AlUla & Madinah

You are met on arrival and driven to your hotel in the valley. Jeddah is the standard arrival point for the west coast and for AlUla. The rest of the day is left open to settle in, and your guide runs through the plan for the days ahead.

Hegra takes the morning. More than 110 Nabataean tombs are cut into sandstone outcrops standing across the desert floor, their facades carved straight into the rock. This was the southern capital of the Nabataean kingdom, on the incense road running north to Petra. The site is entered only on a guided tour with an AlUla Rawi, the local storyteller-guides, moving between tomb clusters by vehicle; your place is booked before you travel because daily numbers are capped. At the visitor centre is the reconstructed face of Hinat, a Nabataean woman excavated from one of the tombs in 2008.

Late in the day you drive out to Elephant Rock, a 52-metre sandstone outcrop weathered into the shape of an elephant with its trunk to the ground. The stone turns deep red as the light drops, and there are sunken seating areas cut into the sand around the base to wait it out.

Dadan was the capital of the Dadanite and Lihyanite kingdoms, which controlled the oasis and its trade for centuries before the Nabataeans arrived at Hegra. The tombs sit almost 50 metres up the cliff face, square openings cut in a line across the red rock, two of them guarded by carved lions. Excavation is still going on and a good deal of the site is unread.

In the afternoon, Jabal Ikmah, a short desert canyon whose walls carry hundreds of pre-Arabic inscriptions in Dadanitic, Thamudic, Minaic and Nabataean script. They record names, dedications and offerings rather than royal announcements. The canyon is short and mostly level, and the inscriptions sit close enough to the path to read without climbing. The site was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, which covers documentary heritage and is a separate list from the World Heritage List.

The morning is in AlUla Old Town, a labyrinth of mud-brick houses built from the 12th century on the incense route and the pilgrim road, walled and entered through fourteen gates. A fort of around the 10th century stands 45 metres above it, and the climb is the quickest way to read the town's plan. The restored lane below holds shops and places to eat.

Depending on what is on, you also stop at Maraya in the Ashar valley, a venue clad entirely in mirrors so that the cliffs behind it carry across its face. In the afternoon you travel on to Madinah.

A full day in the city with a local guide. Madinah is a place of orchards and volcanic plains, and the day covers the historic neighbourhoods, the date farms, the city museums, Uhud mountain and the old lava fields around it.

Muslim travellers who want to pray at Al Masjid an Nabawi are given the timings to work to; a permit is needed for Al Rawdah Al Sharifah and should be booked in advance through Nusuk. Non-Muslim travellers see the city itself, which is open to them, but not the sacred areas at its centre.

Time in the morning for anything you want to go back to, then you are driven to the airport. Madinah has an international airport and sits on the Haramain high-speed line to Jeddah and Makkah, so onward travel by rail is straightforward if you are carrying on rather than flying home.