Saudi Arabia Beyond Umrah: The Red Sea Is a Destination Now

An hour up the coast from Jeddah, on islands most maps still leave blank, Saudi Arabia has quietly opened one of the most ambitious tourism projects on the planet. For Pakistani travellers who know the Kingdom only through the Haramain, the Red Sea coast is a different country entirely — over-water villas, untouched reefs, and a level of quiet that belongs to another century.

01 /What the destination actually is

The Red Sea, developed by Red Sea Global across roughly twenty-eight thousand square kilometres of coastline, lagoons and more than ninety islands, is described by its developers as a regenerative tourism destination — meaning the resorts are designed to put more back into the environment than they take, with the destination powered largely by its own solar array of some 760,000 panels. The first guests arrived a few years ago, and the opening sequence since reads like a hotel collector's wishlist.

02 /The resorts already open

Six Senses Southern Dunes welcomed the destination's first guests, followed by The St. Regis Red Sea and Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve of private-island villas, and then Shebara and Desert Rock, Red Sea Global's own design-led properties. Shura Island has opened its first resorts and its golf course, and up the coast at AMAALA — the Kingdom's new wellness destination, spread across a vast stretch of protected coastline — another set of resorts is already receiving guests. Read that list again slowly, because this is no longer a promise on a rendering: it is a functioning luxury destination, with room types and booking calendars, a short flight from Jeddah.

03 /Getting there

The gateway is Red Sea International Airport, which opened with domestic Saudia flights and has since added international service — flydubai, and later Qatar Airways — meaning a Pakistani traveller can now fly Doha to the Red Sea coast directly, or route through Riyadh or Jeddah and connect. Destination reports put the schedule at roughly seventy flights a week, with resort transfers by boat or vehicle arranged as part of the booking. And the smarter routing for most Pakistani travellers pairs the coast with the pilgrimage: arrive in Jeddah, complete Umrah, then fly up for four days of sea and silence before heading home.

04 /The visa piece for Pakistani passports

One honest note: Pakistani passports generally do not use the instant tourist e-visa route that travellers from many other countries enjoy; the standard path is a visit visa processed through licensed agents, handled alongside the booking. It adds no drama when it is arranged properly — but it does mean this is a trip to book through someone assembling the whole package, not a website checkout.

“The rarest luxury right now is space — the kind of coastline that has not yet been filled.”

05 /Who this is for

• Honeymooners who have done the Maldives and want something genuinely new.
• Families who want privacy without sacrificing service.
• Divers and snorkellers — the reefs here are among the healthiest in the region precisely because they were protected before anyone could visit them.

The season runs roughly October to April, when the coast is at its kindest — warm days, cool evenings, and sea temperatures that never really drop. The resorts operate year-round, and the shoulder months quietly empty out, which is exactly when travellers who truly want silence should go. Days here keep a simple rhythm: breakfast facing the water, snorkelling over reefs that have barely been visited, long lunches, and evenings that end early because there is nothing to stay up for except the stars.

HTG Travels Desk