Hatem Boukhit on Unsplash · Free to use under the Unsplash License
Saudi Arabia
Nabataean tombs standing alone in the desert, a mud-brick capital the country is rebuilding, and a Red Sea coast barely dived — a destination that only opened to tourists in 2019.
The desert that
only just opened
Saudi Arabia issued its first tourist visas in 2019. For a country the size of Western Europe, holding eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites and roughly 1,800 kilometres of Red Sea coast, that makes it one of the least-travelled major destinations on Earth — and it is the rare place where an Indian traveller can still see something genuinely uncrowded.
The centrepiece is Hegra at AlUla, inscribed in 2008 as the Kingdom's first World Heritage Site. It is the southern city of the same Nabataean civilisation that built Petra, and its tombs are carved into free-standing sandstone outcrops rather than a gorge wall. Qasr al-Farid, the Lonely Castle, stands by itself in open desert with its façade unfinished at the base. On most days you will share it with very few people.
Around that sit a capital rebuilding its mud-brick origins at Diriyah, a coral-stone old town in Jeddah that has been continuously lived in for centuries, mountains in the south-west that get monsoon cloud and grow coffee, and a coastline whose reefs have had almost no diving pressure. The practical question is not what to see — it is which entry route applies to you, because Saudi Arabia treats Indian passport holders differently depending on what else is in the passport.
When to go to Saudi Arabia
The country is large enough that the answer differs by region, but one window works almost everywhere.
How much time you need
AlUla deserves three days on its own. Anything less and the tombs become a stop rather than the reason you came.
Journeys Designed
for Saudi Arabia
Sample itineraries shaped by our travel designers — a starting point for Saudi Arabia, every one reworked entirely around you.
Don't see the right duration or style? Every journey we design is built from scratch around you.
Design a Custom Journey →How to Explore Saudi Arabia
5 ways into Saudi Arabia — drawn from this guide, not from a list that could describe anywhere.
Hegra & AlUla · Riyadh & Diriyah · Jeddah & the Red Sea · Asir & the south-west — the parts of Saudi Arabia this guide covers, each with its own reason to go and its own time of year.
Hegra without the queue · Eight UNESCO sites · An unfished Red Sea · Newly open — what this country does that its neighbours do not, and the reason to choose it over them.
Nov–Mar is the strongest window — the cool season. The rest of the year splits into Apr & Oct · May–Sep, and they are not interchangeable.
Domestic flights · The Haramain high-speed line · Car hire · Ride-hailing — how people actually move around here, which decides how much of the map a trip can hold.
Route depends on what you hold. For an Indian passport holder there is no single answer.
Saudi entry — it depends what you hold
For an Indian passport holder there is no single answer. The route depends on whether you also hold a US, UK or Schengen visa or residence permit.
Saudi Arabia offers Indian passport holders different entry routes depending on what else they hold, and the distinction is not cosmetic — it changes whether you can apply online at all. Travellers who hold a valid US, UK or Schengen tourist or business visa, or residence in one of those, can use the eVisa or take a visa on arrival. Travellers who hold none of those, and who are not GCC residents, cannot obtain a standalone tourist eVisa; their routes are a Package Visa arranged through a qualified travel agency, an application through the embassy or an authorised visa office, or a transit visa. Verify your own position on the official Visit Saudi portal before booking anything.
If you are entering on the strength of a US, UK or Schengen visa for the first time, that visa must show a physical entry stamp from the issuing country. Saudi Arabia states explicitly that digital entry stamps are not accepted. This is the detail most likely to stop a traveller at the gate.
Without one of those, and without GCC residency, there is no standalone online eVisa. The Package Visa is booked through a qualified agency and bundles the visa with a licensed four-star-or-above hotel and a confirmed round-trip flight. It is single-entry. The package itself includes no services or activities in Makkah or Madinah, but the visa it issues permits travel to any city in Saudi Arabia, including both.
On the eVisa route a multiple-entry visa runs for one year from issuance and a single-entry visa for three months, each allowing a stay of no more than ninety consecutive days. The Package Visa is single-entry and valid three months from the travel start date, for a package of between two and eighty-eight days.
Saudi entry policy has changed repeatedly since tourism opened in 2019 and can change again without notice. Only the official Visit Saudi portal and the Saudi mission can confirm what applies to your passport and your dates. We do not publish visa fees here.
For all Saudi Arabia journeys we design, we prepare your complete visa documentation package — the forms, the supporting documents, the sequence of submission. Our visa specialists help travellers prepare complete applications with careful document guidance. Final visa decisions always remain with the relevant authorities.
What to know before you go
Saudi Arabia — common questions
Saudi Arabia for every
kind of traveller
Distances are large and domestic flights do most of the work. Most first trips pair AlUla with either Riyadh or Jeddah.
The Kingdom's first UNESCO site — more than a hundred Nabataean tombs cut into free-standing sandstone, plus the old mud-brick town and the oasis. Access to the tombs is by official guided tour.
At-Turaif at Diriyah is the mud-brick district where the Saudi state began, inscribed in 2010 and now the centre of a very large restoration. The National Museum in the capital gives the whole span of Arabian history.
Historic Jeddah — Al-Balad — is a coral-stone old town of tall merchant houses with carved wooden roshan screens, inscribed in 2014. Offshore, the reefs have seen very little diving.
Mountains above two thousand metres that catch monsoon cloud, terraced farms, juniper forest and the painted houses of Rijal Almaa. This is where Saudis go in summer, and it looks nothing like the rest of the country.
Both work and they give very different trips. Tell us which appeals and we will route it.