For my birthday in October I decided to fly to Saudi Arabia and ride for two weeks, camping and staying at hotels along the way. The rough plan was to go south, through the mountains and toward the border of Yemen, but unfortunately I got sick the day I left. I wasn’t feeling much better after I arrived in Jeddah so I decided last minute to change my plans and instead do a looser, flatter, and easier bike/bus/car trip heading north, to the small city of Al-‘Ula. Although this trip wasn’t really what I wanted it to be and a failure as a bike tour (to me, at least), it was definitely a success as an adventure and I am still glad I went.
There is not a ton of information about touring SA out there but there are actually many people who have toured there in the last two years (they have had a lot of dramatic changes under Mohammed bin Salman and tourist visas for non-religious reasons finally became possible in 2019). Unfortunately there is a lot of inaccurate/outdated information about the country; contrary to popular perception I found it to be an easy place to travel overall and I had no issues with getting around or safety. I am a woman and just dressed modestly, like I would in a lot of countries. People were very kind to me and while I wouldn’t ride out of Jeddah again (that part sucked!) I would go back to the north in a heartbart. The riding there was sick!!!
I could go on and on but I won’t – here are more photos with captions that sum up things better than I can right now:
I have done many other tours (usually solo) and there are more pics from Egypt and Thailand in my post history. I’m also a professional tailor and made about half the clothes/gear I brought on this trip; this little tour was my first time testing a lot of it out and it all worked out really well!
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For my birthday in October I decided to fly to Saudi Arabia and ride for two weeks, camping and staying at hotels along the way. The rough plan was to go south, through the mountains and toward the border of Yemen, but unfortunately I got sick the day I left. I wasn’t feeling much better after I arrived in Jeddah so I decided last minute to change my plans and instead do a looser, flatter, and easier bike/bus/car trip heading north, to the small city of Al-‘Ula. Although this trip wasn’t really what I wanted it to be and a failure as a bike tour (to me, at least), it was definitely a success as an adventure and I am still glad I went.
There is not a ton of information about touring SA out there but there are actually many people who have toured there in the last two years (they have had a lot of dramatic changes under Mohammed bin Salman and tourist visas for non-religious reasons finally became possible in 2019). Unfortunately there is a lot of inaccurate/outdated information about the country; contrary to popular perception I found it to be an easy place to travel overall and I had no issues with getting around or safety. I am a woman and just dressed modestly, like I would in a lot of countries. People were very kind to me and while I wouldn’t ride out of Jeddah again (that part sucked!) I would go back to the north in a heartbart. The riding there was sick!!!
I could go on and on but I won’t – here are more photos with captions that sum up things better than I can right now:
Part 1 :https://imgur.com/a/Gp3Mvns
Part 2: https://imgur.com/a/c87pgLo
I have done many other tours (usually solo) and there are more pics from Egypt and Thailand in my post history. I’m also a professional tailor and made about half the clothes/gear I brought on this trip; this little tour was my first time testing a lot of it out and it all worked out really well!