by Gerardo Llanes ·  Travel & Culture · Middle East  BajaTraveler.com

Before my first trip to Saudi Arabia, I expected dramatic deserts, gleaming skylines and centuries of history compressed into a single itinerary. What I did not expect was how welcomed I would feel from the moment I arrived. The greatest surprise of the Kingdom was never a landmark — it was the people, who greeted a stranger with Arabic coffee, unhurried conversation and a kindness that asked for nothing in return. It reminded me of home. Not because México and Saudi Arabia share a culture, but because both share a philosophy of hospitality: the visitor is received as a guest, and that single fact changes the entire shape of a journey.

A Welcome That Feels Familiar
Saudi Arabia is opening to the world through Vision 2030, the national plan reshaping the country’s economy around tourism, culture and entertainment rather than oil alone. The Kingdom welcomed more than 122 million visitors in 2025 and is tracking toward a revised goal of 150 million annual visits by 2030 — a target that already looks conservative given the pace of the last two years. What struck me traveling through Riyadh, AlUla and Jeddah is that this growth has not hardened the country into a tourist product. The instinct to host, to feed a guest before asking their name, remains intact even as five-star infrastructure rises around it. The Kingdom is not reinventing itself for visitors. It is revealing what has always been there.

A Kingdom Under Construction
Riyadh sets the tone with its contrasts: glass towers beside centuries of history. Diriyah and the UNESCO-listed At-Turaif District — birthplace of the Saudi state — reward an evening visit, when the restored mud-brick lanes catch the sunset and nearby Bujairi Terrace fills with diners overlooking the historic quarter. The capital’s kitchens surprised me most: traditional houses serving kabsa and fresh-baked bread beside contemporary rooms led by internationally trained chefs. Then came AlUla, unlike anywhere I have traveled. Hegra, the Kingdom’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, holds more than one hundred Nabataean tombs carved directly into sandstone — the sister city to Petra, and every bit its equal in silence and scale. The Chedi Hegra, the country’s first ultra-luxury property inside the archaeological site itself, has become the benchmark for how the Kingdom intends to build near heritage: light-touch, restorative, almost invisible against the rock. Jeddah closes the loop with Al-Balad, its UNESCO-listed old town of coral-stone buildings and carved wooden balconies, and a Red Sea Corniche where dinner at a restaurant like Kuuru rivals fine dining anywhere in the world.

What Comes Next
The next eighteen months will test how far this transformation reaches. AlUla’s hospitality pipeline is expanding well beyond The Chedi Hegra, with Aman, Banyan Tree and Habitas adding desert resorts through 2027, each designed to integrate into the canyon rather than dominate it. Along the Red Sea coast, Red Sea Global’s AMAALA destination is opening its first phase of resorts north of Jeddah, while Raffles Jeddah brings a new benchmark of address to the Corniche itself. None of this changes what makes the Kingdom worth visiting now, ahead of the crowds that inevitably follow this kind of investment. Saudi Arabia still feels like a discovery — world-class archaeology, a food scene coming into its own, dramatic landscapes and a hospitality instinct that needs no five-star infrastructure to prove itself. I expected a country in transition. I found one that already knows exactly who it is.

✦ BAJATRAVELER® TAKEAWAY
Saudi Arabia is not a destination in waiting — it is a destination in motion, and the window to experience it before mass tourism arrives is narrowing by the season. Go for AlUla’s Hegra and stay for the coffee, the conversation and the kind of hospitality that has nothing to do with thread count. This is the rare case where the infrastructure is catching up to a welcome that was never in question.

Plan Your Journey
Saudi Arabia’s e-visa system covers 60+ nationalities, including the U.S. and Canada, with approvals typically issued within minutes online. AlUla and Jeddah are best visited October through April, ahead of peak summer heat. Direct flights connect Riyadh and Jeddah to major U.S. and European hubs.
→ Visit visitsaudi.com │ Experience AlUla: experiencealula.com