Madinah is one of the two holiest cities in Islam and, unlike Makkah, it is open to visitors of any faith. That is worth stating plainly, because it is widely assumed to work the other way round. Access to the sacred areas, including Al Masjid an Nabawi, is restricted to Muslims; the rest of the city is not.
So this break works for both. Muslim travellers plan the days around prayer and around the permit for Al Rawdah Al Sharifah, which is booked in advance through Nusuk. Everyone sees the same city otherwise: the historic quarters, the date farms, the museums, Uhud mountain and the volcanic plains that make the ground here unlike anywhere else in the Hejaz.
The city has its own international airport and sits on the Haramain high-speed line to Jeddah, so three nights here extends easily onward. AlUla is the sandstone valley of the north-west that holds Saudi Arabia's first World Heritage Site.
Day by day
Arrive Madinah
You are met at the airport and taken to your hotel, chosen for its position in the centre so that you can move around on foot between the planned days.
Nothing is scheduled. Madinah follows a rhythm set by prayer times, religious seasons and a steady flow of visitors, and the first evening is when you pick it up.
The old city
A guided day through the historic neighbourhoods and the museums, covering the events that put the city at the centre of early Islamic history: the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) after the Hijrah, and the sites that mark what followed.
Muslim travellers spend part of the day at Al Masjid an Nabawi. Visiting outside peak prayer times and the major seasons is calmer, and the day is built that way. For non-Muslim travellers the sacred areas are closed, and the guide works the route around them.
Date farms, Uhud and the lava plains
Out of the centre for the day. The date farms on the edge of the city are worked ground rather than a display, and they are the reason Madinah reads as a city of orchards before it reads as anything else. Uhud mountain is the next stop.
The old lava fields follow: black volcanic rock across open plain, which makes the ground here unlike anywhere else in the Hejaz.
The last stop is the railway. The Hejaz line was begun in 1900 and took eight years to build, running south from Damascus through twenty-three stations inside what is now Saudi Arabia, each about twenty kilometres apart. Madinah was its final station, and the first train arrived on 22 August 1908. By 1914 it was carrying 300,000 pilgrims a year, and then the First World War broke it. The station at Tabuk, on the same line, still stands.
Departure
The morning is unscheduled. You are collected from your hotel and taken either to the airport or to the Haramain station, if you are carrying on to Jeddah by train.
What is included
- Accommodation for three nights, with breakfast
- Airport transfers on arrival and departure
- Vehicle and driver on both full days
- English-speaking guide for the old city and the outlying sites
- Guidance on booking the Al Rawdah Al Sharifah permit through Nusuk, for Muslim travellers
- Bottled water in the vehicle
- A contact number for the whole trip
What is not
- International flights
- The Saudi entry visa, which you apply for yourself through the official portal
- Travel insurance
- Meals other than breakfast
- Onward travel beyond Madinah, unless arranged in advance
The places on this trip
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