddah hotel would not call us a taxi, insisting on us paying $80 for their hotel car for a 10-minute journey. Hailing taxis on the street is a mug’s game, so our planned dinner reservation was replaced by a local Indian meal after a futile 20 minutes’ trying. Understandably, most places are shut during the day due to the heat, which is fine if you can chill in your hotel bar or by the pool, but do be aware of the “women only” pool times.

Chris Roylance, Paddington, Qld

This letter piqued my interest. Not exactly a glowing review, but I usually take these Traveller Letters with a pinch of salt. Would I have a similar experience, I wondered?

 

[RooFlyer]

I applied for an e-Visa a few weeks before I went. This was a bit expensive at around AUD150, but at least at was approved within a few minutes. The only option was a multiple-entry visa that’s valid for a year, for stays of up to 90 days. The price included mandatory Saudi health insurance.

Strictly, there is also a four day stopover Visa which is included in ridiculously cheap fare packages from Asia stopping off at Jedda and continuing to Europe and VV . Unfortunately, four days is not long enough for a stopover.

 

[Mattg]

I'll start by explaining my itinerary and how I booked this trip.

I'm currently based in Europe, and I started this trip by flying to Dubai and spending a few days there.

Booking 1: DXB-DOH-RUH in Qatar Airways First Class (booked with Alaska miles)

From Dubai, I redeemed Alaska Airlines miles for a First Class ticket to Riyadh on Qatar Airways, with an overnight stop in Doha. On flights within the Middle East, Qatar Airways sells its premium cabin as "first", so in reality I was actually "just" sitting in a Qsuite on both sectors. Still, that's nothing to be sneezed at!!

With a First Class ticket, I was also able to use the Al Safwa first class lounge in Doha. I'd never managed to get in there before, and it was indeed a seriously impressive lounge.

So, why did I book using Alaska Airlines miles? There was availability to book with Velocity points, but Velocity wanted 26,000 points (this was before the recent reward price increase) and well over $700 in taxes & carrier charges. Most of these were Velocity carrier charges, and since these are based on the class of travel and applied per segment, they were really expensive for these two short hops in First.

Instead of booking with Velocity, I simply bought the 15,000 Alaska miles I needed during a promotion. The taxes on this booking were around AUD140. All up, I spent a couple of hundred dollars less than I would have paid just in Velocity's carrier charges!

I had intentionally chosen an itinerary with an overnight stop in Doha so that I could break up the trip and visit a friend there. I was originally supposed to arrive in Doha around 11pm and then depart at 2pm the next day, but QR ended up cancelling my original DOH-RUH flight and I got automatically rebooked on a 7pm flight. That was fine with me - more time in Doha and more time to enjoy the Al Safwa lounge!

Since both my flights to/from Doha were on a single ticket flying QR, I was also able to use the Discover Qatar stopover program to book a fairly cheap hotel for the night. I chose the Hyatt Regency Oryx as it was just a short metro ride from the airport and close to where my friend lives. It was a nice hotel and I was happy with that choice.

Thread 'Discover Qatar Stopover offer'

Jan 1, 2025

Has anyone used the Disocver Qatar stopover package for QR customers with a transit time between 12-96 hours?

I have an award booking coming up on QR (booked with Alaska miles) with an overnight stop in Doha (more than 12 hours) and it seems to be a pretty good deal. You can choose from a selection of 4-star hotels for QAR103 (approx. AU$46) and 5-star hotels for QAR175 (approx. AU$77).

Any catches to be aware of? Or thoughts on which is the best hotel to choose?

• Mattg
• stopovers and transit
• Replies: 12
• Forum: Qatar Airways | Privilege Club

Turns out, when booking with Discover Qatar, you can use the room for a 24-hour block rather than being bound by the usual check-in and check-out times. Since I turned up after 11pm, I was able to check out basically whenever I wanted the following day.

Booking 2: RUH-JED in Saudia Economy Class (cash fare)

The route connecting Saudi Arabia's two largest cities is extremely busy, with regular flights on Saudia, Flynas and Flyadeal basically running 24/7, including during the night. I found a reasonably priced Economy cash ticket with Saudi, the only full-service airline on the route, so just booked that. The ticket cost AUD155, including a checked bag.

When booking this route, there were basically flights every hour. Pretty much every single one of Saudia's aircraft types gets used on this route, so I chose a flight on the biggest one - a Boeing 777-300ER.

Booking 3: JED-IST-FCO in Turkish Airlines Business Class (booked with KrisFlyer miles)

Finally, my flight back to Europe was a KrisFlyer award with Turkish Airlines. This wasn't the first (or even the second) time I've used KrisFlyer miles to fly from the Middle East to Europe - it's a great sweet spot in the KrisFlyer award chart at just 33,500 KrisFlyer miles in J!

There was plenty of availabilty with Turkish, Aegean and EgyptAir from Saudi Arabia to Europe via the airlines' respective hubs. There was also an option on a Lufthansa A340-600, but only out of Riyadh and a few days earlier than I wanted. I ended up booking TK from Jeddah to Rome, via Istanbul and was already looking forward to some great food when my ticket arrived.

The taxes & charges on this booking were a bit high at AUD325. I could have paid less if I'd booked Aegean, but that would have been a 2am departure from Jeddah on an A320 with euro-business seating. Yeah, nah.

 

[Mattg]

So, to Dubai where this journey began...

There was quite a queue to check in when I got to DXB around 3 hours before my QR flight departed. Turns out, QR was running an A350-1000 from DXB to DOH at 22:50 (my flight) and another wide-body on the same route at 23:00. They must get a lot of connecting passengers starting their journeys in Dubai!

With my QR F boarding pass I was able to use the Ahlan First Class Lounge at DXB.



This was actually a really nice lounge, made even better by the fact they had roped off the entire back section of the lounge exclusively for QR passengers ticketed in F.

I was promptly shown to a table and handed a menu. The service staff were attentive and the a la carte lounge menu was excellent!



I very much enjoyed the laksa and satay chicken, with a glass of proper champagne.




On my way to the boarding gate, I briefly popped into the British Airways lounge as well. This was a much smaller space with a simple buffet and drinks selection, but was nice enough. Since the BA flight to LHR was still a few hours away, that lounge was still very quiet when I visited.

 

[Mattg]

The flight to Doha was a short hop on a big plane. It was a real treat getting to sit in a Qsuite on such a short flight, and what can I say - it's a really great product! It's spacious, well designed and very private - especially if you close the sliding door.



The lady sitting across from me - not that I could actually see her at all during the flight - was worried when she got on board that she was in a rear-facing seat. There was no need, she had an aisle seat that faced forwards. My window seat faced backwards but it wasn't really an issue at all for me.

Almost as soon as I sat down, the cheerful QR flight attendant dropped by my seat to introduce herself and hand me a menu. She also offered me a drink before take-off, and it wasn't just a choice of still or sparkling water like you you get on some airlines (*cough*) but literally anything I wanted from the drinks menu. Except, as it happened, the one drink I actually asked for (sparkling rosé) as they had run out. Not to worry, some champagne would do just fine!



We had boarded quite early so I even had time to order a second drink before we took off. I was keen for a glass of QR's delicious signature lemon & mint drink.



We took off on time and had a great view of the Dubai city lights:



The flight time was under an hour, so there was barely enough time for a meal service - but QR still managed to deliver a plate of food and another drink during the flight.



Unfortunately, we somehow managed to park at a stand-off bay on arrival into Doha that was so far away from the terminal, the bus ride in took about 25 minutes. The good news is that QR had sent dedicated "first class" buses for the F pax which were very comfortable.



I cleared immigration through the arrivals lounge for J/F passengers, which had no line, and was quickly in the metro to my hotel for the night, Hyatt Regency Oryx.

 

[Mattg]

I headed back to DOH the following afternoon, arriving a few hours early for my flight in order to spend some time in the Qatar Airways Al Safwa lounge.

Wow, just wow. I'm struggling to think of many better lounges anywhere in the world.



To access this lounge, you have to be flying in F. A regional F ticket on a flight within the Middle East will do, but you can't get in as a Oneworld Emerald or Velocity Platinum member flying Y - you get sent to a separate Platinum Lounge instead. On one hand, that's obviously disappointing if you have status and are flying Y. On the other hand, by keeping the invite list small, the lounge doesn't feel crowded at all and it allows the airline to invest deeply into the quality of the experience.

And what an experience it is. When I walked in, I didn't really know where to start. Luckily, the staff were very attentive and happily gave me an overview of the lounge facilities - and some directions.

It's a physically huge space, with a very high ceiling, that looks like a museum. As it happens, museum exhibits are literally one of the many things you can find in this lounge.



Al Safwa has pretty much everything you would expect from a great airline lounge. There are two dining areas - a main one and a smaller sushi bar - both with a la carte menus and table service. There's also a separate bar.

I started by trying some of the sushi.




Then moved to the other restaurant.

The main dining area had a seriously excellent menu (you can see the menu here) with many delicious options and an extensive drinks list to match. It's like a fine dining restaurant with friendly service and a view with lots of planes. I ordered a few dishes and they brought me an amuse bouche as well, to start.







I was in food heaven by the end of that meal!

The lounge has a business centre, and I'm not just talking about a desk with a power outlet. You can literally get an entire office to yourself.



There's a spa, and although massage treatments cost extra, the Jacuzzi - yes really - is complimentary. Unfortunately, I left it too late to ask about this and there wasn't enough time for the staff to prepare this for me before my flight boarded.

There's also a kids gaming area, parent rooms, prayer rooms, a media room, a smoking area and a duty-free shop.

I could have happily spent a whole day in that lounge. Alas, my flight to Riyadh was ready to board...

 

[GarrettM]

You're really leaving us in suspense here @Mattg

 

[zainman]

The Hyatt Regency Oryx hotel you stayed at used to be the STPC hotel for QR back in the day when it was known as Oryx Rotana. Stayed there plenty of times thanks to QR.

Not sure what hotel(s) they use now for STPC.

Looking forward to the rest of the TR!

 

[Mattg]

My flight from Doha to Riyadh was once again on an Airbus A350-1000 and very similar to the previous one. This plane also had Qsuites.




Once again, as soon as I sat down, a flight attendant immediately greeted me and offered me a drink. The only difference was that on this flight, there was no alcohol on the menu whatsoever. No worries, I enjoyed another glass of the lemon & mint drink and some Arabic coffee with dates.



I got another snack plate after take-off, which was more than adequate for the ~1 hour flight. I did my best but I couldn't quite finish everything after eating so well in the lounge.



Instead of champagne I tried the "luxury non-alcoholic bubbly" with my meal. It was pleasant enough.

On arrival, immigration was a simple enough process – once the officer stopped looking at his phone and actually acknowledged me.

As soon as I walked into the arrivals hall, I must have stood out as a foreign tourist as several men immediately approached me asking if I needed a taxi, etc. I politely smiled, looked them in the eye and said "no thank you". But one guy just kept following me for quite a while, and kept asking what I needed. "Taxi? Sim card? Metro? No problem, I help you." I gave him nothing, and eventually he said in desperation "just tell me what you want". I looked him in the eye and said "I want you to leave me alone", and he finally did.

The first thing I actually wanted to do was get my Airalo eSIM up and running before ordering an Uber or Careem to my hotel. This proved to be easier said than done.

I forgot to buy an eSIM before leaving Doha, so ended up buying it on the plane using the QR Wi-Fi - but I couldn’t then activate it while on board. Figuring that I could not activate it because I was on a plane, I then connected to the Riyadh airport Wi-Fi on arrival (you needed to enter your mobile number and get an SMS code to do so) but the eSIM failed to activate again.

I thought maybe I’d messed up the activation of that eSIM by trying to activate it earlier on the flight, so bought another one but it just added the data as top-up credit to the original eSIM that had failed to activate. So I tried deleting that eSIM and then buying another one – same problem. I then tried buying a different type of eSIM – but it still didn’t work. Finally I tried buying an eSIM data top-up from a different provider, but encountered a different and totally unrelated error with that one.

I’d now bought 5 eSIMs and hadn’t got a single one to work. Eventually I figured that I would use the airport Wi-Fi to order an Uber and sort out the eSIMs at my hotel.

I found the Uber pickup area but was again hassled by at least a dozen taxi drivers while walking towards it. I’m pretty sure I actually could have negotiated a better price than the Uber fare with any of those drivers if I’d really wanted to. But I didn’t like how pushy the drivers were and I like the safety that comes with Uber, since the ride is tracked in the App etc., especially in a new country.



Not the best start, but I'm pleased to say that this was the only time I was hassled by touts/taxi drivers/etc. during my entire six days in Saudi Arabia! In my experience, this wasn't actually the norm in this country. Just a quirk of that airport, I guess.

By the way, it turns out that the problem with activating my eSIMs was with the RUH airport Wi-Fi. I was later able to get this done using the internet at my hotel.

For my two nights in Riyadh I stayed at Park Inn by Radisson. I took advantage of a Radisson Rewards status match last year and got upgraded to VIP, Radisson's top status, through that promotion.

On arrival at the hotel, I was warmly greeted and looked after extremely well. I was able to get breakfast for free through my Radisson status, and they upgraded me to a lovely junior suite.



The room had a helpful arrow on the ceiling pointing towards Mecca.



While checking in I also asked about late check-out, and the guy on the front desk practically insisted that I check out as late as possible. He even offered an 8pm check-out, but as my flight would be at 7pm I said that 4 o'clock would be fine.

"We want you to enjoy your stay and come back," he said. I love it when hotels actually make an effort to look after their loyalty program members, rather than making you fight for your advertised benefits!

 

[VPS]

My flight from Doha to Riyadh was once again on an Airbus A350-1000 and very similar to the previous one. This plane also had Qsuites.

View attachment 435589
View attachment 435590

Once again, as soon as I sat down, a flight attendant immediately greeted me and offered me a drink. The only difference was that on this flight, there was no alcohol on the menu whatsoever. No worries, I enjoyed another glass of the lemon & mint drink and some Arabic coffee with dates.

View attachment 435591

I got another snack plate after take-off, which was more than adequate for the ~1 hour flight. I did my best but I couldn't quite finish everything after eating so well in the lounge.

View attachment 435592

Instead of champagne I tried the "luxury non-alcoholic bubbly" with my meal. It was pleasant enough.

On arrival, immigration was a simple enough process – once the officer stopped looking at his phone and actually acknowledged me.

As soon as I walked into the arrivals hall, I must have stood out as a foreign tourist as several men immediately approached me asking if I needed a taxi, etc. I politely smiled, looked them in the eye and said "no thank you". But one guy just kept following me for quite a while, and kept asking what I needed. "Taxi? Sim card? Metro? No problem, I help you." I gave him nothing, and eventually he said in desperation "just tell me what you want". I looked him in the eye and said "I want you to leave me alone", and he finally did.

The first thing I actually wanted to do was get my Airalo eSIM up and running before ordering an Uber or Careem to my hotel. This proved to be easier said than done.

I forgot to buy an eSIM before leaving Doha, so ended up buying it on the plane using the QR Wi-Fi - but I couldn’t then activate it while on board. Figuring that I could not activate it because I was on a plane, I then connected to the Riyadh airport Wi-Fi on arrival (you needed to enter your mobile number and get an SMS code to do so) but the eSIM failed to activate again.

I thought maybe I’d messed up the activation of that eSIM by trying to activate it earlier on the flight, so bought another one but it just added the data as top-up credit to the original eSIM that had failed to activate. So I tried deleting that eSIM and then buying another one – same problem. I then tried buying a different type of eSIM – but it still didn’t work. Finally I tried buying an eSIM data top-up from a different provider, but encountered a different and totally unrelated error with that one.

I’d now bought 5 eSIMs and hadn’t got a single one to work. Eventually I figured that I would use the airport Wi-Fi to order an Uber and sort out the eSIMs at my hotel.

I found the Uber pickup area but was again hassled by at least a dozen taxi drivers while walking towards it. I’m pretty sure I actually could have negotiated a better price than the Uber fare with any of those drivers if I’d really wanted to. But I didn’t like how pushy the drivers were and I like the safety that comes with Uber, since the ride is tracked in the App etc., especially in a new country.

View attachment 435595

Not the best start, but I'm pleased to say that this was the only time I was hassled by touts/taxi drivers/etc. during my entire six days in Saudi Arabia! In my experience, this wasn't actually the norm in this country. Just a quirk of that airport, I guess.

By the way, it turns out that the problem with activating my eSIMs was with the RUH airport Wi-Fi. I was later able to get this done using the internet at my hotel.

For my two nights in Riyadh I stayed at Park Inn by Radisson. I took advantage of a Radisson Rewards status match last year and got upgraded to VIP, Radisson's top status, through that promotion.

On arrival at the hotel, I was warmly greeted and looked after extremely well. I was able to get breakfast for free through my Radisson status, and they upgraded me to a lovely junior suite.

View attachment 435593

The room had a helpful arrow on the ceiling pointing towards Mecca.

View attachment 435594

While checking in I also asked about late check-out, and the guy on the front desk practically insisted that I check out as late as possible. He even offered an 8pm check-out, but as my flight would be at 7pm I said that 4 o'clock would be fine.

"We want you to enjoy your stay and come back," he said. I love it when hotels actually make an effort to look after their loyalty program members, rather than making you fight for your advertised benefits!

Interesting I am having a stoush with Radisson at the moment because they would not give me free breakfast as a VIP because I didn’t book on the app. I had emailed them several times to check if they had a room without a shub and they just kept on saying check on the website. I had rung them two or three times but the customer service team were absolutely useless.

 

[jase05]

Definitely following this as even though we have visited Saudi Arabia previously and have driven parts I’m keen to spend a fair bit more time there.
I was planning a shortish stopover of around a week this year on our way to the US but as fate would have it I was at a work conference in Sydney about a month ago and one of the other managers has a son who has been living in Jeddah since 2016 and he gave me a heap of suggestions and ideas that led me to the conclusion I need probably 2-3 weeks minimum. He also advised me that I was foolish to want to do land based trips there in June/July and that the local constabulary would most likely lock me up for being so foolish
He did say his son would be happy to give us a guided tour of Jeddah if we get over there again so I guess we better start planning.

 

[SYD]

That is sooo frustrating when mobiles / eSIMs don’t work first go and you’re left scratching your head - WT actual…has gone wrong. This time last year I discovered that Optus had zero roaming in Uruguay on the $5 a day roaming (but did roam if you were on PAYG)! No SMS for a week… Plus my Flexiroam “Global” plan decided not to roam at the same time, somewhere in between purchase and arriving in MVD, they’d dropped Uruguay from that plan… Similarly had to book an Uber to town (which is quite a long way), using airport wifi but then zero data once we left the airport…

Fortunately, a lot of eSIM providers now have an auto activate function so you can buy a country specific (or regional/global) plan, install the eSIM before you leave Oz (or elsewhere) and it will activate on arrival and the plan duration clock starts ticking then.

 

[offshore171]

The Saudis are spending a bomb on trying to get a tourism market going. Will it work?

This video review of a new Saudi resort popped up on my youtube feed a few weeks back. I took the time to watch the whole thing. The resort itself is visually spectacular, particularly the architecture.

It looks like it cost a fortune to build and another fortune to maintain.

But the place is weirdly deserted. Lots of staff with nothing to do.

It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

 

[jase05]

The Saudis are spending a bomb on trying to get a tourism market going. Will it work?

This video review of a new Saudi resort popped up on my youtube feed a few weeks back. I took the time to watch the whole thing. The resort itself is visually spectacular, particularly the architecture.

It looks like it cost a fortune to build and another fortune to maintain.

But the place is weirdly deserted. Lots of staff with nothing to do.

It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

That is the resort Mrs Jase wanted to go to this year. It will have to wait until perhaps year now

 

[Mattg]

On my first full day in Riyadh, I joined a tour to the "Edge of the world". This is a huge canyon with a cliff more than 1km high located at the end of the Tuwaik mountain range, around a 100km drive from Riyadh. I booked this tour through Viator at a cost of just under $100 for the day trip. Overall, this was a pretty cool experience.

We got put onto minibuses with seatbelts that were wrapped in masking tape, so you couldn't use them.



Even in Riyadh, there was a lot of sand around. But the landscape became even more arid as we left the city and headed into the desert. Some of the places we passed along the way included the "Taste of Taste Restaurant" and the "Ministry of Grievances" building.





In addition to the canyon, there were three other stops.

The first stop was to do some camel rides. There were only four camels, so it took a bit of time for everyone on the two minibuses to get a turn, but the rides only lasted about 5 minutes and were basically just a short loop.




Given how late we returned back to Riyadh, and how little time there was allocated to actually enjoying the "edge of the world", I feel like we probably could have skipped this stop. Still, it gave everyone a chance to get some nice photos.

The next stop was a bat cave, which you accessed through this ladder:



I don't think this was quite a "legit" tourist attraction, in the sense that there were no tickets required and nobody seemed to be running the cave. But it was interesting, I guess.

 

[Mattg]

The edge of the world was the real highlight of this tour. We got there just before sunset, and the views were spectacular. The guide told us to be back at the bus within 45 minutes, but we ended up spending double that amount of time at this stop. That's probably a good thing, as we needed all of that time to actually walk out to the clifftop and truly appreciate the natural beauty.

 

[Mattg]

The final stop, on the way back to Riyadh, was for dinner. It was a cool setting, but I think they put too much attention into the decor, which could have been redirected back into the food.






One of the other things I enjoyed about this tour was just chatting with the other tour participants. They were a very interesting mix of people from all over the world, travelling for a mix of vacation, business and stopping over for a few days en-route to somewhere else. I ended up chatting for ages with a first officer for a US airline.

 

[Mattg]

There's a lot of construction going on around Riyadh. It looks like the government is investing a lot in new infrastructure and the modernisation of the city.




Riyadh is already a big city, with lots of modern buildings, skyscrapers and grandiose structures with bright lights. The big multi-lane highways (and SUVs) wouldn't look out of place in Texas or California.

In around a decade, Riyadh will probably be a new megacity and I think it will become a much more visited place by international tourists at some stage. Riyadh Air will absolutely help with that, as will the liberalisation of some of the country's laws.

One example of this new infrastructure is the new metro that opened last year. It's super easy to use and costs only 4 Saudi riyals (about $1.70) for a 2-hour trip. You can even tap on and off at the gates using your credit card.





The stations are modern, clean and well staffed. The trains themselves have separate compartments for "singles" (men), "family" (women and children) and "first class".



As my hotel wasn't that close to a metro station, I mainly got around with Uber and Careem. This generally worked fine, but I'd say that Careem is a better option in the Middle East as there are more drivers using it and the prices are slightly lower.

Most of the Uber/Careem drivers drove well, but one drove like a maniac and I had an issue where one driver cancelled on me after asking if I would pay cash and I said no. (Um, why would I plan to pay cash when I'm using an app linked to my credit card?)

You'll probably be shocked to know that all the Uber/Careem drivers I had in Saudi Arabia were men. Women are now allowed to drive in the country, but during the six days I was there I think I saw about two women driving cars. It seems this is still not really part of the culture, even if it's now technically allowed.

Many women were wearing face/head coverings, but not all. I did see female tourists who were not wearing hijabs or head coverings at all, and it didn't seem to be an issue.

If you happen to want to drive yourself, petrol in Saudi Arabia is very, very cheap. The prices I was seeing were typically around SAR2.30 per litre, which is just under 1 AUD per litre.

 

[Mattg]

Another obvious example of the modernisation of Saudi Arabia's capital city is Boulevard City, a nighttime entertainment venue with lots of shops, restaurants, games, attractions and exhibitions, and the nearby amusement park called Boulevard World.

Boulevard City is open until 4am every night. It first opened in 2019.

Even in 2025, you certainly won't find bars serving alcohol in this country. I did not find it anywhere in the country, including in international hotels. I'm told you can find it at some embassies and various other "underground" places, but I didn't look for nor find this. Instead, the idea of a good night out in Saudi Arabia seems to be shisha, coffee and fried chicken.

I'm not kidding about the fried chicken, by the way. There are so many American and Middle Eastern fried chicken chain restaurants in Riyadh. As a fried chicken fan myself, I thought it was great that you could try Jollibee, Dave's Hot Chicken, Popeyes and a local Saudi favourite, Al Baik, all in one place.

I went out for Al Baik chicken one evening and you can call me fan. Even though the chicken pieces were in perfect rectangles, they were filled with tender, juicy chicken fillets.



Anyway, enough about fried chicken.

I went to Boulevard City in the evening, and it looked like a cross between Times Square and Tokyo.




Bluey fans could visit “Bluey world” here…



The main reason I visited was to check out the "Harry Potter Experience" which was running for a limited time. This was really cool and oh so random. It was like walking into a life-size, interactive mock-up of Hogwarts. My only complaint is that buying a ticket was a pain because you had to download an app, create an account, fill in lots of personal information, get an SMS code, etc. etc.

 

[RooFlyer]

Even in 2025, you certainly won't find bars serving alcohol in this country. I did not find it anywhere in the country, including in international hotels. I'm told you can find it at some embassies and various other "underground" places, but I didn't look for nor find this

When I went there for work, back in 2004, we got invited to the Australian trade rep's place for dinner, in their 'compound'. Sent a driver for us, which was nice. (There was a reason.)

When we got inside he asked us what we would like to drink. Having been in the Kingdom for a few weeks by then, we asked for 'Saudi Champagne' (Perrier with mint and lemon). He looked at us hard and asked "No, what do you want to drink?"

He said all the embassies got bulk booze in and then did swaps. We met several senior Saudi government officers who the ex-pats working with them assured us knew their way around a wine list better than them.