Are you ready for your Red Sea holiday?
The Red Sea is one of the super exciting Saudi giga-projects. It’s bringing a diverse range of exciting entertainment including stellar luxury hotels for those upgraded Saudi staycations, exciting attractions and plenty of sporting activities. As Red Sea Global announces it’s opening for booking, here is everything you need to know about your Red Sea Saudi Arabia vacation.
Red Sea Saudi Arabia: Planning your trip
Check visa requirements
If you’re planning on visiting the exciting Saudi Red Sea destination, there are a few things to keep in mind before hopping abroad that plane. First thing’s first, you’ll need to find out what visa requirements are necessary based on the country of your departing from. These 26 countries can now apply for visa-on-arrival when planning a visit to Saudi while these eight countries can now apply for an e-visa including Albania, Maldives and South Africa.
Red Sea climate
You’ll need to dress the part (or rather for the temperature), however if pleasant weather is what you’re looking for this is the perfect getaway from a bit of seaside fun. The Red Sea offers year-round temperatures averaging within 32 degrees Celsius. Here, visitors can dive into the deep-blue and enjoy the sandy landscape all while taking in majestic mountain and a cool summer breeze.
Dress the part
Visitors can dress the part of sunny skies and sandy beaches at the the Red Sea. However, it is important to keep in mind the required attire when visiting local villages or religious sites ensuring that both men and women are dressed modestly.
Landing in the Red Sea
The Red Sea International Airport recently started flights from Riyadh and will be the local airport accepting travellers from all around the world. If you happen to be heading here from the Saudi capital, Saudia operates two-weekly on Thursdays and Saturdays with a duration journey of two hours. Watch this space for more updates on confirmed flight schedules and additions.
Transport
To make your way around the Red Sea, you have two options to get you where you need to go. Take to the skies via a seaplane or hop in an electric car zoom over to your next destination.
Red Sea Saudi Arabia: Places to stay
When it comes to accommodation, you can now book your stay at two luxury hotels opening in the area including Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea and St. Regis Red Sea hotel.
Six Senses Southern Dunes, The Red Sea
One of the first resorts to open in the Red Sea, Six Senses Southern Dunes is now taking bookings and you can make yours via sixsenes.com.
The resort comes with 36 guest rooms and suites, 40 pool villas starting from SAR5,734 and a range of facilities including five dining outlets, in-villa dining and a cooking school to have you running the kitchen like Gordan Ramsey.
The sustainable hotel runs on solar energy with fitted filtration systems, a plastic-free policy, thermal energy storage systems, e-buggies and a sustainability workshop as well as space covering 3,974 square metres on two floors.
Now open. Southern Dunes Site 14, Umluj, sixsenses.com.
St. Regis Red Sea
Want to stay on a private island? Red Sea’s first private island, the St. Regis Red Sea Resort has also opened and is taking bookings. The hotel offers over 90 overwater and beachfront villas from SAR4,900 available on the private island. The five-star hotel comes with luxe facilities including an outdoor pool, restaurants, a fitness centre, a spa, and a children’s club. Oh, did we mention it also has a bespoke St. Regis butler service? Because it does.
From SAR7,000 per night. Open now. Ummahat Island, Al Wajh Lagoon, redseaglobal.com.
Saudi Red Sea: Things to do
Culture
There’s no coming to the Red Sea without delving straight into the magnificent culture that makes Saudi, Saudi. The best way to know a people and what makes a country unique is by strolling its lanes and roaming its roads. Here, you can immerse yourself in the local community and enjoy art installations, stargazing, famers markets, archeology and history trails, culinary experiences and falconry studies.
Food
Traveling through your taste buds is a given at any new destination and the same can be said for the Saudi Red Sea adventures. Blending tradition with innovative and aromatic concoctions, there are many local spots in the area to celebrate the essence of Saudi culture in one bite.
Sports
The Red Sea is filled with a wide range of entertainment on water, on the land and in the sky. The seamless experiences add to the already rich-in-history setting with watersport activities like kayaking, canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding, foiling, kite surfing and sailing.
If you lean more towards under the sea fun, there’s a lot where that came from including scuba diving, padi dive courses, dive excursions, conservation dives, heritage diving and snorkeling excursions.
When looking for the perfect land-to-sky combo, visitors can opt for activities like skydiving, paragliding, paramotoring, hot air balloon rides, gravel bikes, fat-tire bikes, electric bikes, trail running, hiking, climbing and scrambling.
Now open. Red Sea, visitredsea.com.
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