Recommended flight: flight from Paris (CDG) to Jeddah (JED) at 11:25 a.m. (direct flight SV126 with Saudia).

Flight time: 5h40

Arrival in Jeddah at 10:55pm (time difference: +2 hours from Paris)

Welcome in the airport arrivals hall by your La Fugue guide.

Private transfer to your hotel, the Shangri-La Jeddah.

Check-in and overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.

We begin our first day of sightseeing with a tour of the city of Jeddah. As one of the oldest seaports in the Gulf and the gateway to the holy city of Mecca, Jeddah has welcomed the world for centuries, helping to transform the city into a melting pot of cultural riches. For a glimpse of this long cosmopolitan past, visit the Tayebat Museum, retracing the city’s 2,500-year history since its foundation. Located in the Al Faisaliyah district, the museum is housed in a multi-room complex that recreates the traditional Hijazi architecture of the old city, with bay windows covered in carved wooden panels and coral stone walls.

At lunchtime, take part in a wonderful culinary experience featuring Saudi cuisine.

In the afternoon, you’ll visit the historic Al-Balad district, once the hub of the spice trade, with its whitewashed buildings adorned with closed balconies made of teak wood from India called roshans.

Transfer to the New Corniche to visit the Al Rahma Mosque, also known as the “Floating Mosque” because at high tide it seems to hover above the waves of the Red Sea.  It combines ancient and modern Islamic architecture and features an open courtyard offering spectacular views of the coast.

Return to the hotel for refreshments, followed by dinner in a fish restaurant ranked among the top 50 restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa.

Overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.

At 11:30 am, transfer to the airport.

Free lunch at the airport.

Flight from Jeddah (JED) to AlUla (ULH) at 2:30pm (direct flight SV1630 with Saudia).                                                Flight time: 1h30                                                                                                                                                                                  Arrival in AlUla at 4pm.

Private transfer and check-in at your hotel, the Banyan Tree AlUla, with a break and snack on the way to admire Elephant Rock, AlUla’s most iconic geological wonder. This 52 m-high rock formation, carved into the shape of an elephant by wind and erosion over millions of years, changes color throughout the day depending on the light.

Dinner at one of our selected restaurants.

Overnight at your hotel.

At 4:30 a.m., depart from the hotel for a hot-air balloon flight over AlUla. At an altitude of 1,200 m, you’ll be able to admire the sunrise over the valley, with the rocks emerging from the shadows and turning from red to ochre. A sight to behold at least once in a lifetime.

On the way back, we’ll stop to admire one of AlUla’s wonders: the incredible Maraya concert hall. This building, designed in 2019 by Italian architects Già Forma and Black Engineering, is made up of ten thousand mirrors reflecting the surrounding mountains.

At 9:30 a.m., return to the hotel for breakfast and rest.

Lunch at leisure.

At 4.30pm, you’ll set off in a Land Rover to discover the archaeological site of Hegra. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra is, along with Petra in Jordan, the best testimony to Nabataean civilization. You’ll have the chance to visit over a hundred richly decorated monumental tombs.

After the visits, we’ll dine in a restaurant of our choice in the heart of the old town.

Return to hotel and overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel.

The 6th Saudi edition of the Dakar Rally will take place between Bisha and Shubaytah. From January 3 to 17, 2025 – 12 stages in 14 days of racing – the Dakar drivers plunge once again into the ever-deeper exploration of this ocean of dunes. This time, Shubaytah will mark the end of the adventure, like a lighthouse towards which the drivers will have to head to find their way out, after three days of navigation between chotts and dunes, including a special stage of over 400 kilometers.

In this edition, La Fugue gives you the opportunity to admire the spectacle from close to the competition, from AlUla. If the Royal Commission and the Dakar organization are still keeping the 12 stages a secret, we’re ready to offer you a Dakar Capsule to connect to your stay, to join one of the stages, by air or by road, and plunge, in your turn, into the almost infinite stretches of sand. You’ll be sharing the limelight with the cars and motorcycles that will be setting off that day. The show is guaranteed.

Capsule available in the coming weeks, as soon as the route is revealed. From your accommodation in AlUla, we’ll offer you the chance to fly over the day’s stage by helicopter, or to reach the stage’s bivouac by road. The price of this optional day will be calculated according to the number of participants and the duration of the experience.    

Overnight at hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.

At 8:00 am, departure by Land Rover for a visit to the ruins of Dadan, capital of the ancient kingdom of Lihyan, and Jabal Ikmah, known as the “open-air library of AlUla”, as it features the largest concentration of ancient inscriptions and petroglyphs in Saudi Arabia.

At the end of the tour, enjoy a light lunch in one of our selected restaurants.

In the afternoon, you’ll discover the Sharaan Nature Reserve, a protected natural area recognized as the world’s largest open-air museum, with hundreds of ancient and protohistoric sites, inscriptions and rock paintings, canyons and rare landscapes, endemic desert flora and fauna, as well as the presence of endangered protected species reintroduced in the 2020s, such as the Arabian wolf, the Arabian red fox and the Arabian leopard.

Return to the hotel and dinner at leisure. Overnight at hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.

Free day and meals. 

At 7pm, private transfer to AlUla airport.

Recommended flight: departure from AlUla (ULH) at 10pm for arrival in Riyadh (RUH) at 11:45pm (flight SV1573 with Saudia). Flight time: 1h45.

Flight from Riyadh (RUH) on January 12 at 2.05am for arrival in Paris (CDG) at 7am (flight SV143 with Saudia). Flight time: 6h55