Riyadh & AlUla Experience

After breakfast at your hotel, you’ll embark on a captivating tour of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s intriguing capital. You’ll begin at the National Museum, an epicentre of education which showcases Saudi Arabia’s national cultural heritage as well as an overview of Arabian civilisation from prehistory through to our modern times. Afterwards, you’ll continue to the Murabba Palace, one of Riyadh’s most enchanting historic buildings and the first erected outside the boundaries of the old city.

After a replenishing lunch, you will visit the Masmak Fortress to admire its evocative clay-and-mudbrick façade as well as its museum, which depicts the history of the conquest of Arabia by the Al-Saud dynasty. The fortress was built during the reign of Abdullah bin Rashid in 1895, serving as a military garrison for his army. King Abdulaziz, father of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, captured the fort in 1902, essentially making the fort the birthplace of the 3rd Saudi Kingdom which continues today.

Then, visit Dirah Souq and learn about traditional Saudi clothing. The tour concludes with a visit to the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque, where you can admire its elaborate exterior and learn about this 17,000-person capacity place of worship, which is one of Saudi Arabia’s largest mosques.


Accommodation:

Following breakfast at the hotel, you’ll travel to the spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra. This ancient city was the second city of the Nabataean Kingdom, which flourished as a trading civilisation from the 2nd century B.C. until the Roman conquest in 106 A.D. Hegra is characterised by a number of extraordinary monumental tombs carved into rockfaces in traditional Nabataean style and is second only to Jordan’s heritage site of Petra, the Nabataean capital, in terms of the number of Nabataean ruins it houses.

Your guide will lead you through this fascinating historical site, revealing to you the secrets of its tombs as well as its ancient inscriptions and impressive stone structures that would be well placed in an Indiana Jones movie. After a leisurely lunch, you will depart for the ancient settlements of Dedan and Ikmah in AlUla, now abandoned, which was inhabited for some 7,000 years and played a pivotal role along the frankincense trade route.

Visiting Jebel Akmah, you can explore its intriguing rock inscriptions before continuing to Dedan, an oasis city on the frankincense trade route between Arabia and the Mediterranean world. As you head back towards your hotel, you will visit Jebel Al-Fil (Elephant Rock), a striking rock formation in the desert whose shape resembles an elephant.


Accommodation:

Enjoy your final breakfast in Saudi Arabia before transferring to Jeddah International Airport to begin your onward journey.