Getting Around Saudi Arabia

The short version

Fly between the cities, use the Riyadh Metro inside the capital, and take a driver for the desert legs. The distances here are the kind that turn a sightseeing day into a driving day if you get the plan wrong.

The Riyadh Metro

The newest and most useful thing to happen to travel inside a Saudi city. It is clean, fast, air-conditioned and it connects the districts a visitor actually wants, including the financial district. Use it. In a city built for cars and summer temperatures, an underground train is worth more than it would be anywhere else.

Between cities

Riyadh to Jeddah, and either of them to AlUla, are domestic flights rather than drives. The country is simply too large for road transfers between its main visitor centres to be a good use of a holiday, and the domestic network is well developed.

Book internal flights around the lunar calendar rather than assuming. During the Hajj season the authorities have stopped visitors who are not performing the pilgrimage from flying to Jeddah, Madinah and Taif, which can remove a leg you were relying on.

Ride-hailing and taxis

Ride-hailing apps work well in the cities and are the default for short hops. They remove the fare negotiation and give you a record of the journey, which is worth having.

Hiring a driver

For AlUla, Diriyah, the Edge of the World escarpment and the Al-Ahsa oasis, a driver is the right answer. These are places where the road is part of the day, where a schedule needs to bend around the light and the heat, and where local knowledge of conditions is worth paying for. It is how LABUSA builds these itineraries.

One planning constraint

Airports near the border with Yemen can be closed by the authorities at short notice, and the FCDO advises against travel within the ten kilometre band and against all but essential travel in the band beyond it. A routing that touches the south west is a routing that can change under you. Our itineraries do not go there, which removes the problem rather than managing it.

Driving yourself

Possible, and not what we would recommend for a first visit. City traffic is demanding, the distances are long, and a driver frees you to look out of the window at the part of the country that is actually between the sites.

See travel safety and accessible travel.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Saudi Arabia travel advice: the FCDO advises against all travel to parts of Saudi Arabia and against all but essential travel to further parts. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Saudi Arabia regional risks: the ten and eighty kilometre bands along the border with Yemen, and the Houthi attacks on Abha, Yanbu and Jazan. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Saudi Arabia safety and security: terrorism, the dress code, the alcohol ban and the law on same-sex relations. Accessed 14 September 2026.