Red Sea travel tips

Lionel Messi is back promoting Saudi Arabia in a campaign that says it wants to dismantle “walls” of “misconception” and break “outdated stereotypes.”

While we were growing our family, my husband and I raised our kids in the Middle East, starting from when our oldest child was a toddler up through her middle school years. Since we were already on that side of the Atlantic, halfway around the world from our native United States, we seized the opportunity to travel and experience nearby locations.

NEOM is central to Saudi Arabia’s push to encourage tourism and emerge as one of the world’s leading vacation destinations. Al’Ula and mega-projects inside of NEOM such as The Line and a new island destination called Sindalah have been the biggest locations to make headlines lately, but there are other moving pieces equally worthy of getting excited about. Take, for example, Leyja, a mountainous region within NEOM slated to be developed as a major tourism hub with three new futuristic hotels built right into the mountains.

What’s happening right now in Saudi is groundbreaking — literally and figuratively. Huge developments, so massive they’ve been dubbed “giga projects,” are transforming the country like nowhere else in the world, bringing in new attractions, opening next-level luxurious hotels, and even creating entirely new cities.

Saudi Arabia’s Belgium-sized city of Neom has unveiled another giga-project. It’s called the Gulf of Aqaba and will contain many of the futuristic hotels the $500 billion project has announced in recent months.

State-owned Qatar Airways has partnered with barefoot luxury brand Habitas to open one of the most costly resorts in the country. The Habitas Ras Abrouq is slated to open next month with room rates starting at around $700 per night to stay in one of its 42 villas.

State-owned Qatar Airways has partnered with barefoot luxury brand Habitas to open one of the most costly resorts in the country. The Habitas Ras Abrouq is slated to open next month with room rates starting at around $700 per night to stay in one of its 42 villas.

Jordan is a small country packed with wonderful attractions and experiences but don't let its compact size fool you – covering the major sites in one trip is no easy task.

Aligned with NEOM’s commitment to conservation, Siranna will complement its coastal location and be delivered sustainably.

The Board of Directors of NEOM has unveiled Siranna, an exclusive tourism escape, and the latest destination to be announced by the sustainable regional development evolving in northwest Saudi Arabia.

Six Senses Southern Dunes, the Red Sea has officially opened in Saudi Arabia.

Developers plan for the whole site to run on 100 per cent solar energy and send zero waste to landfill. They’re also capping the amount of visitors at one million a year.

Saudi Arabia has laid out its ambition to build a hotel of such magnitude, allure and luxury, that travelers from the world over will come to see it. In Dubai, the emirate has the two Atlantis resorts, between them almost 2,000 rooms. In the US, historic hotels such as The Plaza sit in New York and mega-resorts fill the Las Vegas strip. But in Saudi a set of three boutique hotels will be the “global bucket list” destination of choice.

As the crisis in Gaza deepens, efforts to evacuate tourists from Israel have been heightened. On Monday, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship assisted in evacuating US nationals from Israel to Cyprus; meanwhile, US government charter flights continue operating out of Ben Gurion Airport (located near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem) to take American tourists home.

The new Saudi Expert program is an added tool to help travel advisors sell Saudi Arabia. It is a go-to resource that will help increase your business' exposure to business and leisure tourism opportunities within the Kingdom. 

For a long time, perhaps the only comparison one could draw between Monaco and Gulf capital Saudi Arabia was a lack of personal income tax. Now, Saudi is looking to become a bit more like Monaco when it comes to its lavish yachting industry.

The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, referred to as “MBS” by the media, won’t slow down his spending to reshape his kingdom and boost tourism. His immense projects have been met with scrutiny overseas, but in the future, he wants to develop nearly 600 islands along the coast, according to his interview on Wednesday with Fox News, his first fully in English.

The next generation of Saudi Arabian hotels is coming, marked by the opening of the Kingdom’s multi-billion-dollar giga-projects. Marriott is showing what is possible at these spare-no-expense properties: Asking for the highest room rates in the country.

After days of hiking, there’s no better reward than diving into the cool waters of the sea, reflecting on the journey, and looking forward to the next adventure.

The Middle East is leading international travel recovery in the fourth quarter as inbound arrivals to the region witnessed an increase of 4 percent, long ahead of the global average of a decrease of 30 percent, according to travel analytics firm ForwardKeys. “The FIFA World Cup is certainly the key driver for its travel recovery,” said Juan Gomez, head of market intelligence at ForwardKeys. The latest air ticketing data by ForwardKeys also shows that international arrival levels may be back to normal in 2023, with travel to the Middle East up by 15 percent on pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter. Overall, the outlook for 2023 looks promising, despite high inflation in key source markets and the looming recession, FowardKeys noted. The Middle East is also attracting more premium travellers than in 2019, the travel analytics firm noted with Saudi Arabia showing the greatest growth. Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon are also showing growth, with a regional average of 11  percent above 2019.

Sudan’s sudden slide into conflict between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has stranded thousands of foreigners, including diplomats and aid workers, and countries are working to evacuate their nationals.