Shaden Resort

We booked our two nights at the Shaden Resort.  To be honest, there weren’t a lot of options available to us.  This was the most expensive and probably a bit overpriced. As a running theme, a lot of things at the resort are unfinished.  It looks like there will be an Outback Steakhouse that wasn’t open yet.  The gym and spa was just an empty concrete building, and the pool had no attendants or workers to help out. 

It wasn’t all bad of course.  It was in a lovely location, with very easy access to the sites, and the food was amazing!  As part of the price for the hotel, you get half board (breakfast and dinner). Both were buffet and had way too much to eat.  

Elephant Rock

Our flight arrived in the afternoon, and our first excursion was to Elephant Rock for a sunset experience.   Although a bit sanitized, they have done a nice job with this.  You can sit in sunken seating (see pictures below) and they have a cafe on site.  I had a coffee and Simon had a milkshake.  They had some traditional drumming as you sit and watch the sunset. It was cool to see how the light bounced of the rocks and really changed the whole site.  A nice evening sitting, talking and playing in the sand.

Dadan and Jabal Ikmah

The next morning, we took our first excursion to Dadan and Jabal Ikmah. We first arrived at a place called Winter Park.  This was, essentially, the bus depot for all of the Heritage tours in Al Ula.  They had a number of food stalls, including Dunkin and Burger King, as well as additional ticket kiosks (although we booked online).  15 minutes before the start of your tour, you found the bus stop with the name of your site and off you went.  Very easy and convenient.

Dadan predates its more famous neighbor of Hegra.  It was created by the Lihyanite kingdom from 7th Century BCE to 1st Century BCE.   It is most famous for its Lion Tomb.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t get close to really see anything! We did get a set of binoculars but Dadan was a bit of a bust.  They had a set of steps to go right up to the site, but for some reason they were closed for ‘maybe a couple months inshallah’. Bummer

Jabal Ikmah was pretty cool. It is a canyon that has hundreds of inscriptions and pictures from the Dadanite and Lihyanite Kingdoms. These inscriptions pre-date the Arabic language. It was like an ancient Twitter!  People came and left their mark and told their story.         

Hegra

Our main reason for coming was to look at the Nabatean city of Hegra, also known as Mada’in Salih.  Similar to Petra, it is much more off the beaten path, and more unspoiled.  I thought it would be a chance in a lifetime, since the odds of returning to Saudi Arabia to see Hegra was slim.

That being said, I was left sort of disappointed.  Much like what happens in this country, the experience was a bit sanitized and regulated.  Our bus took us from stop to stop and we didn’t really get much time to explore.  Moreover, unbeknownst to me at the time of booking, I guess because we had the 9am tour, we also got to see a cheesy production (in Arabic) or life back then.  Because of this Oscar-winning performance, we actually missed one of the stops on the tour to see the tombs.

The main tomb was very impressive and well preserved, so despite my grumblings, it was worth the price of admission.  That being said, if I were to do it again, I would suggest that maybe a private tour would allow more opportunities to explore.  There are 131 tombs on the site, and we saw most of them from the bus.  

Al Ula Old Town

The last tour that we did during our trip was to the Al Ula Old Town.  This was a really cool experience, and it had a good mixture of ruins and recreations in the old town.  It was cool to be able to see some of the wall paintings of coffee scenes still on the walls. Simon and I pretended that we were going through a ghost town!  We then climbed up to the top of the 7th Century fort. From there, we got a good top-down view of the old town and the surrounding oasis.

Pink Camel

Our final stop was to the Pink Camel.  This was a great restaurant and a nice way to end our trip.  The menu had a lot of different offerings.  I chose soup and salad and Simon had the hot chocolate french toast.  It looked amazing!

Overall Impressions

Overall, we both enjoyed our trip, and it was good to be able to get away from the familiar and explore a bit.  Al Ula is certainly a highlight for anyone planning a trip ‘off the beaten path’ to come to Saudi Arabia.  

Like a lot here, the experience seemed a bit sanitized and not quite fully operational.  I feel like in a year or two, there will be much more to offer and an even better experience.  They are certainly putting a great deal of money into this tourism project. For any that are in the region, now that Saudi Arabia offers tourism visas, Al Ula is definitely a must see, but maybe wait until 2022 or 2023.