Saudi Arabia

The region’s biggest story is happening next door. AlUla alone justifies the trip: Nabataean tombs carved into golden sandstone — Petra’s sister city, minus the crowds — under some of the darkest skies in Arabia. Jeddah’s coral-stone old town and a fast-evolving Riyadh add city weight to the itinerary.

For UAE residents it is astonishingly accessible — short flights, familiar rhythms, and infrastructure improving by the season. Winter is the time: desert days at their gentlest, AlUla’s festival calendar in full swing.