![]() They were fellow guests at Habitas AlUla, a desert retreat composed of 96 villas prefabricated in Mexico by the Tulum-based Habitas hospitality group to lighten the construction footprint, then shipped to the Ashar Valley. ![]() On a trip to AlUla in November 2022, I overheard travelers from Guadalajara, Dubai, Germany, and even Florida discuss what brought them to the oasis (in no particular order: a honeymoon, an anniversary, a Desert X art showcase, and a John Legend concert at Maraya concert hall). I got to check out three hotels firsthand, including the aforementioned Airstream village, that offer distinctly different ways to be immersed in nature in Saudi Arabia. This mix of past and present, East and West, is what many international travelers first encounter on a trip to Saudi Arabia.Īs one of most well-developed entry points into Saudi tourism, which only started issuing leisure-travel visas in 2019, AlUla serves as an on-ramp to the long-cloistered kingdom. Dozens of them, amid pizza and ice cream trucks and gathering tents inspired by Bedouin camps. But set within the shadows of the sandstone are somewhat incongruous, extra shiny. The dramatic desert valley could double for the red rocks of Utah and Arizona or Jordan’s seemingly extraterrestrial Wadi Rum. ![]() From a bird’s-eye view, AlUla-an oasis in northwest Saudi Arabia and a centuries-old stop along an ancient incense route-looks like a sea of rust-red sand, cliffs, and canyons, with a ribbon of palm groves running through it.
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