North

The North of Saudi Arabia covers the little-visited provinces of Tabuk and Jawf.

Cities

• 1 Arar — support town for the Aramco oil pipeline, in fertile pasture lands; an ancient city has been unearthed 30 km away
• 2 Duba — a small port city with ancient traditions, hub for the Neom project
• 3 Neom — planned city under construction
• 4 Sakakah
• 5 Tabuk
• 6 Qurayyat

Other destinations

• 1 Madain Saleh — splendid Nabataean ruins akin to Petra
• 2 King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Royal Natural Reserve — vast nature reserve
• Red Sea Islands — under-construction luxury resort destination

Get in

By plane

All airports in this region have domestic flights from larger hubs such as Jeddah and Riyadh.

• Neom Bay Airport (مطار خليج نيوم NUM ^IATA), opened in 2019 near Neom resort, also has flights from Doha and Dubai.
• Gurayat Domestic Airport (مطار القريات المحلي URY ^IATA) is near Qurayyat in the north.
• 1 Red Sea International Airport (RSI  ^IATA). This opened in 2023 near Hanak in Tabuk Province. In spite of the name it does not yet have international flights. (updated Feb 2024)

"Near" in this part of the world is a relative term, so transport to town could be a long expensive taxi ride unless you're being picked up by the company or hire your own car.

By road

The north-south Highway 65 links the capital Riyadh with Sakakah and Qurayyat at the Jordanian border. This wide expressway is maintained in an excellent condition; however, the distance between petrol stations can be long, so it's important to be prepared. Highway 15 links Medina with Tabuk; this road is somewhat smaller and passes through several small villages and towns along the route. Finally, the much smaller road 55 follows the Red Sea from Jeddah to the Jordanian border.

By bus

National bus operator SAPTCO runs daily bus services to all major cities. Journey times are long but the buses themselves are comfortable.

By train

A north-south railway line runs from Riyadh to Qurayyat, on the border with Jordan. However, as of 2023 there is only one train per week that runs to Qurayyat, via al-Jauf, near Sakakah. Most railway stations are several kilometres from the city centers and a connecting taxi or bus is necessary. Trains are operated by Saudi Railway Company.

By ferry

See also: Ferries in the Red Sea

There are passenger ferries between Safaga, just south of Hurghada in Egypt and to a port just north of Duba. Additionally, there has been a limited service between Duba and Sharm el-Sheikh, also in Egypt. Inquiring directly with the port or shipping agency is recommended. Also notice that ferries arrive at Duba Seaport, which is almost 25 km north of Duba town and onward transportation can be an issue. There is however connecting SAPTCO intercity buses several times per day. Taxis should be available too.

Do

• Superleague Triathlon was held in Neom in Nov 2022. That was a bold experiment because the usual approach is to build your resort first then publicise it by hosting a major event. But Neom remains just an aspiration, an insh'allah around the scrubby edge of the existing beach village of Sharma. A single event won't be enough to launch it so look out for others here, and travel deals.